Aaronw

They have the same cab, but a different hood / grill, the S-2575 has a flat nose similar to the medium duty S-1600, S-1800, the S-2674 has an extended nose with angled fenders. S-2575 http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/morton/2004/cd01/roadway_ih_2575.jpg S-2674 http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/donq/transcon_int_2675.jpg

It would be nice to see a DT466 tooled up for the S-series.

These were all reissued within the last 5 years or so by Stevens or Model King. Those were small batches so they are getting hard to find, but I would assume the tooling is all accounted for and in good condition so they should be simple reissues. Round 2's pricing has been considerably less than the small runs from Stevens and MK. Autocar A64B Mack R600 Mack DM600 Mack DM800 Mack Cruiseliner White Freightliner single drive daycab Twin pup box vans with dolly These were all fairly easy to find on ebay or hobby shops in 2002-03, so again would be fairly simple re-issues I would think. Autocar Dump truck Ford Louisville single drive straight truck with box van International Paystar cement mixer International Paystar Dump truck Kenworth K100 Aerodyne Peterbilt 352 Peterbilt 359 with 1100 series cab with Cummins 350 Peterbilt 359 with 1100 series cab with Cummins 350 tow truck 3 axle lowboy CAT D8 I would be happy to see most of those available again. I'm hoping to see these IH trucks for 2012, particularly the S-series kits which have become quite hard to find even at rather high prices. I paid $75 each for S series dump truck and tractor in 2004 and thought that was a pretty decent price at the time. I'd love to pick up a couple more at Round 2's $30+/- prices. International Transtar 4070 International Transtar 4200 International Transtar II International S-series tractor International S-series Dump truck

Thanks, I was able to find one at a reasonable price. Jeff I don't know how well the stock wheels would sell but based on the 15-20 california specials vs the one 2 in 1 that was on ebay, I would think they would do Ok. I've seen several 1-1 H1s with the H2 stock wheels, so that would be another potential use.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for the 2 in 1.

As the title says, does the Revell Hummer H2 California wheels kit include stock wheels as an option? This is the kit http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJBV6&P=W I looked on the pdf instructions and they are not shown, but that doesn't always mean they are not included.

I don't think Dodge offered that option. Ford had the CT-800/900, the engine in the C-600 kit is the superduty 401-534 cid so plenty large for a heavier truck. As far as how you could get one of the Ford Louisville kits with a tandem axle (snowplow has one) which would give you the appropriate set of springs / axles.

AMT did a 1960s Caterpiller D-8, it has some quirks but is a nice kit. First gear does some 1/25 diecast construction equipment, they are very nice but they are not cheap. This is the AMT D8. I had to build the ROPS cab, the kit is of an older open top dozer.

Where possible I try to make clean swaps. As an example I bought the '59 El Camino for the 348 V-8 which I want to put into a 1960 Chevrolet pickup. The I-6 from the pickup will go into the El Camino (it's going to be an arson investigators truck, so it doesn't need to be speedy ). I have bought kits for specific parts but I will frequently cast these, so I don't have an issue with leaving that kit un buildable, although sometimes it is something I will probably never build like the Cop Out kit, I got it for the emergency lights and have little interest in the rest.

Evergreen models http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/ Plastruct http://www.plastruct.com/ Both sites have contact pages to find a local distributor. Model railroad shops tend to carry a more complete selection than general hobby shops. If you don't have anyone nearby I get my supplies almost exclusively from the internet (I have no local hobby shops). Tower hobby carries a good selection of Evergreen plastic, and Hobbylinc carries a lot of the Plastruct line, both offer good prices and service.

I've stuffed them with styrofoam packing peanuts which seemed to work. I later heard these may react with the tires but its been 5 years and so far no problems. Styrofoam is just blown styrene so I would assume any reaction would be the same as the tire wheel contact point.

Making working lights on a car is a neat idea, but personally if I were trying something new and rather complex like that I'd probably start with a kit that lent itself to that kind of work (nice big lights, good lenses, large trunk or other place to hide the inner workings etc) rather than taking a random car I thought was really neat but may not be the most cooperative. When I'm trying a completely new technique I try to make sure I'm not going to saddle myself with additional problems. No reason to kill yourself on the first attempt. An older car from the 1930-40s might be easier since the headlights are typically much larger than on more modern cars. It is probably obvious but you would want to make sure it has clear lenses for the headlights / taillights. As far as the lights themselves I've seen tiny LEDs which can be used. They last pretty much forever compared to little incandecent lightbulbs, and put out almost no heat. I've seen lighting kits for models but I think you can get all the do it yourself stuff individually from Radio Shack (or similar). LEDs are also very low voltage so you can use a small watch battery which should last for years. I don't want to discourage you, just trying to help you avoid the huge pile of overly ambitious unfinished models many of us have acquired ovr the years.

The custom is a different kit, and no they did not include any of those parts in this re-issue. They did add a few new parts, a push bumper made from laser cut sheet styrene, and some amber emergency lights, and Texaco decals but it is otherwise the same as the prior issue with the green truck box art.

.010" = 1/4" in 1/25 scale, 0.15 = 3/8", .020" = 1/2" etc

$1300 for a 3d printer that can make a 6x6x6 object. http://store.makerbot.com/makerbot-thing-o-matic.html

I have Corel Draw Graphics Suite X3, I assume X5 is just the most current version. Mine came with a bunch of tutorials, that I found very helpful. There is a Corel Draw forum which can be useful if you run into problems and want to talk to people who really know how to work the program. http://coreldraw.com/

1) Inkjet and Laser printers can do a very good job within their limitations, but their decals are transparent so work best over white paint, and do not work well at all over dark colors. If you want full capability (white & metallic colors) you really only have one option for do it yourself, and that is an ALPS printer. Unfortunately they are no longer in production so you would have to get a used one. Supplies are not a problem but ALPS printers are very delicate and many sellers have no idea what they are selling or how to properly ship them so buying used is very hit or miss on an item you can expect to pay $500+ for. There are rumors of a white ink inkjet printer in development but who knows when or if it will become available. If you have very deep pockets you can get a Kodak First Check which is basically a large (up to a 13x19" sheet) ALPS printer, but they cost about $5000. If you are looking at more than personal use, you may want to look at using a professional screen printing company like Cartograph or Microscale, but they have minimum orders making them impractical for individual use. 2) For programs you will want a vector based drawing program, Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator are two of the more popular programs used. These programs cost a couple hundred dollers, but you can often find an older version fairly cheap. If you have kids or are in school yourself they do offer educational versions at a large discount. There are some free vector based programs out there but I don't have any suggestions, as I use Corel Draw and haven't looked into any of the free programs. Vector drawing programs are quite different from pixel based programs like Microsoft Paint that most people have used, so there is a rather steep learning curve. The advantages to vector based programs is they use measurements between point not pixels, so there is no distortion when changing size. You can draw a design at large size of say 5x5" so you can easily manage the drawing, then shrink it down to 1/4 x 1/4" for the model without loss of detail. You can also break out the colors into layers which is required for ALPS or screen printing. It is well worth the time investment to learn to use one of these vector based programs even if you stick with a regular printer as there is no comparison between the detail vector allows. Small print done in MS paint pixelates, but with Corel Draw I've printed decals with lettering so small that I needed a magnifying glass to read it using a regular inkjet printer. 3) Personally I use decal film from Tango Papa made for laser printers, but I've used most of the commonly available decal papers (Micromark, Baremetal Foil, Testors etc) and they each have their pros and cons. Testors film is very thin which makes it good for decals, but it comes in an odd size (5x8"), the others are available in standard 8.5x11" sheets. I know several people here use various venders from ebay. You have to use decal film made for your type of printer, inkjet and laser paper are not interchangable either way.

See if you have an IPMS chapter in your area. IPMS also has a make & take model program, if you could get in contact with the local chapter you might be able to get them to participate, and worst case they might individually be willing to donate some kits. http://www.ipmsusa.org/MakeNtake/Make-N-Take.htm

This is a short nose Roadboss so a little different from the kit, but since these trucks are not that common these days I thought it might be useful.

I use guitar string, a superlight E string is .008" steel wire. It is a bit out of scale, but it is stiff, cheap and easy to find (pretty much any music store). I can't say I enjoy rigging but I find using wire cut to length less tedious than other methods.

On my to do list (but it is a very long list).

Looking for photos of 17" split rim wheels for a Chevy 1 ton I ran across a lot of discussions on split rims. Personally I think they all sound scary, but based on the comments I read the "widowmaker" nickname applies to a specific style of split rim that literally splits the rim in half, these are illegal now. The types with a removable rim like that pictured are obsolete but relatively safe and not illegal, although many tire shops won't touch them.