Fat Brian

After a few emails with the builder he said it was a Corvette orange metallic with gold flakes in the clear coat, I think this car looks pretty similar.

Parts 84 is either an amplifier or cd changer, I never figured out what went on the package shelf.

The five spokes look incredible Mark. Getting down to brass tacks, what is the ballpark for a set of these?

For me, my ideas are ambitious but frequently outpace my skills. I can't seem to stick to just the parts in the box and eventually I hit a wall where I can't make an acceptable fix and end up shelving the build. I'm trying to make a concentrated effort to stick to one project start to finish, it's just hard because I have so many ideas floating around.

The Johan one from the Mustang and Pinto drag kits are really good, you might find one cast in resin.

B-n-L casts a 69-70 grill.

I would love truly staggered wheels like these. One of my biggest gripes with modern kits is that they don't offer realistic wheel widths. When I had my SC 300 I ran 235/30/18s in the front and 345/35/19s in the back on 18x8.5 and 19x9.5 wheels and it is nearly impossible to find similar fitment in the model world.

Harry, I think part of the reason for the lowering of expectations is that it's become so hard to hold any one person accountable for anything. Think about the last few times you've been wronged, how many times was it an individual versus a cog in a nameless, faceless multinational corporation or governmental morass? We've become so accustomed to these various degrees of injustice that we have lowered our threshold for what "good" is.

Like others have said most of my really bad ones got burned or blown up years ago. Now if one is going awry I just put it back in the box until either I figure out how to do it correctly or my skills get better and I can realize my vision.

This looks really sharp and several will be coming home with me.

I'm so glad to hear this, I haven't bought one online because I've been waiting to see if HL got them.

One will be getting a dump bed and another a mixer, I might get a few more for maybe a crane truck or a removeable container truck.

I always thought they were powered by the steering system somehow but after some reading most seem to work like casters and just follow the angle between the front and rear tires. Hendrickson makes a system that uses some air pressure from the bags to re-center the wheels but they don't "steer" as we think of it. All of the Hendrickson systems say to lift the axle in reverse because it can't follow correct going backwards.

I've never encountered an unbuildable kit but there are many that aren't worth the effort to fix them when better alternatives exist. The AMT 69 Daytona was one for me, I already had the Revell ProModeler version but picked up the AMT kit up to see what it was about. I picked over the few parts worth keeping, used the body for paint testing, and the rest went in the trash can. To me there was no point in using my time polishing excrement when I had a better alternative. There are times when a bad kit is all we have and I don't mind putting the work in but I try not to punish myself when I don't have to.

There are instructions somewhere to build one out of a plastic tub and simple exhaust fan. The biggest thing is to be sure the fan is intrinsically safe so you can spray flammable paints in it.

If you already have the Freightliner then build it, it's not so difficult that you should trade it. The only real issue is the multi-piece cab but it's not that bad. Don't worry about saving the rivets on the roof, their over done anyway. Loosing them makes fixing the seam on the roof much easier. Be sure to sand the edges of the interior tub to keep it from fitting too tight or it can split the cab after it's painted. You might as well learn on a kit that's cheap and easy to replace.

All of the old AMT kits take a lot of test fitting and truing up the parts to get a good fit and keep things straight. I can't speak for the Kenworth but the Freightliner does take some work but can be built into a nice looking piece.

I appreciate the variety here, I build just about anything with wheels and armor and aircraft too.

It's about the same same vintage as the 65 Impala, it's a very good kit.

There is a search function on ebay that will let you see what similar items have sold for in the past which can help as some of the "buy it now" prices are ridiculous.

It looks like it comes with all of the parts to build it as a regular semi tractor, check out the youtube video below to see the parts trees.

I would almost like resin tires better so the wouldn't flat spot. The frame is going to be some work, the C channel is double stacked where the springs are and there are no lift blocks and then trying to get the van frame on there too.

Terry, I can't find any detail pics of exactly how the two frames were attached. I put up a Hail Mary yesterday and emailed the company Jim owns, everyone who's met him says he's a pretty cool guy so hopefully he'll get back to me and I can ask some questions about the truck. How did you fix the tires, cut a left and a right in two and then join the two halves with the small holes? I have some MPC wheel backs that will fit the small hole from the Dodge truck kit if you want to copy them.

The Phantom Ford van that was just reissued has a custom grille with stacked lights that is going to be the starting point for the one I need.

As soon as my guy is done with the decals I'll have everything I need to start. I was going to use a modified Rescue 911 van body but once I saw they had made the exact right one I had to chase one down.