Fabrux

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I have an engineering degree, but a I've found that I don't like the work as much as I thought I would and the work doesn't seem to like me. In six years I've worked less than four total years. And that's involved travelling halfway across the country anyway my wife had a stable career so it's not fair to her to uproot the family so I can find a job. Re-careering into something that is always in demand seemed like the best course of action. As for a progress update, I have gone through the first week of in-class training and now have my learner's permit and air brake endorsement.

Having been out of work for the past eight months and not having much luck finding anything, I've made the decision to change careers. I have enrolled at a local driver's training college to get my Class 1E driver's license, which in NB gives me a CDL. It is a 12 week program, four of which are interning with a carrier. The company I've signed up with does all flatbed hauling. Could be interesting!

As mentioned above, Expeditions only came in half-ton variations. The rear axle was a coil spring setup rather than a leaf spring, but other than that the chassis and even wheelbase is the same as a regular cab, short bed F-150. Expeditions only had V8 engines, but both the 4.6L and 5.4L were available. For correct wheels, you will need to grab a set from the Revell or Lindberg '97 F-150 kits. The wheels supplied in this kit is the incorrect steel wheel combination from a '09+ F-150, which has a 6x135 bolt pattern rather than the Expedition's 5x135 pattern. The Lindberg and Revell kits can also supply a stock grille without the police lights. Although not correct for an Expedition, they would be close enough in scale.

Keep in mind that, IIRC, a factory dually pickup wasn't really offered until the Seventh Generation F-Series. This and the Sixth Generation ('73-'79) would have offered dually cab and chassis models or stake beds, but any pickup beds were aftermarket conversions. Someone please correct me if I am mistaken. I picked up a '72 today and noticed a few differences. First being the colour of the plastic, which is a sort of tan colour like the test shots rather than the grey of the previous issues. Not sure if this means anything or not. This kit appears to share most of its parts with the '69 and '70 kits, changing the grille, interior, and door panels appropriately. Biggest change is the small-block Ford engine, the first such offering from Moebius (but probably shared with the upcoming Mercury Comet).

Wow! That carrier is a local company and that container for sure came through the Port of Saint John...!

Oops, didn't see that GTO there!

For Monogram Muscle I have an '87 Buick Grand National. In addition to the abovementioned Revell Muscle kits, I also have a '66 Pontiac GTO and a '96 Ford Mustang Saleen S281.

Two weeks ago I picked up an AMT '66 Nova and Lindberg Lil' Red Wagon on clearance at the Michael's in Fredericton, NB.

I still have to pinch myself to remember that this happened, as I never get deals like this: Both still in the inner bags. The GMC lost a valve cover and one small decal to tire burn, and the Charger has some chips out of the pre-painted body. I paid $50 for both.

I don't know if this would exactly qualify as a glue bomb as someone started restoring it before I got it but here's a 1962 Plymouth Fury I've had for some time that I would like to rebuild at some point. Not sure if it is the Johan or the Revell kit, or even where I'll source the missing parts.

The Cobra wheels have holes in the center caps for the quick-release spinners; these wheels appear to have a center cap/no hole.

All done. Under Glass thread here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/112792-1977-gmc-k10/

Finished this one up today. Base kit is the recently reissued GMC plow truck. I sourced the fenderside bed, tail lights, and wheels from an earlier Chevy issue of the pickup kit. I had to make my own tailgate as the Chevy tailgate has embossed lettering and it was half melted by an oversealous application of tube glue. Cut down the frame to single exhaust and fabricated a y-pipe. Pared it down to four shocks instead of eight, added a spare wheel in the correct location, and removed the driver's side tank. Tried to depict a low-option truck with a 305 V8 and manual three speed transmission. I tried to add some more detail under the hood. Heater blower is from an MPC pickup, brake booster is from a Jeep CJ-7, clutch reservoir is from the parts bin. I also cut out the extra battery. I didn't realize until afterwards that the clutch reservoir should have been mounted lower to allow for the wiper motor...ah well. Thanks for looking!

My master bedroom is currently undergoing mold remediation, so it's contents are spread out between my model room and my daughter's room; we are staying at my inlaws for now. Modeling is difficult, but I made myself a path to my workbench and I've been working on this truck while the remediation guys work. I have the chassis just about all done, just need to hang the spare tire. As with the Blazer, I had to fabricate a Y-pipe. I tried a different method, didn't work so well. I cut little slivers and styrene and glued them in the front centrecaps; together with the red paint they look like manual locking hubs. From a distance, anyway.

Speaking from experience as someone that has crammed their workspace and ~500 models in a 6'x12' room, currently in an 8'x9' room, I would say 10'x10' would be a bit on the small side!

The base kit for this build is the GMC plow truck kit. I'm using a fenderside (correct GMC terminology) bed from an earlier Chevy issue along with the GM truck rallye wheels. I cut down the chassis to have single exhaust and single tank. Like the Blazer I just did, I used a piece from a scrap frame to fill in the crossmember where the second muffler was. Then I went and cut out the second molded-in battery and filled in the "hinge" openings in the firewall. One feature that I really don't like about the Monogram pickup kits of this era is the separate rear cab wall. I have glued this one in and reinforced the inside with melted sprue so that it will stretch enough to get the interior tub in but won't break the glue seam. I smoothed out the cab/cab wall transition as it was rather square. Here's a mockup of how the truck will sit. The bed is from a gluebomb so I've actually had to cut out the floor (to be replaced with basswood) and make my own tailgate. And here's how it sits now, a mockup with paint. The color is Testors Aztek Dark Grey. I stripped the wheels and bumper and painted them white; the grille was stripped and painted Krylon Matte Aluminum. As the kit is molded, it has a SBC with a column-shifted manual transmission, so I decided to build this one up as a base model truck. In my mind the engine is a 305.

I finished this one up, forgot to post about it. Only have the two pictures so far; once I do a proper photoshoot I'll create an Under Glass thread. The spare tire carrier is from the pickup kits, the spare tire itself is from the recent GMC plow truck kit.

Looks like a Peterbilt 320. I spent a lot of time at airports working FIFO jobs so I've seen lots of funky airport equipment. Never saw a fuel truck that big, though.

You know for being two of the most similar countries on Earth I often forget just how different the banking systems of Canada and the US are. We've had chip debit cards for about eight years now, tap + chip debit cards for 3-5 years. On the other hand, Visa debit cards that work as a credit card online but draw from your bank accounts are only a couple years old here. My current bank card is all three

Well, look at that! At least that's an easy fix.

Trying to get myself back into building, decided to try and start with something simple. Good old Monogram Blazer kit. This started out as a partially built Mad Mudder kit, cobbled with a GMC Jimmy parts kit. Unfortunately between the two kits I didn't have a correct intake manifold, so for simplicity's sake I glued the hood shut. Spare tire and carrier are from the pickup kits. I just couldn't let those tiny door handles stay so I shaved them off and carefully cut a set off a spare pickup cab. I cut out one set of the molded in exhaust and used a piece from another Blazer chassis to fill in the gap in the crossmember. The one thing that always bugs me about these kits is the grille just doesn't look quite right. I paint-detailed this one as best I could, even painting the appropriate grille slot grey where the displacement emblem would be. The colour is Testor's Aztek red.

When I started looking around for photo hosting sites nine years ago, I settled on Picasa as it seemed to fit my needs the best. Google has since purchased Picasa, merged with their Google Photos service, and are now shutting down Picasa. I migrated everything over from Picasa to Google Photos, consolidating my two Picasa accounts into one. Now I have discovered that Google Photos has apparently disabled image embedding functionality.

Looks like this: https://goo.gl/photos/kFrrLNsUguK25QDr7

If one isn't too fussy about what the backs of the wheels look like, the smaller insert for the 1:20 wheels fits inside the 1:25 wheels to be able to mount them. Another option for the bench seat is to cut the seat from the Revell (not Monogram) squarebody kits, it fits pretty good.

The tires in all 4WD versions of his kit are 1:25 scale versions of the Formula Desert Dawg PCV. The wheels will also work with AMT/MPC Commander XTs or Firestone All-Terrain T/C. As for the bench seat, it is a separate piece and fits in perfectly but I have not come across a resin repop of it. With the reissue of this kit and the modern cottage industry I would imagine someone will be offering the seat, 2WD suspension, stepside bed, etc.