Ertl International Transtar II Eagle

International's Transtar series was, at one time, the most commonly-seen heavy tractor on the road. You'll still see a few out and about four decades later, but in their heyday, they were as ubiquitous as Freightliners are today.

Ertl broke into the plastic kit market in the late '70's, and released a series of International trucks, up to and including the mighty Payhauler 350, a gigantic dump truck used in mining operations. They also brought out this little gem...

Ertl's "Blueprint Replica" kits were a cut above the typical AMT big rig kit of the era. Well... Ertl did drop the ball later on, but as far as this subject, they were still bringing their A-game. The original issue of this kit was a modfied reissue of an earlier Transtar cabover, but all of the Ertl Internationals were damned fine little kits. Even the box art seemed to imply you were getting something special.

Here is the one-piece cab, along with the interior side panel/headliner piece. If you look closely at the shape of the cab, you might notice it looks like a bigger version of the Cargostar. That's because... in many ways... it was. When IHC designed the Transtar II, they opted to use as many stampings as they could from the existing Cargostar to cut costs. Ertl did a fantastic job getting it right. Almost nothing is molded in place- door handles, trim, and the like are separate and plated, but we'll get to all that stuff later.

The first of the three raw plastic sprues contains parts for the interior and chassis, along with the mattress for the bunk. The Detroit V8 has very nice surface detail, though I've heard from people more knowledgable about the subject matter than I that it may be a bit underscale. That being said, it's a nice looking engine when built up.

Here we have more chassis parts, including one of the frame rails, the inner wheels, an forward rear axle. If you've seen any of the other Ertl IH truck kits, all of this should look familiar, though it does not appear that the kits share any tooling inserts.

Here we have some more chassis parts, including the rearmost drive axle and the walking beam rear suspension. The bucket seats are also included on this sprue, along with the mile-wide steering wheel.

Unlike AMT, Ertl usually didn't overdo it on the chrome... you'll want to strip and paint the fifth wheel. But the plating is nice, and the engraved detail is crisp. A few paint washes will bring out the International lettering on the grille quite nicely.

The chrome can stay on pretty much all you see here but the exhaust manifolds. For some reason Ertl molded the fog lights in place, but that doesn't diminish much from the overall appearance. Just to the right of the bumper you can see the cab's side trim, which includes the side steps and door handles.

The glass unit includes all clear lenses, so break out your favorite transparent orange for the turn signals, and transparent red for the tail lamps.

The 1996-1999 reissue included these Goodyears, which were originally tooled by MPC. Anyone familiar with pretty much any AMT semi kit reissue from the late '80's onward will be familiar with these tires. The original kit dates from the time before Ertl, MPC, and AMT were owned by the same parent company.

The decal sheet includes all the markings for the Eagle graphic scheme, several small detailing graphics, and two door graphics for the fictional Eagle Freight or TSR Freight Lines. '90's Ertl decal sheets were hit or miss, but they were always thick with lots of carrier. They still lay down pretty well, they just aren't as good as the modern Round 2 sheets. Don't like the decals? Leave them off and do it as a non-Eagle, or put in a call to Mr. Reeter at modeltruckin.com.

Ertl's instruction sheets were a booklet, with the diagrams done in a "checklist" type layout. There are also some (blurry black and white) detail shots of a 1:1 to aid in detailing your kit.

I have yet to build this kit, but I will say that everyone I've spoken with has mentioned two things. First, you may want to move the battery box a tad to the rear, and you may need to modify the front axle or hubs so that the front tires won't stick out past the cab. Other than that, it's a fairly well-fitting kit given the age and number of parts.

If this kit is as much of a blast to build as Ertl's other big-rig kits, it should be a fun one. Basic care and attention to detail are all this really needs to look good.