AMT Cat D8H

[Jeremy Rowland]

As mentioned in my post about the Tamiya Komatsu G40 Dozer, one of my regrets was failing to buy an AMT 1/25th scale Cat D8H. Here is one thats modelled to perfection by a friend from a truck forum, thanks Nick (Skandiahamn) for granting me permission to post these pictures.

Jeremy

[martyn williams]

Hello Jeremy
I was lucky to get two kits off ebay a few years back.It now has the correct decals fitted and also I may "weather" it
Martyn

[Nick Drew]

I actually owned two of these models in the past....but sadly like most models I have owned I let them go either in the bin or too the kids !!

Nick

[DozerDave]

Hi Jeremy, Martyn and Nick,

I have two built up AMT D8H Kits. The first one I did was one of the original pre-coloured kits which I have assembled, decal applied and is displayed as it looks on the box.
However, since then, I built a later grey AMT D8H kit which had those awful front grille decals. I suspended constructing the model until I managed to get a full set of proper Caterpillar decals to apply. I did a great paint job to the later model that much so, that I wished I had originally painted the pre-coloured yellow one too as that looks a bit too "plastic" looking now. Never mind, hindsight is a wonderful thing and the pre-coloured one still looks good.
Onto your example Martyn, I notice your tracks are slack. My later AMT grey model was exactly the same. I managed to adjust the front idler and take one track link out of both sides and that cured the slack tracks.
The model photos shown by Jeremy is awesome and admit I could not get paint accuracy to get a weathered look like that look so real! Its amazing and great to see what actually can be done to this model kit by a skilled person. Sadly, though doing a great job, my example is painted to a factory finish but pleased with the result because I knew I would wreck it trying to be too adventurous.

[alan627b]

You guys do know they still sell these things, don't you? It's been re released several times. it's not too late, just don't get suckered into buying an old kit off ebay, unless it's cheap. Although the decals supplied in the current kit suck, the old style decals are available from several sources.
Cat must have been too greedy about their licensing rights. Surprise.

Buffalo Road Imports sells the correct original style decals, for example.

Alan

[Jeremy Rowland]

You guys do know they still sell these things, don't you? It's been re released several times. it's not too late, just don't get suckered into buying an old kit off ebay, unless it's cheap. Although the decals supplied in the current kit suck, the old style decals are available from several sources.
Cat must have been too greedy about their licensing rights. Surprise.

Buffalo Road Imports sells the correct original style decals, for example.

Alan

Alan any ideas who still makes em or a link to their site, cos I would love to get my hands on one?

Jeremy

[alan627b]

AMT still makes these things, I've seen them in hobby shops like Hobbytown here in the states from time to time...usually in the $30-35 USD range.
Just in case you may have wondered what you can do with these kits, here's one backdated to late 1950's appearance.
http://cs.scaleautomag.com/scacs/forums/p/48226/529438.aspx#529438

If you go to the Scale Auto Magazine, and do a search for AMT D8H, there have been several of them in various posts.
http://cs.scaleautomag.com/scacs/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=caterpillar+D8H+AND+sectionid%3A33&o=Relevance&PageIndex=1
Listing off of Ebay US.....
http://toys.shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=+AMT+bulldozer&_sacat=1188&_odkw=Caterpillar+D8H+AMT+Matchbox&_osacat=1188&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
Plenty of D8's and tamiya Komatsu dozers up for bids...
http://toys.shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=+bulldozer&_sacat=1188&_odkw=AMT+bulldozer&_osacat=1188&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

These folks list them for sale... http://www.happyhobby.com/hobb_html/amtmpc.htm

I suppose it's possible this model might be out of production right now, it seems like it gets re-issued every few years. I'm not sure about the exact state of AMT right now, it seems like maybe they were bought by Monogram or joined with them..
I hope this helps,
Alan