A&N Power Wagon

[iamsuperdan]

Now that Issue 221 has been released and is arriving in mailboxes, I can post about this one.

This one took way longer than planned, for all kinds of reasons. One of them related to the kit itself. It was missing half of the glass, and the little bag that held the RAM logo for the front grille and the rear view mirror. A&N basically told me I lost the parts because they couldn't have possibly missed putting them in the box. Nice. But they would ship the parts anyway if I paid for shipping. So $6 and 6 weeks later, some parts arrived and that issue was solved.

But I finished it, and learned a lot. Like how I'm not overly excited about building another one of these!

I had a bugger of a time with a couple of aspects of assembly. The biggest issue being getting the interior into the body. It is much wider than the opening, and if you follow the instructions, then "folding" it into the body isn't easy. I thought I was going to break it in half while trying to accomplish that. Luckily, it eventually went in.

I also had issues wit the windshield. This is more of a "lack of experience" issue. Trimming and making the windshield fit was tough for me. As you can see...best viewed from afar.

The details of this kit are great in some areas, a little off in others. 

First, I added the 6.4L Hemi engine. I think the engine is bigger than 1/24 scale. It seems much larger than it should be.

Second, the wheels look great, but are a little smaller than they should be. Tires are good, but I went with a set of aftermarket tires that were closer to the real truck. 

Third, the dash is shaped wrong. The screen should be more upright.

Having said that, the front end, with the winch and bumper details, the suspension, the skid plates, door panels...all were excellent and very accurate. Body dimensions were spot on as well.

Overall though, it turned out okay. Not my proudest work though.

Part of me wants to pick up another and build it again. I know I could do better now.

And I'd 3D print my own tires and engine.

 

Anyway, some pics...

 

[kelson]

That still looks pretty good to me! ,i still need to buy one of these kits myself.

[Jim B]

Nice looking Dodge despite the issues. 

[iamsuperdan]

I think a lot of the issues with the build were of my own making. Pitfalls I can avoid next time.

Still, the kit isn't without it's faults.

But it's not bad enough to deter me from thinking about another.  

[Jim B]

Unfortunately the €115 price tag will be a pretty big deterrent to many modelers, myself included.

[PappyD340]

Very nice, well done!

[Chuck Most]

Well... -1 for A&N's customer service, I suppose. At my job if I failed to pack part of a customer's order and tried to say they lost it I would probably be transferred to toilet cleaning duty. 

[NOBLNG]

Nice looking rig!👍

[pjacobs]

I've got one of those too I've been working on and off for awhile. I'm in agreement with your comments if anybody is out there wanting to know a second opinion. I bought all the same stuff: upgraded suspension, motor, and grille guard. Yes it was trying, but fun too. My issue was I dropped the #@$%& thing right after getting the chassis, suspension, and motor all together. So off it went into a box for a long time. Now I'm just getting to where I've finished getting the body the Flame red that was available. Next is a Fireball Modelworks LED lightbar and his new Wrangler Duratec tires. I'll post when done. I love the detail and yes, like you I was thinking I'd bust that body or interior trying to get it in there.

Just like you mentioned in the magazine, I bought the 3500 without the added detail (motor, suspension) and am doing it in one of the low production colors, yellow. So far it's going ok, but it isn't very different from the 2500 so nothing to add there.

Yours looks pretty good. I like your ext color. One thing, did you have any paint issues as I tried duplicolor self etching primer, then their bumper paint for the bumpers. The paint never seemed to dry-kind of sticky, enough to get fingerprints. So much for trying realism. I went with some Tamiya primer and paint instead-worked fine. Last-I used Tamiya primer and Zero Paints, Starsky and Hutch tomato red with a Tamiya clear and that worked great. What were you successful with?

[Rattlecan Dan]

Nice looking build if you ask me. Very nicely detailed. Lots of realism to it. Good job.

[slusher]

Real nice looking Ram!

[iamsuperdan]

On 9/21/2023 at 5:19 PM, pjacobs said:

I've got one of those too I've been working on and off for awhile. I'm in agreement with your comments if anybody is out there wanting to know a second opinion. I bought all the same stuff: upgraded suspension, motor, and grille guard. Yes it was trying, but fun too. My issue was I dropped the #@$%& thing right after getting the chassis, suspension, and motor all together. So off it went into a box for a long time. Now I'm just getting to where I've finished getting the body the Flame red that was available. Next is a Fireball Modelworks LED lightbar and his new Wrangler Duratec tires. I'll post when done. I love the detail and yes, like you I was thinking I'd bust that body or interior trying to get it in there.

Just like you mentioned in the magazine, I bought the 3500 without the added detail (motor, suspension) and am doing it in one of the low production colors, yellow. So far it's going ok, but it isn't very different from the 2500 so nothing to add there.

Yours looks pretty good. I like your ext color. One thing, did you have any paint issues as I tried duplicolor self etching primer, then their bumper paint for the bumpers. The paint never seemed to dry-kind of sticky, enough to get fingerprints. So much for trying realism. I went with some Tamiya primer and paint instead-worked fine. Last-I used Tamiya primer and Zero Paints, Starsky and Hutch tomato red with a Tamiya clear and that worked great. What were you successful with?

Thanks!

I used the Tamiya grey primer. Two coats with sanding in between. Then I hit it with the Tamiya grey. Can't recall right now what shade of grey. I know it's one of their aircraft greys. A couple of coats of that, followed by Tamiya's gloss black on the rockers. Once that dried, I masked off and used the semi-gloss black on the flares and grille. I kind of forgot to clearcoat. 🤪

 

Looking at it now, I see some dog hair made into my photos too. Good times.