This Textron Tiger comes from the Matchbox pegs.  This one was from the Jurassic Park package. The Real life Textron Tiger is a light armor vehicle, built around a modified Dodge Ram 5500 truck chassis. Manufactured by Textron Land and Marine Systems.
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It can seat a crew of 6 to 9, based on the equipment load. The Tiger's armor is designed to withstand ballistic threats and mine blasts. It has many add-on armor options, allowing  versatility in order to be tailored to different missions.

I have done quite a bit of customizing on this. The winch mounted on the front was built from scratch.

The Tiger is powered by a powerful Cummins 350 horsepower diesel engine, along with a wheel base of 127 inches and an advanced suspension system, it offers excellent off-road capabilities. It can carry a payload of 1.5 tons.
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I always like adding a little mud to my off-road customs.
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On top you see a spare tire, tool box, gear bag, recovery cable, and camouflage netting used to cover the vehicle when needed.

I added some little gem beads to the light bar. I think that looks cool.

Here is a link to a video of the tiger in action.  This makes a nice addition to my military collection. I think I will need to buy several more as I find them on the pegs.

Here are a few pictures of a Matchbox Frost Fighter Rescue vehicle. I just added a few details, like painting the lights and stuff in the roof rack. I also did some detail painting to the tracks. This is a cool vehicle to customize. It has lots of nice detail, and makes a great addition to your rescue vehicle collection. Not to mention, it makes for a great display piece. 
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This Racing Champions 1/64 scale car arrived in a lot of cars I purchased off ebay. It wasn't crashed yet, like it is in these pictures. When I sat down at the bench with it my only thoughts were to steal the tires, and toss the rest in the boneyard box. So I did not take any before pictures. Now I am kicking myself for that. I purchased the whole lot of cars mainly to steal the tires for some of my other custom cars I am working on.

As I sat drilling the rivets out, a little voice whispered in my ear. "this would make a cool wrecked race car".  It was the diecast part of my brain taking over again. I call it the diecast monkey. When it takes over there is no controlling it, and my normal brain ceases to function right. Thus no before pictures of this custom. Everything else I was working on at the time went out the window, and I went straight to tearing into and wrecking the car. 

I stole the tires off of it for a different custom project, and replaced them with these. I figured it did not need the nicer tires since it will be a wrecked car sitting off to the side or in the back of a diorama. 

Having  never attempted a crashed race car before, you would think I would at least do a google search and find some pictures of some wrecked cars to go by before starting this project. Oh, and maybe take a few before pics.

However, as soon as my mind attempted the normal thought process, the diecast monkey slapped me hard upside the head and said "are you kidding, we got no time for that, just turn the dremel on and start cutting, boy".  So I did what every good custom diecaster would do. I did what the diecast monkey told me to do. 

I think it turned out great. ​Considering this was my first attempt at a wrecked NASCAR, and that my diecast monkey was in full control on this, leaving me without the use of my normal brain functions. 

Have a GREAT week guys,

Craig
​montanadiecast.com

Today in the Western Montana Speed Shop we find the guys checking out the arrival of a Hot Wheels funny car. Leroy brought this in with the Ertl Ford F350. That trailer is a montanadiecast custom build. One of the first scratch build trailers I did that actually turned out half way decent.

This Hot Wheel Funny Car was acquired through some car trading I did. I had some vintage Matchbox Yestertear cars that I traded for this, and several other Hot Wheels and Matchbox vehicles.

As soon as I saw this one, I was thinking...."custom project for the little people at the speed shop"!

The guys were full of ideas for this build. This will be the first custom funny car the guys at the Speed Shop have done for montanadiecast. 

They didn't waste any time getting to work. They quickly pulled the body off and sent it over to be stripped down and repainted.

Blog updates will follow as the work progresses. So check back or click the subscribe link on the right side of the page to be notified by email when I add a new blog post.

Have a great day
~Craig
​montanadiecast.com

I have been busy with work and not had time to post any stuff here on the blog, but the little people have still been busy at the Western Montana Speed Shop. So here is a quick update on what has been going on in the little peoples world. (note the new red lift in the pic. Something new I have been building from scratch.not yet finished with it)

I have made some progress on the paint booth I am building to put in the Speed Shop. I decided to add light as you can see here in this picture. They are LED, and run on 2 AA batteries.

I am just kind of building this as I go with no plans, so we will see if it turns out good in the end. I am happy with it so far. I am shooting video as I build it and hope to have that on my youtube channel soon.

I think the lights add a BIG cool factor. Here the guys are pushing a custom Hot Wheels Pass'n Gasser coupe in to give it a clear coat.

The little people are stoked about this addition to the speed shop. LOL

Picked this up at a thrift store for 50 cents. I put the guys to work on fixing it. I told them to be creative and see what kind of custom work they can do to it. That will be a future blog post I am looking forward to doing.

And to finish this post out... a couple pictures of a custom 1979 Dodge 4x4 Pickup Truck we are working on. Just got the lift done with new axles and tires. I am going to leave the factory paint on this one because I kind of like it. I Still have a lot more to do to it. Roll bar, spare tire, custom interior, antenna for C.B. etc. Future detailed blog post on this truck build. I promise. :)

Have a great week.  Just a few more work days until  Collage football kicks off for 2017.
I am looking forward to that.

~Craig
Montanadiecast

I added a new tow truck/wrecker to the Montana Speed Shop. It is an HO scale diecast truck. It's not the 1/64 scale of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, but the detail is awesome. 

Even though it is HO scale (1/87) I think it will work with the smaller size Hot Wheels cars and trucks. In these pictures it seems to fit the shop diorama okay. I used a couple of my smaller figures in the pictures and it seems to work out. What do you think?

The specs on this are:

• Model Power brand
• Blue print accurate
• Red Devil Kenworth, 10 wheel tow truck
• ​Hood opens
• Boom telescopes and hook moves
• ​Driver is included in the drivers seat

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In these next two pictures you see a Matchbox fire engine sitting in bay 1. Well, it is a fire engine body that is being customized into a tracked rescue vehicle, but it gives an idea of the size of the tow truck.

The larger trucks in Hot Wheels, Matchbox and other 1/64 diecast are not really always true to 1/64 scale. I think they are closer to the scale of this 1/87  scale tow truck. So this will work out well as a tow truck for those type vehicles. Lets take a look and see what this thing can tow, and look good doing it. 

Boom extending out to grab hold of this Matchbox  MBX Motor Home.

Hooked, lifted, and ready to roll.

Towing a Match Box Brush Fire Truck.

And... it even looks good hauling a Hot Wheels Sponge Bob Highway Hauler with real riders.

How about helping the military out with this Desert Thunder V16. That is a custom Montana Diecast desert camo paint job.

Hauling out the garbage. I mean garbage truck. LOL

And the last of the days work, bringing in an old Lesney 42 Tipper Container Truck that broke down hauling freight across the 406.  I think this will be a great addition to the Western Montana Speed Shop, and look forward to seeing what this thing can pull into the shop in the days to come.

So when adding to your diecast collection and dioramas, keep in mind that sometimes you can mix different scale vehicles in together if you are careful in your selection. Especially when dealing with HO 1/87 and 1/64 scale trucks. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog. Hope you enjoyed this post. Remember to check out my youtube channel and facebook page.

Have a great day,
~Craig
Montanadiecast

It's been busy  here at Montana Diecast the last few days. Here is a a 1983 Chevy Blazer project I am working on customizing. I found two of these the other day, and thought I would give one a little custom detailing. The other one I will keep stock for my collection.
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​Here it is in the Western Montana Speed Shop. Here it is in the process of being taken apart. This will be a complete body off project. It will be getting a new interior, new paint, etc.  Hey check out that lifted Batmobile in bay 2! I will have to do a blog post on that in the near future.
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Here is the Chevy Blazer with a new red paint job. No interior yet, and we have the all glass and roof rack still to install. As you can see in this photo, we have a few other things going on in the shop today as well. Lets take a closer look at the blazer then we will look at those other projects.

We have been putting the little 4x4 Dodge A100 to work picking up supplies. Here we have a good supply of Zerex anti freeze, along with some tires and Hooker headers being unloaded.
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This is a new 4x4 project. A nice 1979 Dodge pickup is getting a lift and new tires. Here the tires are just sitting in place. We still need to install the lift kit and build new axles.

And last but not least, this Hot Wheels Jaded has a fresh coat of purple, and is having the interior put back in. The green tires will be swapped out, and then this will get decals. This car will get the name Plum Crazy when it gets the decals added.

​You may have noticed we got the garage doors installed in the shop. They can be open or closed. You can see more about how they were built in my video on my youtube channel. Building shop / Garage Doors for my 1/64 Dicast Cars and Trucks
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​​Thanks for stopping by Montana Diecast. Remember to check out our Facebook page and Youtube Channel..

​-Craig

​This morning the black Bone Shaker returned on the transporter. Last week we shipped it off to Big Jake's Auto Body to have a few last details finished. Since we are still under construction here, we don't have our paint booth up and running yet. 

Here is a shot of it just after we unloaded it. Bill is going over it to make sure everything got done right. As you can see the shop is busy. We are trying to keep the wrenches turning and get some work done on cars as the new construction continues. It will be nice when it's all done, but we have a way to go still.
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​I am loving these tires and rims.
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Check out the detail on that skull. Bone Shaker Badness!!
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Well, time to get back to the construction work on the garage. Hope you enjoyed these pictures of the custom Hot Wheels Bone Shaker. Have a great day. 

We have a new garage under construction here at Montana Diecast. A bigger and better shop for the little people to work on the cars and trucks. They could not wait to get in there and start turning wrenches, so during a break in the construction, they went to work on some of the Richard Petty Matchbox and Racing Champions cars and transporters.

Check out the Richard Petty Matchbox van waiting for an oil change and lube. That is my current favorite stock Matchbox van in my collection.
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​1962 Plymouth Savoy~ Racing Champions

Lets just finish this blog post with a couple more pictures of the cars in the garage. Sometimes pictures are best with out a lot of words cluttering things up. Have a great day.
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