Foose FD-100

[mrm]

I really expected to see one of these on here already, but apparently I'll be the first one. 

I received the kit a couple of days ago. My first impressions are great. I must say that the immediate feel I got, for whatever reason, was that it feels like a typical Japanese kit. Pretty simplified, but well done. 

I did start it and most parts are already in primer that is drying, so pictures will be coming up. There are some really cool features, some silly ones. Some unexpected "extra effort" and some plain odd misses.

Stay tuned. 

[Matt T.]

Thanks. Looking forward to your initial thoughts and build review!

[mod3l Lover]

   I am really looking forward to this!  Since I noticed

that Revell was doing one of these, I have been

waiting to see more about it.

 

      David S.

[mrm]

Sorry for the delay guys....

First the motor. It is a very well done Roush Ford Big Block. The block and transmision are molded together with a manifold and one piece heads. All the accessories are molded together which is cool because they have brackets. On the down side, it complicates painting. Also I have a very mixed feelings about the molds. The transmission is molded very crisp with plenty of detail. Meanwhile the block is very plain Jane. What is cool is that they included a nice separate coil with the distributor, which gives you opportunity for detailing it without going after market.

 

 

One of the best parts of this kit are the wheels and tires. very nice detail with perfect chrome. The centers on mine are already painted with Tamiya light gunmetal. Finally, Revell are starting to get models with one piece wheels. Something that should have happened quarter of a century ago. They still have a little way to go, until they catch up with the tire quality to the Japanese manufacturers, but there are not bad by any means. Let's hope that in the next quarter of a century this will happen too. 

 

The frame is very simple, but very nice. It does require some filling up to make nice and smooth. Mine was warped, but once all glued together with the body it will straighten. Everything you see on this picture is molded in only two pieces. There is a separate sway bar for the front and a steering rack which are not in the picture.

 

The rear end consists of six pieces. Two piece axle/diff (two halfs, no separate caps), two pieces for the four bar and two shocks (not pictured) 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2017 by mrm

[Custom Mike]

Looks good so far, this one is on my must-have list!

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Seeing a lot of potential uses for other projects already

[Ace-Garageguy]

Glad to see you doing a build review.

The one-piece heads and intake manifold (and the accessories) look toylike to me, and seriously limit the engine as swap material (and that's early 1960s style tooling...like the "Lincoln" engine in the very old AMT double T kits). I really have to wonder about why that particular decision was made. Still, the venerable old Revell "parts-pack" FE engine is a gem. I wonder if the Revell team got the measurements and scaling of the engine in this kit right, so that other FE parts will interchange with a minimum of grief.

The chassis looks to have a lot of potential, easily adjusting the front ride height by drilling the spindles for new stub-axle locations, and an equally easily adjusted rear. Revell could have provided poseable steering, but again, the design of what's there makes it fairly simple to modify to get it. The 9" rear would have been nicer with a separate pumpkin.

I'll be following.

 

[mrm]

Glad to see you doing a build review.

The one-piece heads and intake manifold (and the accessories) look toylike to me, and seriously limit the engine as swap material (and that's early 1960s style tooling...like the "Lincoln" engine in the very old AMT double T kits). I really have to wonder about why that particular decision was made. Still, the venerable old Revell "parts-pack" FE engine is a gem. I wonder if the Revell team got the measurements and scaling of the engine in this kit right, so that other FE parts will interchange with a minimum of grief.

The chassis looks to have a lot of potential, easily adjusting the front ride height by drilling the spindles for new stub-axle locations, and an equally easily adjusted rear. Revell could have provided poseable steering, but again, the design of what's there makes it fairly simple to modify to get it. The 9" rear would have been nicer with a separate pumpkin.

I'll be following.

 

I maybe have written this the wrong way. Each head is one piece. And the intake manifold is a separate piece. However they are designed in a way that does not allow the heads to be used with another manifold, as the upper side of the head is actually molded with the intake piece. It is not like the '60s style engines. When looking at pictures of the real motor, the model actually recreates the "joint lines" visible on the real engine faithfully. Posable steering would have been a very iffy affair, as the truck (and the model) has a very modern power steering rack. However, there is absolutely no hardware of any sort connecting the steering rack to the steering wheel. No shafts of any sort. Everything being jet black, you can't really see it, once the model is assembled, but if you are using light colors, it would need to be scratchbuild. But this is going into the negatives of the model, which I am going to address in my next post. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

I maybe have written this the wrong way. Each head is one piece. And the intake manifold is a separate piece. However they are designed in a way that does not allow the heads to be used with another manifold, as the upper side of the head is actually molded with the intake piece. It is not like the '60s style engines. When looking at pictures of the real motor, the model actually recreates the "joint lines" visible on the real engine faithfully. Posable steering would have been a very iffy affair, as the truck (and the model) has a very modern power steering rack. However, there is absolutely no hardware of any sort connecting the steering rack to the steering wheel. No shafts of any sort. Everything being jet black, you can't really see it, once the model is assembled, but if you are using light colors, it would need to be scratchbuild. But this is going into the negatives of the model, which I am going to address in my next post. 

I stand corrected. 

The FE engine is very unusual, as the intake manifold forms part of the valve cover sealing surface, and the "joint lines" you mention make it impossible to use non-FE manifolds on the other correctly-rendered FE engines as well.

Many of the Japanese makers (and some others) provide front suspension that is very easily converted to poesable steering, though for some odd reason, most modelers don't seem to be aware of the possibility. All it takes is for the manufacturer to make the spindle separately, with locating pins top and bottom that snap into holes at the ends of the control arms. The semi-poseable kits DO leave you on your own as to what to do for linkage, however.

[Muncie]

This is looking good, build looks great  - I like it, definitely on my list - thank you for the photos and review

I like the idea of a simpler kit with good detail like this one - better chance of me finishing it...

Edited May 29, 2017 by Muncie

[mrm]

Thanks for the info and for the good words guys.

Continuing with the chassis....

The rear shocks are the standard Revell affair and are no different than what is in their '32, '29, '30 kits. With everything black, I wanted to add some detail, so I made some new shocks.

 

At this point I got the steering rack and the sway bar painted to install too. The instructions call for a different sequence, but I always looked at instructions as simply guidelines.

 

The exhaust manifolds are one piece, but still look convincing. Especially considering they will be mostly hidden. The rest of the exhaust system is one piece per side too. Very simple, but good looking. For whatever reason, the exhaust tips don't even have a suggestion of an opening, so they need to be drilled out. Because of their simple design and the way the frame is, it allows for the manifolds to be glued to the rest of the exhaust before final assembly and everything can be even attached to the engine prior to dropping it in the frame. It all fits perfect, however the right side headers leave a little gap at the attachment point, so I opted gluing them first to address it and then painted them with stainless steel buffing metalizer. At this time I made a new driveshaft from aluminum, since mine came bent. 

 

The brakes are very well done in a "jap-kit-fashion". What ticks me off tho, are the decals that are supposed to go on the calipers. They are very, very nice looking in bright orange. Well, on the sheet.....Once put over the black paint they completely vanish. I guess there is no backup color behind the orange, so unless they are put on a really light color, they just disappear without a trace. 

Here is the rear assembly with brakes painted and the new shocks mounted. Unfortunately in a typical Revell fashion, there is no trace of a tie rod for keeping the rear end from moving side to side. I did not make one, because I have no clue what is on the real thing. 

 

Now here come my biggest issue with the chassis. They decided to make wheels attach on solid metal axles. BOTH FRONT AND BACK!!!!! Because of this, there is a hole through the oil pan with a corresponding notch on the bottom of the engine block. This also takes the functional steering option off the table. But what is the worst side effect, is that there are no front shocks of any kind. There are two big gashes in the frame rails too, right where the shocks on the real truck should be mounted. So I filled the frame and the oil pan with styrene rods of various size and smoothed everything out. It was pretty simple really. The shocks I had to scratch build.

 

I think they turned out pretty good

 

[mrm]

Next, I turned my attention to the engine. Once assembled it is very presentable. The highlight for me personally, is the carburetor, which displays great detail. The valve covers have four generic round shapes to represent the oil caps, the breather filter and the escape tube for the oil vapors. I scrapped all four "dimples" and replaced them with machined aluminum oil caps and scratchbuilt tube and breather. Unlike the decals for the brake calipers, the ones on the valve covers work perfect and make quite a statement.

 

The carburetor was also detailed with some fuel line, aluminum tubing and few machined aluminum fittings. I did not want to go overboard on the distributor, so a generic one (not quite sure about the aftermarket manufacturer) was used together with some photoetched wire looms and a machined aluminum coil. It is in the correct firing order however.

 

 

I just need to make the throttle cable and a return spring and also to clear coat the air filter 

 

Thanks for looking and stay tuned.

Interior is coming up next.....

Edited May 31, 2017 by mrm

[Lordmodelbuilder]

Nice job on the truck so far. I just watched Overhaulin' and the truck has a small panhard bar on the top of the 3rd member that

attaches to the passenger side frame rail. Can't believe Revell forgot it. Now, I need to get a couple of these kits.

[MeatMan]

Nice detail work!

[mrm]

Thanks guys.

And now, as promissed, on to the interior.

The floor of the interior is molded as with nice detail on its back side, which forms the stamped bottom seen from underneath the model. There is a separate piece for the firewall. For painting reasons, I glued the two first, before painting and detailing the pieces. The floor was flocked and a couple of photoetched pedals were added. 

 

Next I did the dash. Very well done, with decals for the instrument panel and the orange pinstripe. The steering wheel is very nicely done too. 

 

 

This brings us to the two tone interior, which brings very mixed feelings. The approach Revell took is to cover all the lighter grey areas with a decal, which also incorporates the orange piping on the upholstery, matching the pinstriping on the dash. On one hand this is great, because it gives the opportunity to the novice to create a nicely detailed interior without masking . On the other hand, if you manage to get those large decals to lay perfect over the well molded panels, you are definitely experienced enough to do some masking. 

Well, I did mask my panels and then used orange wire to recreate the piping. The door panels are done in two different greys, three different blacks, flocking, bare metal and aforementioned wire.

 

The seat followed suit in the same fashion.

 

Decals vs old school work...

 

And all put together 

 

Thanks for looking and stay tuned. 

Body is coming up...

Edited June 1, 2017 by mrm

[maltsr]

 Thanks for this review, and great work so far Michael.  I like your treatment of the interior. 

I just received word that my kit has shipped from Tower Hobbies, can't wait for it to arrive!

[Davewilly]

Looking pretty nice so far...Might have to add it to the truck stash after all.

[Dragline]

Looks good but I don't see why you couldn't have cut the decal apart and use the orange bit and paint the grey.... Just a thought.