Model Truck Contest Leaflet - 1977

[Jim Whalen]

Hi,

I thought people would be interested in this leaflet that came with an old Allied Van Lines trailer that I bought from someone in Canada.  It is certainly a memory of a golden age in model building!

The decals in the kit are useless - I've found some replacement decals by Jerry at Modeltruckin, can anyone tell be what his decals are like quality-wise?

[Jim B]

I think you missed the deadline to enter the contest!

Jerry's decals are pretty good.  The print is nice & crisp, and the edges are clean.  The decal film is thicker than the stuff used by JBot, so they don't "self-destruct" when you try to apply them to the model.  The on thing I noticed on a set that I used was that the white was a little translucent, so it let the primary color of the model show through.  Not a deal breaker by any means, but something to be aware of.

[Badluck 13]

Wow to cool,I can honestly say I was just thinking about this contest the other day being I did enter this very one and I was 14 ..... I was kinda thinking about my dad who passed a lil' over 2 years ago and I remember back then I was grounded for 2 weeks for lying to my mom and part of the grounding I couldn't buy or work on my kits and my dad always stuck to his guns and never budged when it came down to a ruling but he overheard me telling my mom that I so wanted to get a model truck and enter this contest and she said I should of thought of that before I lied.....well 2 days later my dad said "Come on lets go"....."where?" I asked, him being a ex drill sergeant said "Don't ask questions,just do it" so I did and we ended up at the hobby shop and he said "get your truck and supplies you need for that contest and build a winner" ...wow... I couldn't believe it so I got the Road Boss and blue and orange spray bombs to build a Roadway truck and went home and went to work on it,mind you I was still grounded but I was allowed this one slight parole ....... The truck wasn't anywhere near contest material but that was the first and only dad gave in to a punishment ,I didnt' win anything from AMT but I did win a Purdy nice memory of my dad  

[Model Truck Shop]

About 10 years ago, at one of the shows down in Massachusetts, there was a builder there that displayed the truck and trailer he entered in the AMT contest as a kid. I don't remember what he built for the tractor but it pulled the AMT Lowboy. He actually took third place in one of the monthly contests and still had the Badger Air Brush in it's original packing. He had the whole thing laid out on one of the tables with the letter from AMT congratulating him for his efforts. It was quite the topic of conversation to actually still have something for that long and still be in decent shape. If I recall it was at the Classic Plastic show in the Lawrence or Andover MA area.

Edited September 2, 2018 by Model Truck Shop
add info

[Jim Whalen]

On 8/29/2018 at 1:47 PM, Jim B said:

I think you missed the deadline to enter the contest!

Jerry's decals are pretty good.  The print is nice & crisp, and the edges are clean.  The decal film is thicker than the stuff used by JBot, so they don't "self-destruct" when you try to apply them to the model.  The on thing I noticed on a set that I used was that the white was a little translucent, so it let the primary color of the model show through.  Not a deal breaker by any means, but something to be aware of.

I think you might be right about the deadline Jim - but then I've never been able to get a project done for a particular date!  More than once I have been working on a project for Scale Model World (aka the IPMS nationals here in the UK), miss the November deadline and had to settle for the following year's competition.

Thanks for the review on Jerry's decals - I'll probably get some Watkins ones as well since I have a W-925 that has been sitting in my loft for years, doesn't make sense to buy a new kit just to get fresh decals.

On 8/29/2018 at 7:56 PM, Badluck 13 said:

Wow to cool,I can honestly say I was just thinking about this contest the other day being I did enter this very one and I was 14 ..... I was kinda thinking about my dad who passed a lil' over 2 years ago and I remember back then I was grounded for 2 weeks for lying to my mom and part of the grounding I couldn't buy or work on my kits and my dad always stuck to his guns and never budged when it came down to a ruling but he overheard me telling my mom that I so wanted to get a model truck and enter this contest and she said I should of thought of that before I lied.....well 2 days later my dad said "Come on lets go"....."where?" I asked, him being a ex drill sergeant said "Don't ask questions,just do it" so I did and we ended up at the hobby shop and he said "get your truck and supplies you need for that contest and build a winner" ...wow... I couldn't believe it so I got the Road Boss and blue and orange spray bombs to build a Roadway truck and went home and went to work on it,mind you I was still grounded but I was allowed this one slight parole ....... The truck wasn't anywhere near contest material but that was the first and only dad gave in to a punishment ,I didnt' win anything from AMT but I did win a Purdy nice memory of my dad  

Good story Mike!  I think it is memories like these that make us want to build some of the kits from when we first started.  The reason I got an Allied Van Lines trailer was to pair it with the single drive White Freightliner cabover I bought last year (that was my first ever model - though largely built by my Dad, without paint) so it is time to do proper job with a vastly superior skill set.

[Sergey]

On ‎29‎.‎08‎.‎2018 at 3:40 PM, Jim Whalen said:

The decals in the kit are useless - I've found some replacement decals by Jerry at Modeltruckin, can anyone tell be what his decals are like quality-wise?

 

Jerry's decals are good, but he don't print Gold & Silver colors.

[Casey]

There was an AMT Truck contest each year from '73-'77 at least:

 

AMT also advertised on the bottom of their kit boxes:

[Jim Whalen]

On 09/09/2018 at 11:31 PM, Sergey said:

Jerry's decals are good, but he don't print Gold & Silver colors.

Thanks for the comments about Jerry’s decals Sergey, I always appreciate it when other model builders are helpful!

19 hours ago, Casey said:

There was an AMT Truck contest each year from '73-'77 at least:

 

AMT also advertised on the bottom of their kit boxes:

Thanks for putting those images up Casey - it is great seeing things like this that date back to when I first started in the hobby.  I have a few of the AMT truck kits to build.  It will take a while to prep the parts and build them to match the quality of more recent kits (e.g. the pipes going from the engine to the air cleaners or exhaust).

[leafsprings]

On ‎9‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 1:55 PM, Jim Whalen said:

 it is great seeing things like this that date back to when I first started in the hobby.  

We must be in the same age bracket!  Interest in trucking really hit mainstream  American culture  in the mid 70's, and AMT was right in the middle of it introducing great kit after great kit. Then the 70's were over,  new AMT large truck kits died off, graduated from high school and I left modeling for about 30 years, til the internet and more free time re invigorated my interest in the hobby.

[Jim Whalen]

On 9/15/2018 at 6:32 PM, leafsprings said:

We must be in the same age bracket!  Interest in trucking really hit mainstream  American culture  in the mid 70's, and AMT was right in the middle of it introducing great kit after great kit. Then the 70's were over,  new AMT large truck kits died off, graduated from high school and I left modeling for about 30 years, til the internet and more free time re invigorated my interest in the hobby.

Like many people I left modelling for a while, but not as long as yourself, I got back into it when I saw some nicely done models in a shop while on holiday.  I mainly build street rods now but have quite a few truck kits to do and I'm keen to build one with my current skill set.  I'm 53 now and feel like my model building is going well, but there's lots of room for improvement and the challenge of finding the time!!