Tom Geiger

You are correct, they did have a Mercedes Sprinter van AND Mike has your VW that is seen in many episodes. The Ford Transit is new this season, accompanied by several ads throughout the show. Actually pretty good marketing by Ford.

I'm with Nick. If I wanted to be a cashier, I would've applied for the job.

Those were all promo runs ordered and paid for by Chrysler. Nothing wrong with filling a paid order! And they did it well. I have examples of the Dodge Caravans, Plymouth Voyagers, Neons, Intrepids, Cloud cars and more... all very nicely done.

And guys it's not all that difficult to scratch build the service box either. It's all straight lines! I built this one by scaling a side shot of the truck to 1/25 and just copying the dimensions off of that. I used Evergreen sheet in one of the thicker sizes, and Evergreen strips for the inner corners for strength. I believe I used the bed floor from on of the AMT '55 Chevy pickups and built around it. The only tough part is getting the corresponding sides to match. You do that by taping two pieces of Evergreen together and cutting them that way. Perfect match, especially when carving out and sanding the wheel opening. The slam locks came from Don Mills Models. You can do it!

Thanks Chris. The grill on mine is the kit part, only painted instead of chromed. There are several trucks on the kit box and my assignment was to build a 'hot' 4x4 with some off road dirt on it. I had to build it in a fashion that a buyer could duplicate with the kit parts. My decision to do the painted grill was to differentiate it from the others on the box, but was also an easy way out since the test shot didn't come with any chrome. I did Alclad the bumpers. Another interesting detail. All of the accessories on the truck are pinned on rather than glued. It was done that way so that the photographer could decide what to use. So the front grill guard and roll bar are removable. The side mirrors are too, but that was to avoid damage in the mails. When I built the kit, I didn't know what would happen in the end, but I got it back and am happy to have it on my shelf. It now wears the NJ plates "BOX-ART"

Neat! Brookfield did some really nice replicas in their day. What ever happened to them?

That is very cool. I'd send photos into the show website. I just started watching this season and it's interesting how they retired their original Mercedes Sprinter van and now the show is pretty much an hour long commercial for the new Ford Transit van.

Charlie I don't think they ever sold them in the US, but there are enough of them here! There was a company in South Jersey that was importing CVs the last time I looked at eBay Motors.

Hmmm... wonder if they have police car auctions in Dubai? That would be a cool car to bring back to the US and take to car shows

Chris, this is the only one I've built so far. I wasn't allowed to modify the body since you may recognize this as one of the trucks on the Model King release box. It was built from a test shot. If you look at the windshield on my model, then the one in the photo below, you can see how far off the kit actually is. I did replace the drip rails on this one, which is also one of the things you should want to do. Here's a reference photo of one I want to build. I will use the box from the AMT '53 Ford pickup, which is still valid for this year! If you trace the imaginary line from the top of the door across to the top of the windshield, that's pretty much it. On the kit, it may be carving back to the edge of the top molding. Then you need to rescribe the trim across the top of the windshield or just trace it with a black Sharpie! This is an album of reference photos I've assembled: http://public.fotki.com/ModelCitizen/11_car_reference_library/light_commercial/1979_ford_pickups/

Looks good Felix and a local car at that!

Per both comments... Robin it's a matter of at what time in the car's life do you want to model it. My goal here was to build the car as an average 10 year old car that's still in service. No rust through, just that overall 'gray' look that Harry described. Also, as he said, different parts age different. The exhaust for instance. The pipes will take on a coat of rust surface, but the muffler seldom rusts, it just pretty much gets dull and on this one, my catalytic converter has scrape marks on it. Part of weathering is that most people do overdo it. Dan said it right, with the pock mark salt technique rust jobs.. look more like leopards than cars! And those with rust all over them, look like they were done like Shake And Bake! You are trying to replicate scale rust, so it won't be as 'in your face' as 1:1 rust. When you think you haven't done enough... you probably have! The key again is research. I keep a lot of photos of cars at all stages of life. Those eBay Motors shots of 5 year old chassis are great. Every car has some degree of wear on the chassis. Even a brand new car has bits of rust started on naked bolt heads. And it's very cool when you get it right!

and never listen to Alan!

Eric- Let us know a bit about you, what kit you have, what tools you have and what your intentions are for your first build. The guys here have years of experience, and many of us can't appreciate starting from scratch, assuming that what we all know is common knowledge. Your first model isn't going to be perfect, it's basically a learning experience. And it can be a long haul. Even with years of experience we all are learning every day. And the most important thing I learned -- building nice models isn't a special skill you can't learn. It's mostly tricks and techniques you just haven't thought of! For example, I had several false starts back into modeling as an adult. First in my late 20s I bought a kit, some Testors paints and went at it. The results were the same as the models I built when I was 15 (which wasn't pretty!) because I was using that same skill set. The next time I decided to try modeling some ten years later, I joined a club and suddenly I had a group of experienced people guiding me to build better. Some of the things they taught me were things you slap your forehead over, but it's all part of the growth in the hobby. First - What level are you beginning at? The best way to be overwhelmed is to bite off too much all at once... Basic assembly- just build a kit without paint to follow the assembly steps (what glues do you have, what basic hand tools?) Assemble with paint - spray can paint and brush paint on some parts and assemblies (what paints would you like to use? Do you use an airbrush?) Advanced kit clean up, paint and assembly - still just building the kit from the box, but doing clean up of mold lines, ejector pin marks, etc on the kit prior to paint Assembly with engine wiring, and additional detail - Kit bashing (building a model using parts from several different kits) Good luck and most important have fun!

For those who want to see the build thread the link is: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77859#entry987701 You have to read the boat construction to really appreciate the work! Really nice job! There is a boat kit manufacturer called Dumas that has some cool looking Chriscraft boats like this. The scale varies on their product line since I suspect they're working around the size of radio control boats, but there are quite a few in 1/24 scale. I've been thinking of getting one.

No problem! Just take that little CV van, pop a Ferrari V12 in the back and we're good to go! A sorta funny aside. I have a 1932 Ford Vicky that I built on top of a VW chassis as if it was a fiberglass kit car. At one show the head judge told me that although the car was nicely built, it would never win an award because it wasn't feasible! Same contest, the winner in my class was a '39 Ford with a Ferrari V12 in it!

Ya know... I've had this recurring image of bleachers behind my work bench filled with the world's greatest modelers. They're all just sitting there snickering at me as I build!

I used to be in charge of facility services for a large company property (1.3 million square feet, 100 acres) and it was like running a city. I took over the job in the spring after a really bad winter, like this past winter. Snow removal was in my budget, and just from the Jan-Mar season, we had blown the snow budget by 6x, in fact pretty much screwing my entire budget for the year. And I was expected to make budget no matter what! Of course with budget cuts every single year, and minimal snowfall in previous years, it was always convenient for the manager to gamble on cutting the snow budget. So it was already unrealistic for a winter with actual snow fall! I was fortunate that the following fall, we had no snowfall at all!

Good point. I have my Tamiya tapes in the dispenser too. They sit on hooks too, if just for convenience for grabbing them and knowing where they are. My comment was more for the roll of blue painters tape.

Touchy touchy! I like the business end of the hobby and when kit releases are mentioned I always run them through the 'sales' filter. It has nothing to do with my liking or not liking the subject. Actually I LIKE the old Renwal classics and enjoy seeing them built up nice and posted on the boards. I actually own a couple. They aren't elusive, an eBay search agent would find them regularly in the $20-50 price range. Figure that a new kit is $20-25, that's not bad and if you were diligent you could probably buy examples at the low end of this range.

I know what you mean. Sometimes I envy the guys who just twist the parts off the trees and spray 'em.

Do you really want to see them as the next seven Revell releases? Renwal models were marginal quality when they were new. I don't see these as viable today. Maybe they would sell a few cases to guys who remember them, but the rest would hit the clearance rack.

Exactly the way most of us work. Tamiya tape will last a very long time this way. Lately I've been repainting single panels and have had to mask off most of a mini van. I found that in addition to using Tamiya tape for the fine edge, then painters blue tape against that, I have been wrapping the model in Glad Press-n-Seal plastic wrap. It's a little tacky but pretty much just sticks to itself. Then I seal off those edges with the painters tape. I've read that 1:1 car painters will throw out an entire roll of masking tape if it hits the floor, because once the edge touches the ground it has dirt in it, thus ruining the edge line. As such, I never let my rolls of tape sit on the bench. I keep them on hooks hanging off the edge of the shelf over the bench. It took a lot of discipline to do that at first, now it's just second nature!

Welcome Dave! Last I checked we had room for seven more Aussies on the board!

I guess you noticed the interior! Just a flat panel like a slot car. I was thinking of putting the interior from the AMT Capri in it. Probably not correct, but better than what we got!