62rebel

we probably ought to move our further thoughts to individual build threads by now!

excellent job! that's a good color for that body.

older ones like mine are a challenge to do because of the ribbed fiberglass siding they have on them. newer ones are smooth single piece panels, front to rear, and except for doors and windows, could be fabbed up out of sheet styrene pretty quickly. BTW; it turns out that Hess truck tires are almost 19.5 scale inches, but the wheels are non-typical designs... and, Hess tires split with age, similar to tamiya tires....

excellent results, Nick!

i've been thinking of doing the red C-cab that Dave's Showrods has for an icon... i like yours, as well; it's got "flow"!

cutting away some of the excess drop might help but modifying the tub/chassis interface will affect the engine compartment alignment. i'm working on improving the chassis fit myself, and considering adding wheelwell inner structure at the back to hide the gap between the tub and the chassis. AMC's were all body color on the engine compt and wheewells, so any contrast there sticks out like a sore thumb. the seat modification (added width) helps immensely to correct that problem. the fit of the chassis/tub/body is interlocked, i've found; the firewall "locks down" the tub at the front, at the correct location for the wheels to be centered in the wheelwells and for the glass to fit correctly. i sanded down the bottom edge of the fascia and thinned it from the backside until the molded in mesh pattern fell free; now there's plenty of room to fit it into the front of the body. idea: perhaps adding a short (height) strip along the bottom of the rocker panel and painting it an accent color will disguise the dropoff.

fire trucks are soooo cool to look at..... we have a local Fire Dept Museum that has a beauty of a collection of equipment.... all that brass and gold leaf scrollwork!

at least the one i see is aligned with the pattern.... they're usually at some gosh awful oblique angle if they're in a patterned section, and they usually stick up a scale inch or twelve.... that's a heck of a build.... i never could understand why so many Revell kits hid their light under a bushel so to speak. so much detail forever hidden once the body is glued down....

i think your Dad's truck is a 46 not a 36..... what you call a jailbar, i think.

i was thinking of scrapping a Hess truck if i had to, to get the tires and wheels in the right size.... hmmm... there's a Hess truck in the closet......

is it just me, or are the seats ridiculously narrow in this kit? i've done some detail work on the front suspension using Mustang parts, and am going to beef up the inner shock towers better. the Pacer 6 cyl just fits, barely... i've added some sheet styrene to the sides of the seats to bulk them out a bit more... the chassis plate was straight and no warp noticeable. almost no flash to speak of.... and '70's style F-series tires again (at least they look like the '70's issue, just not as hard as rock).... i think i built this kit ONCE in the '70's... got clumsy and smeared glue on the glass. it's going together like peanut butter and jelly..... the decal sheet is very sharp. i miss decal sheets that had more than a set of Utah plates and "I heart model cars"..... AMT (R2) says that this is a part of an Art Box series in the packaging; any word on what other kits R2 has in mind to dangle before our eyes?

kind of like going to Delmonico's and buying a steak dinner.... and chucking it in the freezer.

i'd like to do a model of my Fleetwood Southwind... i'd need a donor kit to provide the running gear and 19.5 wheels and tires, to start!

"wow; the instructions are right on the side of the can: shake well for 1 minute (use a timer, that's actually quite a long time) and not only will the paint get thoroughly mixed, it ought to be at LEAST body temperature by then. it's really not that hard to do." It is kind of hard for some people. That why there are countless threads of people complaining about Testors canned paint. Just.because someone can rhad doesn't mean they will get good.results. "buying an airbrush then requires that you either buy cans of air or a compressor, and then paint and thinner..... nice to have, but a luxury in my opinion. it also nearly demands that you have a paint booth...." Maybe a luxury to some, but $100 will get you super results almost every time with an airbrush, whereas canned results vary greatly. Some people live in warm climates and can paint outside without a booth.

yup; my hobbies (models and 1:1's) keep me out of bars and strip clubs. the wife always knows where i am....

(sincere hand on the shoulder) think nothing of it, bud. this too shall pass.

there's a couple of older RV promos out there, toylike, but a start; and then there's the Holy Grail; the Hess Training Van from 1980 and never been repopped..... i guess GMC wants too much in royalty fees for that one. other than that, pretty much anything you want is going to be scratchbuilt.

Harold, the trick to Testors is warming the can and light coats from 8-10" inches away. too close and the propellant can't escape the paint, causing the gas to bubble out on the model. too heavy is the same result. enamel also takes longer to gas out, or "dry", so don't expect to be able to handle the model too soon after painting.

nobody should be willing to criticize bassboat flake on one of these! i will have to pick one of these up.

they get some undeserved ridicule for being the "pre-fab four", but the show was a big success and they really worked well together. they were just before my time... i got to watch them in syndication years later. then again, my folks were diehard country music people and i was in junior high before i experienced real Rock music.

well; let's say i had a spare 85k rolling around in my pocket.... nope; not even then. not to say it wouldn't be a fun toy.... just one that i'd never play with.

the trim on the kit lower body is wrong; it's wide, and it's on the lowest section of the sheetmetal. my Lariat has a thin molding that follows the shallow contour around the wheelwells and down the bodyside. the Bronco is even rarer than the '79 F350... i can whittle plastic for practically free. now; the wheelbase and wheelwell openings are close enough already IMHO.... those side panels are thin, fragile, and fussy enough to work with before trying to move the openings a couple of scale inches. i am going to put some kind of spacer in between the inner and outer panels on the bed to keep the fenders straight. as is, they bow in noticeably. no photobucket, no fotki. no online photo sharing albums.

short answer, NO. decals are, for all intents and purposes, paint that has already been 99% applied. once you apply them to the model, that's it. you can't remove them intact for reuse.

i reject your reality and substitute one of my own. bwahahahaha! now, where did i leave that Ex-Acto knife..... OUCH... yep, right there.

nothing to be ashamed of there! these two oldies look good... very good!