Scale-Master

Thanks Gator, I'm enjoying the project. Here is the camper slider to the cab. Same construction/materials as the side windows. Been working on the roof vent too.

Thanks guys! I made the side windows from sheet styrene, some clear plastic from packaging material and fine screen. They are just loosely plugged in for now. The rear “window” was a piece of unfinished dirty plywood. ( The clear plastic window turned white, cracked and ultimately fell out within a couple months of owning it.) There was a silhouette of the Stealth Bomber left from when I painted a model of one on the wood (when the B2 was still somewhat classified). The Kammback script was a leftover badge from my Vega.

I built the original (shown in the box art photos) and don't recall any issues with the plastic being brittle back then.

Just a little flame trim Does this count?

The only time I had problems with TS-13 cracking was when I applied it over paint I found later to be incompatible. I had really good luck with it early on and starting using it over a lot of different paints and some decals (including Tamiya kit decals). It was a very hot clear and caused issues with some decals that looked like cracking, but was actually more of a wrinkling. Now I stick to applying it only over lacquers and avoid using it over decals.

I'm with Snake on the whole plastic dye color leaching, bleeding through issue. "Old wives tale" is the same term I use as well. Paint pulling away at the edges/doorlines (like on Tom's van) is not the same as bleed through. I think a lot of people perpetuate the tale when they have issues that seem to fit the narration, but in reality, the problem lies somewhere else.

Thanks Guys! I had a set of five lug spokers set aside for this project, but I got around to measuring them and noticed they scaled out to 18 inches in diameter. I found one 15 inch wheel in my stash that will work with the tires I plan to use. But my wheels were five lug and had the factory center cap. So I milled off the six lugs and center cap and machined a copy of what was on the truck for the center cap and lugs. I’ll cast copies.

How about what would you get (money's still no object) but that you'd have to be able to afford to maintain and insure?

I made one out of vinyl, but it was the style that had rectangular holes with radiused corners and was the size of a tailgate. It had enough stretch and sag to look believable.

I noticed that the bed I was using didn’t have the same trim around the tail lights as my truck, so I made a little reasonable facsimile out of styrene strips. I found an extra set of tail lights in my Blazer kit, (pure luck I guess), but not a set of back up lights so I’m still working on that and fine tuning the back of the truck.

I think this is about all the rust work I can do on it for now. The actual truck was more rusted on the passenger side than the driver’s.

I applied the paint with a fine sponge, that helped create the rough texture. The colors I used are just earth and rust. All the decals have been applied to the side trim. I used the “I” size for the thinner stripes on the lower pieces. I carefully gouged out around the windshield and drip rails to simulate the rust holes the truck had.

I added more layers of rust to the roof and started bring the “rust line” downward. I made the upper side trim for the bed from sheet styrene and foiled the trim on the bed. (I did the BMF on the cab about 30 years ago.) I used black Scale-Master decal stripes (Sheet Stock # S-S2) size “I” for the black in the center of the upper side trim and some very fine hairline decal stripes I had custom printed long ago for the top and bottom. (There are three decal stripes in each run of that trim.) I used stripe size “G” from the same stripe sheet for the center black stripes in the lower trim pieces.

Thanks again guys! The kit had no provision for wipers, (the cowl was missing a chunk too). Fortunately the wipers for the '68 Camaro I was building along side this were easily modified to fit the Vega, and the real Camaro had caps on the wiper posts so were not needed for that model.

Thanks.

Thanks guys! This one is wrapped up too. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=103554

This is a model of my first car as it looked when I finished it, about 1982-83. I used an old AMT funny car body as the base. It needed a good amount of modification. I fabricated the tires and modified the Mini-lite five lug 15 inch wheels into 13 inch 4 lug Super-Lites. I made all the decals and the details that were unique to my car. The chassis is scratch-built too. WIP Thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=98931&hl=

Thanks Joe. You got it Carl. I started building up the crusty rust. The hood was about 60 grit sand paper rough. The other areas were finer, maybe only 240 grit…

I had a pair of driving lights for a Mercedes 450 on this car; I cast copies of the lights from the Monogram model.

I'm pretty sure I used a guitar string.

No Jeff, I'm just going to finish it. I got a good start on the camper shell. I drew up some plans and built it up from sheet styrene. It snaps onto the bed.

I put the window sticker on upside down, didn't want to be like everyone else so I put the bumper sticker on "normally".

I started this model shortly after I bought my truck about 1985. (I only bought it short-term to facilitate the engine swap I had planned for my Camaro. But I found many uses for it subsequently, and we camped with it a lot.) The model started as a repurposed step-side (MPC) that I had built much earlier. To make the standard bed I sacrificed a Blazer body. (I think it was the Boondocker.) I mixed the Ocher color and painted the body, built most of the engine and interior back then. Then a couple moves and a lot of life got in the way, so the model sat on the far edges of my workbench all these years. Also the salt air (and it having never been garaged) took a toll on the real trucks paint, i.e. rust. And as it changed its appearance I wasnt sure what I wanted to do with the model. Fast forward to my current drive to build the models of my past (and present) cars; I decided it was time to pick up (no pun) the project again. Make no mistake, this was one ugly truck, but it was a great truck to me. It never left me stranded, and it did everything I ever asked of it, some of which was borderline abuse. It served me very well for 27+ years. It was very original down to the required smog equipment, (even though it became smog exempt in 98). According to the build factory sheet laminated to the inside the glove box door: LS9 350 4bolt w/4bbl, 4 speed transmission with PTO 12 bolt rear end with 4:11 gears Power front disc brakes ¾ ton add a leaf rear springs and trailer tow package (including rear view mirror delete) . White Spoke Wheels Heres where Im picking it up After a good wash down, (something I gave the real one at least once a year, or two).

Thanks guys! The real car is long gone, it was traded in on a Pinto when they came out by his ex-wife. I never saw the car in person. I had one photo of the car to work from and a ton of notes about the details I took down from the owner. He inspected it yesterday and it passed with flying colors.