Orange Blossom Special II

       

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Original Kit:
Orange Blossom Special II
Made By:
AMT/Ertl (kit #6790)
Scale:
1/25
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Muscle Machines Orange Blossom Special II
Muscle Machines Orange Blossom Special II wheel detail Muscle Machines Orange Blossom Special II engine Muscle Machines Orange Blossom Special II side mural Muscle Machines Orange Blossom Special II interior Muscle Machines Orange Blossom Special II rear detail Muscle Machines Orange Blossom Special II rear

 
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When I decided to finally go ahead with my plan for the full set of SST Muscle Machines as models, of course Bigfoot had to be first one completed. But at a close second is probably my personal favorite of the series, Alan Gaines' Orange Blossom Special II. It didn't hurt that it was also the only other one that had been released as an official kit.

Thanks to that, most of it was built box stock. The chassis and engine went together better than I expected, with the chassis turning out surprisingly straight and robust once finished. Since this was a nostalgia build for myself more than an attempt at a true replica of the 1:1 truck, I went with straight gloss black for the frame and Tamiya TS-31 Bright Orange for the engine. The inner wheels and some accessories were highlighted with chrome paint to really bump up the "show truck" look.

Inside, more chrome paint was used for the diamondplate floor and to touch up the levers where they were removed from the parts tree. The rest of the bucket was painted semigloss black and detailed with gauges, bezels, and some paint on the steering wheel.

I had heard some horror stories about a poor hood fit, so I spent extra time checking, fitting, double-checking, and slowly reshaping until I had as good a fit as possible. It wasn't the worst-fitting part by any stretch, but it did require a little finessing to get to look right...and that was nothing compared to the front fenders. They actually fit great with no modifications needed, but what you think are supposed to be the locators to set the angle very much aren't. After mounting them in what I thought was the correct position, I discovered that doing that prevented the running boards from fitting correctly. Everything had to be disassembled, and then contrary to the instructions the running boards had to be mounted to the cab and rear fenders, with the front fenders being added as the last thing to get everything lined up correctly.

The base paint for the body was the same TS-31 as the engine, but with a topcoat of TS-65 Pearl Clear to give it some extra pop. The fenders and roll bar were TS-14 with gloss clear, the bed cover was TS-29 Semi Gloss Black, and the side stripe was TS-26 Pure White. Trim was done with a combination of chrome paint and Bare Metal Foil.

Finally, I had to address the graphics. After the problems I had with Bigfoot, I wasn't looking forward to trying to get these to comply. Plus, they never really looked right to me - the airbrushing on the original Orange Blossom Special was much darker than most of its contemporaries, and AMT's decal sheet just wasn't up to capturing even that. Plus, a truck like this ought to have something that really stood out. I decided to skip them entirely, and go with a set of custom graphics based on the Playskool toy. I found a good photo of the original sticker and reworked it in Photoshop to make it fit the model. I also made the black cab stripes and the panels for the sides of the box, and with that Orange Blossom Special II was done and ready to join Bigfoot.

 

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