Fabrux

Big Rig Build Off

Presently I have a bedroom set up as my hobby room.

The '78 annual is indeed the only 2WD version. The Chevy kits weren't done the same as the Dodge kits that had both suspension options. As for the long bed, I have seen a couple different resin versions and they done look that great. With the upcoming reissue if the 84 GMC it might be better to cut up a pair of short beds, which is what I plan on doing.

Okay, new website but still not much info on there...?

I've actually been using sprue mixed with lacquer thinner as a filler. Filled in from the backside and topside no idea why the lines wouldn't smooth out!

These hoods...were almost the death of these projects. For whatever reason I couldn't get the cut-out lines to get flush. I got them as close as I could and what I could live with (better than this) Engine painted up and on the chassis for the Blazer. Painted it GM Alpine Green. These two projects are my first time painting with my airbrush. The Blazer here is painted with Testors Aztek Blue and the roof is Vallejo Model Air white. Another reason for the delay in updates is a failed paint job on the Jimmy. I tried painting it IJN Chrome Jellow but it failed horribly and had to be stripped. Since I had such good luck with the Aztek line on the Blazer I picked the basic green for the Jimmy since my local Michael's didn't have the Aztek yellow in stock. The pair together. It was very tedious masking off everything to get just the radiator support and inner fenders sprayed black, but it looks a lot better than either brush painting or painting the whole engine compartment black. Now, for the Blazer, I had another idea for the wheels. Should I stick with the chrome steelies or painted white with centre caps?

Man oh man oilfield trucks are monsters! I can't even begin to comprehend what the workload of these things would be. All of my oil extraction experience has been with offshore stuff; I've never seen land-based extraction setups, other than driving by pump-jacks on the highway between Regina and Estevan.

I don't get the whole artificially distressing thing. Why not just wrap it like they did with the General Maintenance?

I seem to remember reading that Model King was planning to reissue the Dodge pickup in a combo kit similar to the '79 Bronco but the tooling was found to be unusable. The LRE version should still be valid, but the long bed version was converted to the monster truck.

The selection at Michael's here in Saint John is rather atrocious. I don't think they've had a restock since September. They also haven't gotten in a restock on the Testors Aztek airbrush paints, either. Its not a very good store to rely on for modeling supplies.

If you open up the coupon it says on it starting Saturday 9 January. They get sneaky with the coupons sometimes.

There is a 20% off coupon good until today. The 20% coupon you linked to is for tomorrow only; the 50% off coupon doesn't actually start until Saturday. Just so you don't drive 35 minutes for nothing.

I once had to pack up all my belongings and store them in an unheated storage locker in winter, including all my models. They survived just fine, but the Testors paints not so much.

Interesting. Not sure about 1988 but we have an '89 that sat at the same height as our newer trucks ('93, '96, and '98) before we stripped it.

For a 2WD truck of this body style, the 5-lug wheels are correct. Looks good!

Looking at the pictures a little closer, the bumpers are different in each one and the graphics on the front are a bit different also. The space between the cab and the wrecker body doesn't seem to be used for anything. Perhaps this truck was built as an L-series and the W-series cab came later?

I've come across this weird Ford cabover that seems to blend a W-series cab with an L-series hood, making a little snubnose thing. I've only been able to find these two pictures and they're of the same truck; this suggests to me it might be a home build?

Restoring old glue bombs is the order of the day if you're after a one-year-only release of something. Sometimes they can be a pain to get apart and need some fixing but there's just something about the smell of old Testor's glue pried apart...

The engine you're looking for was in the MPC AMC Pacer kit. Looking good!

When the tooling was originally created it was for a 1969 model year Blazer, which had the turn signals in the grille. The grille was later updated to 71-72 style but the bumper never changed.

When mixing and matching parts with the available Ford pickups in scale, please keep in mind the following compatibilities: The Monogram Bronco (no flares, removable top), Monogram F-150 Ranger, and Monogram F-250/F-350 kits are all 1:24 scale and parts swap easily. The 87-92 kits have better detail and represent rear-wheel drive trucks with the Sterling rear axle. The front suspension on these will swap readily as long as you swap the engine crossmember as well. The AMT 73-79 F-350 kit is 1:25 scale. The rear-wheel drive suspension setup would be representative of 61-79 pickups. The four-wheel drive suspension would be representative of 61-79 pickups as well. The Revell Bronco (wheel flares, one-piece body) is 1:25 scale and is based on snap-kit tooling and has a leaf-spring TTB front suspension, incorrect for a Bronco and F-150. To get the appropriate coil-sprung TTB suspension, you need to source it from either the Revell snap-kit pickups (a flare side, style side, and dually; all 4x4) or the MPC Bronco. For rear-wheel drive suspensions, the beam axle from the AMT 73-79 kit may work for F-350 or use the TTB from either the AMT 92-96 F-150 or the Moebius 67-72 series (TTB front suspension was basically the same from 65-96). The Monogram 1:24 Dodge Ramcharger kit has Dana 60 axles front and rear. The Monogram 1:24 Bronco and the Revell 1:25 Bronco are completely different kits with different proportions. The Revell kits look closer to the actual truck, IMO, than the Monogram kits. All of the Revell and Monogram kits represent 80-83 trucks. The MPC Bronco did have the appropriate blue oval grille for 84-86 trucks in some versions. Personally, if I was trying to do the projects you are doing, I would track down the Revell snap kit pickups. They need a bit of work to look right, but they look that much better when they tweaked. YMMV.

They're not quite standardized yet, though, is the thing. Revell, Round 2, and Moebius boxes are pretty much the same size in length and depth, but they are different in height. For whatever reason, Revell boxes are about 1/2" taller. Now, that's not counting Round 2 special release boxes (like the '75 Gremlin, '40 Ford sedan delivery, etc).

Not too many of us on here!

I'm planning to build the floor out of basswood. Not sure yet if I want to try to make planks or cheat a bit and make it one piece with strips of metal.

It's been a little while since I did anything with this one. I wasn't satisfied with how the bed was going together, so I made my own!