Bigfoot

       

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Original Kit:
Bigfoot 4x4x4
Made By:
AMT/Ertl (kit #6791)
Scale:
1/25
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I was still a kid when monster trucks really hit big, which I suppose is another way of saying I was the perfect age to fully appreciate them. It was a supercharged and chrome-plated Wild West, with everything from Cadillacs to Corvettes and semi trucks to Stuart tanks being thrown in the mix. Even with so much going on, one still stood out from the others as the "Original Monster Truck": Bob Chandler's Bigfoot. It became a marketing juggernaut, appearing in toys, books, collectibles, even as the titular vehicle in the Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines cartoon. A few of those made it into my own collection, though it wasn't until years later that I managed to acquire an original AMT kit, released back when Bigfoot was basically a Ford pickup with a lift kit - no fiberglass body or perimeter roll cage like we see in modern trucks. My plan wasn't to build any exact truck, but to instead recapture the overall look and feel of those early days and the small plastic and diecast Bigfoot toys I had at the time.

The one I got had already been started, with the fender flares already glued in place and the hood cutout done. I continued this work by cleaning up the hood hole and grinding the stock wheel openings back until they better matched up to the flares. I also raised the top of the windshield about 1mm to remove the "helmet head" look these kits have. The body was then given a coat of Testors Star-Spangled Blue, clearcoated, and set aside to dry.

The chassis and engine were built straight out of the box, looking good enough that nothing was needed beyond basic cleanup. Even though the instructions were vague in a few places, some test fitting was sufficient to get everything together. I painted the frame and engine gloss black, the shocks yellow, and the remaining details in various metallic shades. The tires had flat spots on them from being in the box for so long, so I just made sure to glue them in place so the flats were on the bottom. Inside, I used a couple of different shades of blue to indicate steel and vinyl areas, flocked the floor with brown embossing powder, and added a cartoon-inspired "T" shifter.

Assembling the major components was easy enough for the most part, until I got to the box. It was slightly narrower than the cab and not exactly square, which made alignment trickier than I expected. I finally found a spot where it fit best with the rest of the truck and tacked it in place there, and it was time to move on to the final details.

The front bumper was chrome plated, but had a bunch of ugly seams that needed to be sanded off. After these were cleaned off there wasn't a whole lot of plating left, so I leaned into it and stripped off the rest of the chrome, painting it black as it was on the old SST toy. The toy also inspired the spotlights on either side of the winch, which were sourced from Revell's GMC. The grille received a black wash, and the headlights were cut out and replaced with some 3D printed parts I drew up. The windshield had been damaged at some point before I got the kit, so I replaced the glass with some thin clear plastic. More sheet styrene was used to make the tonneau cover, and the roll bar was modified to fit it. The lights across the top of the bar got more 3D printed lenses. Trim was done with a combination of Bare Metal Foil and chrome paint.

I tried using the kit-supplied decals, but even using every trick I could think of I was only able to use the ones for the differential and doors - and those three took the better part of two hours to get on and set. The rest of the decals - the hood, windshield, side murals, and tailgate - were customs I drew up. A final wipe down and polish, and Bigfoot was finally finished!

 

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