Fat Brian

Round2 will hopefully reissue some of the Ertl International trucks like to 4070B or 2749 dump truck. The Autocar trucks should be on the shortlist too.

I have the Fujimi MkII kit, it's very nice and goes together well. The reason it's not done is that I cut the rear open and am putting an engine in it.

I'm definitely an average builder, a lot of the builds here make me want to take all my stuff into the yard and set it on fire. I really just build to satisfy myself though, if I try to make everything perfect I get bogged down and end up abandoning the project. I build each vehicle as if I owned it and would build it myself if I had the money so each model has custom parts and things borrowed from other kits which makes them more challenging so I frequently hit stumbling blocks that stall projects until I can find a solution.

Thin wall aluminum tubing is incredibly hard to bend sharply, get some 6//8 or 7/16 inch stainless steel tubing that is 1/16 wall and use a real tubing bender or a wooden buck to bend them. You can use a grinder to thin the open end to scale thickness once you get the bends made and polish to your desired finish.

Based on the photo it will have a removable hard top.

It totally depends on the opacity of the paint and the number of coats to get the desired result. With older Testors paints that are fairly thick I can usually get two cars to a can with a tiny bit left over, with the newer lacquers and some Tamiya paints I'll use most of a can easily.

I remember reading in another post that the NHRA rule for gassers specified that the crank centerline could be no more than 24" off the ground so the massively jacked up noses are more street mimicry than actual race legal cars.

Yeah, Clayton's mounts look super custom and I will definitely use them on another build but I'm kind of already down a path with this one so I'll have to use something more like the aluminum bars this time.

Matt, that's exactly what I was thinking about doing with some bits of paperclip or something.

Okay, thank you. I painted my frame before getting the fender mounts made so I'm trying to come up with something that won't require a repaint.

Yeah, the box truck frame is significantly longer than the dump or tandem tractor version, it's nothing a razor saw can't fix though.

What is the best way to mount custom fiberglass style fenders over the rear wheels of a semi, should they be attached to the frame or to the axles?

I imagine it will be somewhere north of $50, still better than the $125 I paid for the Aerodyne on ebay. Round2 is bringing their Aerodyne back out as the Papa truck this winter too.

Those are for gas caps, the kit must have dual tanks. Oops, Mike beat me to it.

The General/Bison is not a terribly hard kit and a bit better about having positive mounting locations for things than the early AMT semi trucks but the last issue of the General in the early 2000s was a warped mess. The Bison in the dark blue box from the mid 2000s is much straighter and easier to deal with and identical to the General except for the grill ad decals. If you're dead set on a General get the early Matchbox release, avoid the gray and black box with the gold truck on it unless you get a super deal on it and don't mind sitting down with a hair drier to straighten all the pieces out. I've never built the box on the 8000 so I'm not much help there.

I don't do mine in the correct firing order but I do alternate the wires to each side to avoid the parted hair look unless the specific distributor is wired that way like some GM units.

If I remember correctly it has stock wood grain trim on the body sides but strips over the rear window opening and the fuel door cut open for a quick fill cap. The door handles are gone with oval filler panels in their place, I think the grill and rear bumper are equally NASCARized. The Starsky & Hutch car would get you a stock interior and correct chassis and the guys at Motor City Resins might hook you up with a stock grill.

Darin Bastedo just shared this pic from Robert Glucksman:

That's an early one, I can't tell what year the kit is since the only body modification was the turn signals in 68. After a bit of research I think a 71+ would be ideal since that is the year they went to a Dana 44 front axle.

The P&P Aerodyne roof is for an 86" cab and the Revell kit is a 108" cab, the Papa truck should be a good donor though.

Awesome

I made a post on the truck side so those guys would see it, do you know anything more about the Bronco tool? Is it new new or a borrowed decast tool?

Revell has some goodies for us truck guys coming this winter, they are reissuing their K100 flat top with two drive axles and have also announced a new tooling of a first gen Bronco. The pic is in the thread on the car news page, I just wanted to post the truck news here.

Wow, how have they kept that Bronco a secret. That thing has been high on wish lists for a while. And of course they bring back their K100 after I pay $125 for one on evilbay.

That roofline looks remarkably similar to the last gen body style from 05-14.