Rockford

Lol! It's infectious!

You're right, the grille pieces are a little heavy. I suppose you could thin them down a bit but I'd worry about destroying the grille and the headlights. I suppose there's always a compromise. At the time the Revell was the only kit available over here in GB. I know there are other versions knocking around now but I still think the Revell is a pretty good representation overall. Captures the contours well if some of the moulding could do with a bit of improvement. I've got those photos of the real thing on my phone and every time I look at them I'm still taken aback by how gorgeous that shape was. I include the Gen2 Camaro in that too. My mate had a '79 Camaro and it looked like it had landed from outer space, it was so different to the jelly mold garbage of today. Sorry, I digress.

That would be a nice project, it was a lovely truck. GM certainly picked well when they offered to supply vehicles for that show.

Had a nice time this afternoon cutting and shaping little bits of plastic, then dropping them and crawling around on the floor searching! Decided a chassis this long wouldn't have a one piece driveshaft as supplied in the kit as it would start "whipping" and shake itself to pieces. So, using various diameter plastic and aluminium tube I made a two piece affair with a centre bearing on the cross member. Carved my yokes out of tube quite easily. Looks ok. Did my first rubbing down on the filler. Pleased with the results. Put another skim on the sides because of some pitting. The recess edges are softer now, more like the real pressed panel. Also moved the battery box/step combo back to the middle of the door. I'll make some air tanks to go in front of it. Once the unit was fairly solid in its new position I thought I'd run some liquid cement into the joints for extra strength. As I moved the brush towards the piece a big drop fell onto the front of the battery box. I was blazing! One step forward...

Oooh it's a long time now but I think they were off a Revell '70 Chevelle. They're not quite right but with a bit of work you can get them near enough. Pontiac's trim ring was bigger and more bulbous than Chevy and I've never seen a set in kit form, though I'm sure one of the more knowledgeable members will know for sure. Thanks for the comments. I love Jim's Firebird. I lose track of the plot because I'm too busy watching the car! It's probably the most beautiful car I've ever seen.

Russ, I feel your pain. I've pondered the wheel and tire situation many times but I can't bring myself to use the AMT pieces, they're just too small for me. The amount of things I'd have to alter to make them look right would be too much, arches, tandem spacing etc... It's such a shame because they're very well done, but their wheels are worse than the Monogram ones. I've also considered what I can do to improve the Monogram units, and I'm at a loss. The aftermarket is just too expensive for me, though there are some 3D printed wheels on the internet. I'm resigned to using the kit pieces and thinking that they won't attract too much attention because they're matt black. In fact I've decided to use the Monogram wheels and tires on the AMT W900 Aerodyne I've got because they look better overall. I'd like to see your GMC back together. You inspired me, maybe I can inspire you!

I didn't realize how fat the kit bumper is, miles away from the real thing. I removed three millimetres from the bumper and the mountings. Sits a lot better now. I'm thinking of moving the front fenders forward slightly. Slathered the rear wall in stopper. As I rub it down with wet and dry it will assume the softer lines of the original pressing.

Cutting the sleeper off the one can left a huge hole in the rear wall of course. Looking at photos of real Bison cabs the rear wall is dimpled to add rigidity with it being a monocoque cab. To get dimensions for the new rear wall I downloaded a photo from the web and put the kit cab against the screen of my tablet. I adjust the size of the photo until the image matches the size of the kit cab. Then I can mark the size of the window as well as the pressings in the rear wall. I drew the shape on a piece of card then cut the outer edge out. I cut 2mm strips of card and laid these in the recess created to form the five depressions the rear wall has. Shaped the hole in the rear wall to match the card and popped it in. Lot of cleaning up to do but it's getting there.

I don't know why the quote box is still there. I can't delete it

I don't like the way the grille juts out proud of the cab shell. It doesn't do it on a real Pete. It's because of the snap nature of the kit. I cut the backing plate out, fitted two strips of plastic card either side of the grille opening and then refitted the backing plate with card behind to sink it in. Had to drop the locating tab on the chassis back too. Fitted the grille and it makes a bit of a difference when compared to the other kit I built out of the box.

Well you will be pleased to hear that I found your build on the interwebs and was inspired to do one of my own! The resulting daycab was a bonus.

I'm at that age as well.

Aye, I just put "short hood bison" into Google and this popped up. Hope it's legible.

I've just seen it in the Aftermarket section, looks good mate, would be good to see it completed one day.

What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison? You can't wash your hands in a buffalo! Couldn't resist the old joke I shouldn't start another build with one already on the go but I'm itching to dip into the scrapyard I've just bought off Ebay and I spent a snatched hour achieving nothing on my Peterbilt this afternoon so I wanted a fix. I got two Snaptite Chevy Bisons, (I'd prefer the GMC General but beggars can't be choosers). I'm going to do one as a daycab and the other as a double sleeper using the offcut from the daycab. I snatched a moment today to do the cut and the transplant. Not great pictures but I was a bit pushed for time. I'm going to do my usual rectification work on the chassis and running gear so I'll leave that out, hopefully just show the major mods.

I got two bites at the cherry this week. Wanted to sort this bumper situation. I laminated three strips of plastic card together and let them set properly. Then I shaped the basic bumper but I was hesitant about drilling and shaping the tow lug cutouts because they're very close to the top of the bumper. So I made it 1mm smaller than required, filed two notches for the tow lug holes and then put strip of card across the top. Rounded all the corners off and it looks ok. Then I decided I wanted the spotlights too, so I took the kit bumper and cut to the top off, then let the tow lug holes in again and put a strip across the top. Rounded the edges again and I think this is the one I'll be using. It looks a lot better than the kit piece, but the kit piece looks ok on the double sleeper because that's a more showy truck I think.

Absolutely brilliant scratchbuilding going on. Paint looks great too.

Really impressive, and at such a pace too!

Looking great, I really like real fabric on the interior.

Excellent job on a great subject. Love the bobbed front bumper, so many fleets did that.

Made some front shocks and rear hubs for the Pete today. Ditched the chrome stack and made one out of hollow styrene tube. Was most pleased that my exhaust pipe from the turbo to the stack fitted. Not bad considering it's a piece of sprue bent using a candle! It's actually was less trouble than some kit pipes I've tried to fit in the past. Decided I really don't like the kit bumper. I would prefer the thinner version too so I marked one out on a sheet of aluminium. I used a Sharpie instead of engineers blue. Sadly my 5mm drill that I used to finish off the spotlight holes was as blunt as could be, leaving huge burrs on the holes and distorting the piece slightly. However, even in a slightly mangled state it looked better than the kit piece. I will try again but I may just use styrene sheet instead. The ali is too thin.

I'd forgotten just how bad older AMT kits could be, and yet how we love the things! Looking good mate.

24hr build with a power outage! Impressive. Looking good too!

Looking good sir. I believe they're forecasting some drastic weather for part of the world.