Fat Brian

The recently reissued AMT 55 Corvette, it was at Hobby Lobby on clearance for $7 and I still feel slightly cheated. The only one I can remember that was worse was the 69 Daytona that AMT had out a few years ago, I bought it at full price and was very upset that they would waste my money and their time by dusting off those wretched molds. I try to do my homework on kits before buying one, especially with their price now, but I still get bitten overy once in a while.

I would love that, the model companies need to look not only for interesting subjects that have never been kitted but also popular subjects whose kit is so outdated that it's begging to be done again with modern technology. It happens with armour and aircraft models all the time, it seems that some subjects get a whole new tooling every ten to fifteen years while we still get repops of 50+ years old kits.

I was just showing you the difference in the frames so you can ID the trucks on Dennis' site, someone who works for Bigfoot 4x4 and wrote the history of Bigfoot 3 I linked to has offered to help him fix the Bigfoot section but he won't let them. The truck above will most likely become Godzilla or Duraliner Giant when I get around to building it. Here is the original Dabney brothers Blue Thunder: This will become Bear Foot 2 or 3: This will be Pony Express: And these are just some things I was messing around with. I have about twenty replica monster trucks in various stages of completion.

Here is a long bed 80-86 truck I made using a Quadzilla kit and two Monogram Broncos. You have to use two Broncos the get the correct length behind the rear wheels. On Ford truck beds the distance from the rear wheels to the end of the bed stays constant between the short bed and long bed and flareside bed , all of the difference in length is added at the front of the bed, but the Bronco rear is too short to be correct. To get the length and proportions correct I used the bed side from the Monogram 87-91 extended cab long bed and cut the Broncos to match that bed side. If you wanted it in 1/25 you could probably use two of the AMT 80 Broncos that were recently rereleased and any of their 92-96 bodied trucks to get the cab roof, rear and glass. I don't have an AMT Bronco kit to test this, it's just a guess.

Unfortunately Dennis doesn't know 3 from 4 from his own behind, half of the pics he has listed as 3 are 4. The tell is that 3 has a drop in the frame under the cab because it used a strengthened stock truck frame where 4 used the straight frame rails from a semi truck. Look at the frame right under the rear corner of the front fender of the first pic compared to the same spot on the second pic. The first pic is 3 the second is 4.

I try to be a good citizen on the boards I frequent but I also like to know the lay of the land.

I would be on board for something like this. If we want to get serious about doing this we need to get a workable plan together to present to the various organizations. Some groups have charity auctions already so maybe we could do a cbp and then turn the finished models over to the organization to be included in the auction. We would need to know who to send them to and when they need to be there to be included in the auction. Since the object of a charity auction is not necessarily the quality of the product purchased but donating to the charity anyone should be able to participate since a contest quality build isn't really the point. I wonder if the NNL would be interested in doing this at the various contests accross the country. That would eliminate the logistics of shipping the models which may arrive broken and the bidders could pick up their purchase in person. Vehicles intended for the charity auction could be put on display in a certain area and at a given time the auction is held and the money collected and the models given to their new owners. Then the event officals can just turn over a chack directly to the selected charity. The bids for models might be higher from model people than the general public and we would just be making a straight donation to the given charity. I don't know, just spitballin' here.

Another question on points, do they ever expire? On another forum I'm on the amount of points given and how long they last are based on the severity of the infraction, I was just wondering if these points were similar.

Modern car parts look out of place on a rat rod but if you are doing a custom modern hot rod you could use a new Mustang or Vette engine. My left over bodies are usually used to test paint techniques or various paint brands for compatibility prior to shooting my actual build.

I was just giving you some more resources for pics and things, your build looks really good. I have some mirrors from the Monogram Bronco I can send you, they will be a touch out of scale but will be the correct style, pm me your address and I will get them out to you the first of the week.

I have used the Testors decal kit software and paper before, it works okay. I wouldn't recommend the Testors software, any photo editing software should do. This is a link for paint.net ( http://www.getpaint.net/ ), it's a free editing program that has pretty amazing functionality and is fairly easy to learn. The most diffficult part for me was knowing when there is enough of the protective spray on the sheet to keep the ink from running.

Yes, that Revell kit is the snap version. This version, with the flat top sleeper, is the full detail kit http://www.amazon.com/Kenworth-W900-Tractor-Revell-Germany/dp/B001TLV62U/ref=pd_sbs_t_7

You did right by going for Bigfoot 3 with this kit, it's closer to 3 than it is to any other truck. Still there are some issues though. First, Bigfoot 3 had an engine with Boss heads for its entire lifetime as a competition truck, you can always tell 3 from 4 or 6 and 7 by the Boss heads since they had regular 460 style heads with Bigfoot cast into them. The engine in the kit is totally wrong, it's an FE family engine (390,427,428) with 385 series (429, 460,514) valve covers intead of being the correct 460 based engine in the actual truck. Second, the non-planetary chrome wheels in the kit were never used with the body in the kit. Around the same time that the truck was rebodied with the 87-92 style body it was also updated to planetary hubs like Bigfoot 4 had. It wouldn't be very hard to make the correct hubs since the hub faces used were just flat pieces of steel with eight or ten bolts around the edge. Here is a great source for monster truck photos, almost every truck ever made is shown here although some of the sections are a little disorganized: http://monsterphoto....com/gallery.htm Here is a link to a history of Bigfoot 3: http://www.bigfoot4x...f3_history.html Here is a pic of Bigfoot 3 with the original body showing the Boss valve covers and the non-planetary chrome wheels: Here is a pic of Bigfoot 3 with the body in the kit with the planetary hubs and white wheels: Here is a pic of Bigfoot 3 today. It was sold as an almost bare chassis sometime between 2000 and 2004 and was robodied and repowered first as the Dixie Thumper and now Legend.

You have a point here, I have a 1/72 Dragon Sherman "Easy 8" with only one side of the suspension done. I don't know if the other side will ever be completed, I just don't know if I can subject myself to all of those tiny parts again. There is a point of diminishing returns with super heavy detail, where the parts are so complex it's just not fun anymore.

The Monogram 70 Roadrunner has a kind of dog dish wheels, I believe they were mainly for police cars though. Here is a link to a resin set that is very close to what the Roadrunner has: http://www.banditresins.com/mopar_police_wheels.html

In the past when I've sold items I waited until they recieved their item and left feedback before I left anything. The transaction can still go south after the buyer has paid so giving feedback once payment is recieved is too early for me. I've only had one transaction go poorly and I was the buyer, it took almost four months to get an item shipped after a prompt payment.

A quick way to test would be to only paint a small part of the body and then let it dry. If you don't get the grianular texture on the small area then its overspray, if you do it has to be something in the paint. If it turns out to be in the paint I would get a different brand and see if happens with it.

On a side note, does it throw anyone else that Dario Franchitti has a Scottish accent? I don't watch the Indy series enough for that to stay current in my mind and it gets me every time.

I watched Indy and the 600 Sunday and have to say I enjoyed Indy far more. It was just a better race this year, I was really hoping Tony Kanaan could have won but his restarts were so slow he couldn't stay in the lead.

Testors paint is fairly easy to strip, Purple Power, Castrol Superclean, LA's Totally Awesome, and oven cleaner are some of the many options. I imagine Simple Green would work, try testing it on a scrap piece of plastic to be sure it is safe first.

Those would work fine, what are they made of?

Definitely switch the hood to the other body, that way you can also build it with an opening hood without have to make any more cuts.

Who makes the best super singles? I need some for a build I'm planning and don't want to waste my money. I don't care if they are resin or rubber/vinyl but I would like them to fit AMT wheels.

I have to be good, if I start buying any more different kinds of models my wife will smother me with my pillow one night.

I see quite a bit I'll get, the Road Runner, GSX, Camaro, both Firebirds, 93 Mustang, Boothill Express, and probably some more. I have a few of these already but I kind of want a fresh start on some of them, I wonder if the Daytona will be the full Promodeler kit with all of the stock car stuff?