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Hi All, here is a completed '40 Ford Coupe I received as a Christmas present (from my in-laws). Its built using the parts for drag use, though whether it would pass scrutineering for class AA/G is another matter! The kit is a Round 2 re-pop of an AMT kit that has been around from the 60s. It seems to be a favourite of US car modellers, from what I can see on YouTube. I built a few US car kits when I was in my early teens and such things were easily available in the UK at Beatties stores. I had forgotten the period features of variable mouldings and being given a set of parts that it was up to you how they fit together. The colour is a custom mix of orange and copper, approx 2:1 using Tamiya paints and a W&N acrylic gloss finish (which now needs a month or so to go properly hard). The colour is more orange in daylight. I had to rebuild the blower intake as the parts were somewhat short-moulded. The Moon tank was made from the gas tank the instructions suggested could go behind the seats, which on reflection is probably safer than at the point-of-impact as I've modelled. Well, I hope you all like this slice of Americana. I'm off to "recover" with a Hase Stratos... Cheers Will

This is the old 1/200 Lindberg moonship from 1958, reissued by Round2 and relabelled as 1/96 scale - which makes the included astronaut figures 5 feet tall instead of 10 feet tall! The original kit was based on an early-50s a von Braun concept for a round-the-moon exploratory flight (without landing). The ship was to be built in Earth orbit: Bonestell made a famous painting of it for a series of Collier's articles in the early 1950s: Lindberg, for reasons best known to themselves, stuck a set of landing legs on it, and removed the crew access, producing a vehicle in which the crew were trapped inside the habitat at the top of the ship, with no evident way of getting out, let alone down to the lunar surface. I wanted to restore it at least partially towards the original von Braun concept, so I removed the legs, added the toroidal hydrogen peroxide tank, scratch-built the crew access from 20mm tube, and chucked away the odd transparent red domes over all the portholes. I adapted one of the standing astronaut figures to become an EVA figure. Decals are mainly from my stash, trying to give the thing an appropriate period feel (a 48-star flag, for instance), mixed with a few decals from the kit that I repurposed. The stand is an old Airfix stand. (The toroidal tank at the base of the stack started life as a plastic curtain ring, which turned out to be exactly the right size.) It's not a great kit, and it has some horrible seams, but it was fun for a quick build.

Peterbilt 352 'Pacemaker' 1:25 plastic kit from AMT Peterbilt was founded in 1839 in Oakland California making medium to heavy trucks mainly for the US market. If you think of a classic American truck its most likely to be a Peterbilt that you imagine with a big chrome grill and hood before cab layout. Peterbilt have also built cab over trucks but with the liberal rules on truck lengths in America drivers prefer the bonneted trucks, the 352 cab over ‘Pacemaker’ is modelled in 1:25 here by AMT. The 352 was launched in 1959 and was given the nickname ‘Pacemaker’ in 1969 by a contest among the staff at Peterbilt. The cab is made from sheet metal, and came in a variety of cab lengths from short day cab, to a massive 110inch long sleeper cab. The kit is old, so expect some flash and to put in some work on the fit. It is moulded in white plastic mostly with 2 chrome sprues and some clear parts for the windows, and orange and red clear for the lights. I will strip the chrome as it’s a little ‘toy’ like for me. In my haste to get building this I forgot to get pictures of the cab before I sprayed it in primer! The construction starts with the engine and transmission, the engine is a Detroit Diesel V8 and is made up of lots of different parts to give an accurate and detailed part for your model and the instructions name the parts like the valve covers, oil filters, etc, to give some insight into the makeup of the truck. This continues throughout the build. The engine and transmission can be detailed, and painted separately to the rest of the chassis. The chassis is a 157-inch wheel base and is made up of 2 rails, joined by 6 cross members, take care to keep the chassis straight and true or you will end up with a bent model. The front axle sits on metal leaf springs, with the duel drive back axles on air ride with the next 4 stages on the instructions covering the axles and suspension. These are all well detailed and include correct drive hubs, my only criticism is the front axle is fixed straight so you can’t pose the wheels turned. An aftermarket axle could be swapped in you wanted here. Final parts like the diesel tanks, air tanks and other ancillary parts can now be added to the chassis, as normal I would add some wires and cables to simulate the loom and air hoses around the chassis, have a look online and in the walk around section for inspiration here. The instructions give advice on the chassis colours, 2 decal options are included ‘Patriot’ would need painting light blue (to match the decals) or Orange and blue but as most Peterbilt where custom built, or painted during their service lives anything could be used. Check references if copying a real truck here. Now you move onto the cab, the interior, the main floor and lower walls come as a single tub with the centre of the dash board, there isn’t many parts to add as the cabs are simple inside and the instructions give details on the factory interior colours. The cab is the 86-inch mid-range version and is moulded in a single part and has some nice rivet detail on the outside and lots of holes in the roof for the air conditioner, roof lights and horns so if you don’t want these, get the filler out! You can paint and decal the cab shell, before glazing and sliding the interior tub in to make the build go easier. A pair of exhaust stacks are attached to the back of the cab, with some steps under the floor. The cab is attached to the chassis with 2 pins at the front so you can pose the cab tilted to show off the engine. I would probably add some ballast to the back of the chassis, maybe in the tyres to balance the model­­­. There are 10 tyres in the box, made from soft rubber with good tread and side wall detail to fit on the ‘Alcoa’ wheels found on the chrome sprue, each wheel is made from 2 parts sandwiching the tyre. From experience you can slip the tyre over the lip once they are assembled and painted. Trucks in the USA at the time the 352 was in production where not painted in company liveries, they came with a vast array of colourful stripe sets for the cabs, this kit includes a blue and red set, and a special ‘Patriot’ scheme along with some company names for the doors, Peterbilt logos and legal lettering for the cabs. The decal is very colourful and well printed with sharp crisp details and options. Conclusion This is a welcome re-issue from Round2 of a classic American truck with lots of good detail on the parts. It’s an old kit so expect some work on cleaning and fitting the parts. There is aftermarket cab decals and other parts to suit this truck to make it your own and the numerous options on the 352 means you can chop the cab, and chassis to make different versions of the 352. Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for

Hi all, First post here - its the new Round 2 22 inch Eagle Transporter - VIP version with full lighting - beak, passenger pod, landing lights and flashing navigation lights. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Steve

Fruehauf Breaded Van Trailer 1:25 kit by AMT from Round2 models Fruehauf corporation was an American company that built truck trailers from its headquarters in Detroit, it was founded by August Charles Fruehauf in 1914, and continued building trailers until the company fell bankrupt in 1997. The company’s assets where brought and trailers are still being built around the world under the Fruehauf name. AMT issued a number of trailer kits and now Round2 are re-releasing some of these classic kits and the next kit on the review bench is the Fruehauf Breaded Van, I would date this style and model of trailer to the 1970, but I have seen photos of this style trailer still in use very recently, so will hitch behind plenty of tractor units. The kit comes in a long thin box (please note Italeri and Revell) that allows the sides, roof and floor to be cast in a single length saving the need to remove joins, and thank goodness that they are in one part as this kit has fine ribs running the length of the trailer and wrap around the front bulkhead. The parts are nicely cast and the rivet and ribs are finely cast as can be seen in a close up below. The parts are nice and straight on my review sample but this is an older kit so there is some flash and ejector pins that will require attention. The floor and roof also come in single lengths, with nice detail. The floor has cross member detail underneath and looking at the kit and photos of the real trailer it doesn’t have a full chassis as you would expect, it appears to me a monocoque structure. The final parts to the box body is the front bulkhead, this has the rib detail on the upper ¾ that mirrors the detail on the side panels, the lower part has a plate for the suzie connections. There is some basic cast detail but you will probably want to add connectors and more detail to this area. There is also a breast plate to fit under the front of the chassis and the kingpin fits onto this part. Finally are the rear doors, they again have some basic detail for the locking bars and handles, but I would sand them off and make more realistic parts from scratch, not a hard job with some rod and plastic. They can be made to function with an internal section that will clamp the doors to the hinge on the side. This shot shows the detail on the bulkhead, and the rear doors. As I stated this is a re-issue of an older kit so there is flash on the parts, and this can also be seen. Once we have the box body made we can move onto the chassis and axle bogie. The kit is a twin axle trailer with a slider bogie, this allows the trailer to be tuned for different loads and to allow the trailer to cross state boarders and comply with the differing loading, and wheelbase rules. As I said above there isn’t a chassis as such on this trailer, there are 2 short sections (top parts on the picture) that glue under the trailer floor, you the build up a bogie assembly that can slide on these rails and locks in various positions. The main rails and suspension mountings are shown in the picture above. The suspension for the trailer is multi leaf springs. They come with the inner mounting plate’s in-situ and will mate with the plated moulded on the bogie rails. There is some nice detail but there are some tricky ejection pins to remove from between the moulded axle U bolts as can be seen below. These need to be glued onto the rails before any cross members are added. The sprue below contains the cross members for the axle bogie, the wheel centres and the landing leg/ support leg assembly. Some care will be needed when removing and cleaning the parts to ensure the axle assembly is square when built. The landing leg assembly needs to be built up and added to the underside of the floor, the location for this is vague but there are some very faint pips on the cross members’ hints to the correct location. Take care and look at some references to be sure. The centre drum for the trailer wheels come on this sprue, and they need an inner ring adding sandwiching the tyre for the inner of the duel wheels. The radius rods and axles are also found on here. The axles are in two parts and could be replaced with some tube if required for aftermarket wheels and hubs. The final parts are the large mud flaps that fix behind the rear axles. No elaborate spray suppression or guards as required toady, just simple flaps with the Fruehauf ‘Anti-sail’ logos moulded on. They look a little thick and heavy to my eye so I will remove the flap from the mounting, and replace with some thin plasticard. On the centre of the sprue is the locking mechanism for the sliding bogie assembly and on the top left a support for the airlines that are included. There is a single chrome sprue, there are 8 rings for the inner and outer wheels, along with chrome brake chambers and slack adjusters. I’m not sure why they are chrome, Id strip them and paint the colour of the chassis. Lastly are two backing plates for the rear lamps. Personally I will strip the chrome and repaint a mix of the chassis colour and maybe some Alcad. There is a nice length of vinyl hose for the airlines, and these can be linked from the tractor, via a relay and the air tank to the brake chambers. There is a selection of clear red and amber lenses for the trailer, check your references and the local regulations for correct placement. 2 metal axles are included to allow the trailer wheels to rotate (off the shelf normally!) but I glue mine solid. 8 soft rubber tyres are included. They carry the Goodyear name and have good sidewall and tread detail, maybe a little heavy in places but a rub with sandpaper will give a nice worn look. AMT and Round2 have included a printed card, when folded and inserted into the trailer should give the impression of a load of kits being delivered to a model shop! There is a nice set of decals, it includes various Fruehauf logos, licence plates and legal lettering for both the trailer and the tractor unit us build to pull it, along with some colourful decals for AMT, Round2 and Autoworld, and I guess they are fictional liveries. Conclusion This is a welcome reissue of an old kit and will be welcomed by modellers. But being an older kit there is issues with flash and ejection pins and as such one for the more experienced modeller. I have made a start on this kit and it does need work to get it together and get the box square. A welcome re-issue from Round2! Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for