Aaronw

I've been wanting to do the single headlight conversion for several years now, but just keep putting it off. This will be very helpful, and maybe I'll finally get around to building mine. This is what I want to build. It is an ex-Chevron fuel tanker converted into a water tender and was one of the first heavy trucks I drove back in 1993.

Well California does have seperate emmisions requirements from the rest of the nation, so many California cars are "special" to meet the standards. There have been some real California special editions marketed to more than meeting smog laws, the 1968 Ford Mustang California Special being one of the better known. In 2007 Ford started to offer a Mustang California Special package again. I know there have been others, but I can't list them off the top of my head.

At least Eddie Bauer is a sporting goods line so I could kind of see the tie in with outdoor activities. Maybe the Harley edition is for lugging your motorcycle around for those who can't actually ride?

It is a big ranch in Texas with history back to the American Civil War. I have no idea what the tie in to Ford is, but Colt offered some special King Ranch guns for a time too. Maybe some of the Texas members could fill us in.

In the late 70s Mazda had GLC, the commercials promoted it as Great Little Car.

Probably the best place to start is a website like 4 wheel parts that offers 1-1 lift kits. Look at the aftermarket lift kits. Also any of the 4x4 magazines that include build up articles can be a great resource. 4 wheeler and 4 wheel and off road are two I used to read occasionally that frequently had good detailed build articles of 1-1 trucks. Spring over axle lifts are fairly simple. Usually on a stock truck the spring pack goes under the axle, so repositioning the springs on top, will add the height of the axle (usually 3-4"). After this you have the cheaper block method, that puts a lift block between the springs and axle, and / or between the springs and frame. This is somewhat limited to about 2-4" in both locations (4-8" total). You will see much larger blocks available but they tend to be more for show, than functional as you can start to run into stability issues (the blocks can shift) when you start to use really tall blocks. The higher end lifts will use new springs with more of an arch to them which adds another several inches of lift. A spring over axle conversion, mild block lift and taller springs can easily provide 8-12" of lift. Lifting a model truck, is done pretty much the same way as the 1-1.

You kind of have two seperate things going there, light duty trucks are class 1-3 0-6,000, 6,000-10,000 and 10,000-14,000 gvw, medium duty are class 4-6 14,000-16,000, 16,000-19,500, and 19,500-26,000 gvw, and heavy duty are class 7-8, 26,000-33,000 and 33,000+ gvw. That is an industry thing, not Chevrolet thing. Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge have all stopped building real (class 8) heavy duty trucks. So Chevrolet's 3500HD is a "heavy duty", medium duty (class 4) Ford's use of Superduty originally replaced the Big Job (F-8) in the mid to late 50s, and it was for the 900+ series trucks until the early 60s when it went away. In the 70s or 80s Ford dropped the 400 and 500 series name and used Superduty on the beefed up F-350s (class 4 and 5) instead of giving them a number. When Ford brought back the F-450, F-550 in the late 90s Super Duty was more liberally applied to the light and medium duty truck line.

Resin casting, it is not very cost effective for single use items, but is great for those uncommon items you would like many of. I've done that for things like police radios, flathead heads (since they dropped the stock heads in the 1950 pickup reissues), interesting wheels etc. Not really a stockpiling technique but I have found kits that allow an even swap, one example is the 1959 ElCamino and the 1960 Chevy pickup. The Elcamino has a 348 V-8 and the pickup has an inline 6. Those engines were available in both trucks, so getting both allows me to build a pickup with a V-8 without leaving the El Camino a curbside. A lot of the older AMT kits included 2 or more motors, usually one stock, and one custom so the value of this varies by your interests.

Thanks, I'm still very much in the getting an idea of what I want stage. I've been poking about reading posts in some mini-lathe forums and such, but knew there were some here who have and use them. I know the Taig and Sherline equipment is well thought of, my Rube Goldberg comment is simply regarding the appearance, not suggesting they are not quality. You can see all the parts in an almost cobbled together style while the cheaper machines look just like a tiny fullsize lathe, it just surprised me to see the difference.

The Canon Powershot and Nikon Coolpix cameras both start around $100, either one is a decent all around point and shoot camera that will allow you to take decent photos of models. You can get a tripod at Target or Walmart for $20, which will help you take better photos. You can get a sheet of white posterboard for $2 which makes a nice clean backdrop for your model (so the desk clutter doesn't take away from the model. If your budget allows you can certainly get a better camera, but these are both good entry level digital cameras. For close ups don't try to stick the camera right up to the model, use the optical zoom. These are both 12 megapixel cameras so if you use the highest setting you can also zoom in more using a photo editor (which should come with the camera if you don't have something already). If you do a search this question comes up a lot so you can probably find a lot more info, previously posted.

Thanks, for the quick reply. That was my initial thought, but then reading about milling machines more I wasn't so sure, I was correct about that.

I'm thinking about putting a lathe or milling machine on my list of tools to get. It's been a few years since my last big hobby purchase so I thought I'd start researching these as they seem to open up some neat modeling options. First of all other than orientation of the work table (vertical vs horizontal), what is the difference between a milling machine and a lathe? At first I thought a milling machine was just a high quality drill press but after reading up a bit they appear to do similar work, just approaching it in different ways. Looking at the more affordable lathes I found it odd that the Chinese made ones sold through Harbor freight and others look very much like the full size lathes I used in highschool shop class only hit with the shrink ray, while the two American built companies (Taig & Sherline) that seem to be preferred if you can spend the extra money look far more like home built Rube Goldberg creations. Obviously with a tool like this you either discover you can do a lot more than you intended or they go on the bench and collect dust (hope not) but initially I think I would be looking at parts like emergency beacon bases, sirens (Art your Sireno was spectactular BTW) air horns, wheels, gun barrels etc if that makes a difference in the type of machine I should be looking at. If I get one of these I want to make sure I get the right thing, I'm currently leaning towards one of the Taig or Sherline machines, just because it seems to me to be worth spending a bit more for what most info I have seen say is a better product even if it does look like a something whipped up in a garage. Oh, also size, I would think the 7x10 would be adequate for most 1/25 scale items, but several reviews seemed to recommend going bigger, but don't really say what kind of stuff they are needing these larger lathes for. I am very much in the initial investigation stages right now with any purchase likely being 6-12 months off. I had a little bit of exposure to lathes in highschool wood and metal shop classes the last of which were 25 years ago, so I'm basically a total newbie to this at this point. Thanks for anything you can add.

I don't know about the smarter bit, I seem to get dumber the older I get. As a young child people thought I was brilliant, as an older child they still thought I was a pretty smart kid, as a young adult I was above average, now people seem amazed I can tie my shoes. Going along with the ziplock bag idea, I found the shoe box size plastic containers you can get at Walmart, Target etc work great for keeping everything together on stalled projects. Now when I have something sitting untouched on my bench for an extended period I'll pack it into one of those boxes, so I can find it all when the mood strikes me to get it going again. The sides are clear making it easy to find again and they stack for storage.

I'll give Testors and Tamiya credit for making great paint. Because of the cost (4-6x the cost of regular rattle cans)I've only used them a few times for odd colors I couldn't find elsewhere but everytime I have they have worked great. As far as regular paint, I rate Krylon at the top (the regular stuff, not Fusion), it dries quickly, covers well and is very forgiving of minor errors. Krylon Fusion is ok, but even though it is made for plastic, I don't find it works quite as well as the regular stuff. I also use quite a bit of Rustolium, Duplicolor and occasionally Plasticote. I don't have an issue with any of them, but don't find them quite as user friendly as Krylon. You really have to watch the Duplicolor engine enamels which are thicker than the regular paint colors.

With the generous time line I will have to join in eventually. I may be moving in the next month or two which could seriously delay any start. I do have a ton of started projects though, if that is acceptable I might be able to pull something out and finish it up.

I hesitate to call it a terrible kit, but I'll submit the AMT 1967-72 GMC / Chevy pickup just because of the ancient promo style of kit. Other than the very basic nature of the kit it actually isn't too bad.

I used diecast & decals a few years ago and I was happy with the results. The price seems to be in the same ballpark as non-custom aftermarket decals. He will do everything if you provide him with photos / description but I had done some of my own artwork, and he walked me through the process of tweaking it. It probably would have been easier for him just to do it, but for me it was very helpful and taught me a lot about how to design a decal. http://www.diecastanddecals.com/ The other one is Fireball Modelworks, he does mostly helicopter decals but he will take custom work. I've only seen him do custom decals for helicopters but I don't think he discriminates. I haven't used him for custom work but do have several sets of his helicopter decals and they are very good quality and his service excellent. http://www.fireballmodels.info/custom_pricing.htm

On the plus side, there is always somebody who discovers their dream model exists in resin somewhere. This time around I'll ask for a 1950 Dodge truck, we have a Ford and Chevy of that vintage so its only right we get a Dodge to go with them.

i'm wondering why there would be a desire for the grill out of an easily found model kit? Is the '37 Ford truck grill particularly popular on cars that are not a '37 Ford truck? As far as the copyright issue, I'm sure legally there is a point there, but really doubt Revell (or which ever brand the toy truck is) would be the slightest bit concerned about an amatuer resin caster popping of a dozen or two compared to the many thousands they sell annually. I'd be more worried about Ford myself, they do have a history of aggressively hunting down unauthorized use of their "image".

It depends, when you drop a part do you want to pick through carpet near your feet, or search the whole room trying to figure out which dark corner the part bounced into. I've had both carpet and linolium flooring under my work bench and I wouldn't consider one better than the other when it comes to finding lost parts, carpet tends to reduce the bounce factor, but obviously is not as easy to look through, hard flooring is theoretically easier to spot parts but they can bounce an amazing distance and it seems like the smaller the part the farther they bounce.

As of April 11, 2011, 8:44AM Pacific time, there are 7,459 serious model car and truck builders in the english speaking world.

This is my fun car, 1969 Toyota Landcruiser FJ55. Due to the price of gas these days the 1996 Toyota Tacoma gets to do most of the driving. It isn't pretty but it just keeps going.

There have been at least a few posts about this guy. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6130&st=0&p=42675&hl=+frontier%20+resin&fromsearch=1&#entry42675 http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9965&st=0&p=72768&hl=+frontier%20+resin&fromsearch=1&#entry72768 To sum up those posts, not very good quality stuff, but if you really want the subject, it can be worked with. You will be doing a lot of work to get something nice from it, but if you take the time it can be done.

If you want to add wierder systems, older fire trucks could have a small "booster" tank, this filled quickly before the other tanks allowing the truck to get moving in a hurry. I was told that full it was only good for 1 or 2 full stops, so we were supposed to take it easy on the brakes until the regular service tanks were full. I haven't seen this on newer fire apparatus, only on a 1971 Van Pelt and a 1976 Mack CF we had when I started my career. I don't know if the Federal regulations mentioned above changed it or if the trucks just don't need that kind of system anymore since most new apparatus have a landline (extension cord) to an onboard electric aircompressor and battery charger which keep the air tanks full and the battery powered equipment charged while parked.

I bought some stuff for a cargo load in a truck from these guys last year, I also got some small train wheels I plan to use on a model T speeder. It is a little different since the wheels on the T speeder swap the truck wheels with train wheels instead of being drop down guide wheels, like modern trucks. They offer several sizes and styles of wheels, so you might find something useful. Lots of other goodies too. http://www.ozarkminiatures.com/Scripts/default.asp