Plastheniker Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 (edited) Hi,As far as I know this Dodge L-700 was the very first truck kit. Since the latter was issued in the sixties by an almost forgotten manufacturer named IMC it should be no surprise that probably this truck kit requires most time, effort and skills to make a model withstanding the scrutiny of today’s modelers.I found the following major problems: In those days opening doors were standard on car models. Fortunately this was dropped in the eighties and nineties. I say “fortunately” because many well-built models were spoilt by opening doors which didn’t fit properly when closed: Door gaps were varying and way too large, and often these doors didn’t even follow the shape of the body. Also the doors of this Dodge kit fit very poorly. Since there isn’t even a door stop you can peep through the wide door gaps. Moreover the clumsy (working) door hinges are completely out of scale. In my oppinion the only solution is adding door stops, making equal door gaps, gluing the doors well-aligned into the door openings, and replacing the monstrous hinges. The mirror braces are way too thick. I replaced them by self-made units from hypodermic needles. The windscreen rubber seals are not replicated. This makes the windscreens look so odd that the seals must be added. If you build OOB the alignment cab/bumper will go wrong. This becomes evident by an unrealistic huge gap between cab and bumper. The trailer bed was extremely warped. I had to mill down the underside of of the bed completely. After gluing on a fitting sheet of thick styrene the bed was plane and the missing details could be restored . There were numberless minor fit and cast problems which, however, were easy to fix by comparison. Finally I found that the result repaid all the pains, because this kit made a really unique and attractive model at a favourable price. Edited August 17, 2017 by Plastheniker Fotki links replace PB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bennyg Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 Great work as usual. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 You did a nice job on what I would call a tough kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monty Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 I love it when an accomplished modeler refuses to settle for "good enough". Fixing all those issues must've been time consuming, but as we can see, the payoff is a much better build. Thanks for listing your solutions, Jürgen. I'm sure they'll benefit others who'd like to address those same issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbill Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 that looks fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Very sharp L-700. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danno Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisR Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Very nice!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PappyD340 Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Most EXCELLENT build Jurgen!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
37 caddy Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Very nice job on that one,this is one of my favorite kits,I just wish IMC had made the bigger cabover when they had planned too,their kits were very nicely detailed for the time. Harvey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgeback Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Superb build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plastheniker Posted November 13, 2013 Author Share Posted November 13, 2013 Thanks for your comments so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 I have never seen a better example of this model. Very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peekay Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 I agree, never seen this model look so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plastheniker Posted November 18, 2013 Author Share Posted November 18, 2013 Harry, Peter, thanks a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotrod59f100 Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 I love it. I like the color combo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailking120 Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 WOW you did a great job with this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kostas Parchas Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 Nice and clean build. Kostas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBad Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Another outstanding and realistic build! I haven't seen this one until today. The cab is straight and level, it has the right look. While I ususally don't pay much attention to these trucks, I am truly impressed by this one. You have one terrific fleet Jurgen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72 Charger Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Great work again . What did you have to do to get the cab to sit correctly ? (ie loose the gaping hole at the front) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mopar - D Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Great job on the Dodge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilrathy10 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Very nice work....I thought I had commented on this, but I guess not.....This is a marvelous rendition....Very clean and tidy.....The mirrors are my favorite part.....Very nice work to get that done.....And the doors look great, and the winch on the trailer, along with the ramps make it work....The truck on the back ain't too shabby, either.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Great work Jürgen! You did the right thing by gluing those doors shut. Above are my two IMC / Lindberg A100s. The van is a resin body that had the doors molded shut so I didn't know just how bad those doors were until I did the pickup. I've just given up on hinging them with the kit hinges and am gluing them shut! I do want to build one of those L-700s to complete my set! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plastheniker Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 Thanks for the further replies! Great work again . What did you have to do to get the cab to sit correctly ? (ie loose the gaping hole at the front) David, I am sorry, I pondered what I did exactly but then forgot to answer. I am quite sure that I eliminated the kit tilt hinges. Instead I built two supports and glued the cab onto them, i. e. the cab cannot be tilted. I can't remember, however, if the kit's rear cab suppor had to be modified to make the cab sit correctly. I am also quite sure that after aligning the cab the bumper had to be repositioned to reduce the huge gap between cab and bumper. Some good pictures of the 1:1 vehicle are indispensable for achieving a realistc look. Great work Jürgen! You did the right thing by gluing those doors shut. Above are my two IMC / Lindberg A100s. The van is a resin body that had the doors molded shut so I didn't know just how bad those doors were until I did the pickup. I've just given up on hinging them with the kit hinges and am gluing them shut! I do want to build one of those L-700s to complete my set! The whole line is nice and really worth the effort! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Albion Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Very impressive clean build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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