Fat Brian

This is loosely based on a truck I've driven passed at work for years. The color is the same but I took some liberties with the engine and wheels since the actual wheels are boring and I don't know what the engine is. This engine is a mix of parts from the Revell 60 and 62 Impalas with the truck transmission. The air cleaners are from the USA-1 monster truck. The wheels and tires are from a recent release of the Revell 57 Chevy with some parts box adapters. The suspension is lowered 4mm in the front and 2 in the rear. I rebuilt the bed top rails with Evergreen since the ones in the kit were very warped and uneven. The engine swap was more difficult than I expected considering the W block came in this body style of truck. The engine doesn't play nice with the motor mounts on the frame and the exhaust manifolds point right at the lower control arms.

I play on PS 4/5 and pc but try to limit it, my model collection is to the point that it's hard to justify spending time on other hobbies.

I remember something would fail in the rear suspension of these cars, particularly in rust belt areas, and cause the rear axle wander a bit.

Get the banhammer out, I just got this one.

We get a lot of questions about 3d scanning various model parts, I saw this video and thought it would show the current state of the technology and the process for using the scans. I was pretty impressed with the quality of the scan. It also seems to be able to merge a top and bottom scan into one piece, it would be interesting to know the limitation of that ability. https://youtu.be/VZAdJ-PbDnQ?si=oIUU6wqrFIhIlIc3

There are two pieces that look like covers for the rear wheel houses. I just ended up gluing the rear door closed, it would be a heavy lift to make something decent in there.

I try to make the interior look like it could accommodate a person but the amount effort does correlate to how visible the finished product is. I've spent weeks making a custom interior for a Peterbilt that is almost completely invisible now that it's done, lesson learned.

If that's the case you might want to close these accounts too, someone approached me with a similar offer a while back.

You're in luck, Aoshima is making a set of four lug slots right now. The rears are wider than the fronts so you might need two sets unless you don't mind the wider meats out back.

It still baffles me that no one knows or even bothers to research what the options are in a given kit. The "351 Windsor" engine in the Cougar sure looks a lot like the 428 from the original version of the kit. It is a good deal to get two complete engines in a kit anymore but I wish it had stock decals too.

Most Japanese kits started out more as motorized toys than model kits, you can still see some vestigial parts in older kits from the big three companies. I think the Japanese market just got used to curbsides because the space was used for electric motors and batteries. While Tamiya specifically does put engines in some of its modern kits it's certainly not all and there doesn't seem to be any local market pressure to change since the other companies still primarily release curbsides.

I have a Phrozen Mini S, its my first printer and the prints from it were perfect. Don't be like me, buy a big printer.

I've seen that same style of fan in other Chevy kits with other engines, it was probably just an off the shelf part for the time that got installed on most vehicles.

I put a little piece of plastic on the bottom I could grab with an alligator clip. You might could grab it with one of those things used to hold wires for soldering that sits on the desk.

If you want to build something as long as the rollback I would just get a C600 stake bed kit and use the whole chassis, the L700 Dodge kit is a pretty short chassis. You will also need to move the front axle forward since it is set back for the cab over cab.

I'm pretty sure the 49 Mercury has some tools in it.

The best chassis for this is the Dodge L700 cabover, it has the two speed axle and everything. If you want the Ford engine from the C600 it shouldn't be too hard to find one, those kits get their engines swapped pretty frequently or you might find one from a kit breaker on ebay.

Is that it sticking out of the back of the frame in the second pic? With monster trucks primarily being on dirt those tubes going into a tank isn't nearly as important as it is on a drag car or similar.

Yeah, I think that guy got his wires crossed a bit. The MPC snap Blazer should be the one that was out as an emergency response vehicle about 12 years ago.

Unchopping it shouldn't be too bad, the roof section is a separate piece so its easy to work with. Since they're great kits and you will probably build more than 1 anyway use the top section from the second kit to make one standard height roof and one super chopped one. I chopped mine an additional 3 or 4 inches, that is about enough to bring one back to stock if you put the long sides together. Cut one roof close to the bottom of the pillars and the other close to the roof and switch the tops to the other bottom. Here's a picture of mine, you can see the seam where the roof meets the body through the window. The hardest cut is on the back, the rear window is kind of high so the cuts have to angle down to meet the side cuts.

My printer is my house and I can't use it because it gives everyone in the house a headache due to the smell. I'm going to have to put an extraction fan in my model room to use. I also have bought some water soluble resin that is supposed to have less fumes but I haven't tried it yet.

I'm looking for the clear parts tree from the Revell/Monogram 93 Mustang Cobra. I've got plenty to trade.

It depends on how good the scanner is. Resin can print things nearly as good as kit parts. The issue would be getting the parts to print correctly on the trees and printing in an orientation that minimizes the supports being on areas that will be seen. I think trying to print the exact parts layout of a plastic model isn't going to be the solution until some issues with the current printers are resolved. You would get a better end product by designing the parts individually and arranging them to print in the best orientation on the build plate that hides the support side as much as possible.

Are they breaking into a few big pieces or turning about to dust?