Mobeius 1/25 International Lonestar

The International Harvester Company, was a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer, with roots in the 1830s . International Harvester sold off its agricultural division in 1985 and renamed itself Navistar International Corporation in 1986, retaining its truck and engine divisions. Today Navistar International's subsidiary, International Truck and Engine Corporation, manufactures and markets trucks and engines under the International brand name.

IH was an early manufacturer of medium/heavy duty trucks. In 1962 IH offered the International Harvester Loadstar which became the premier medium-duty truck. The Lonestar, a class 8 heavy truck, was introduced in 2008. The retro look of the grill/hood makes its look unique in the heavy truck field. Some say it looks like a Chrysler PT Cruiser, but if you compare it to a 1939 International Harvester Pickup, you will see the family resemblance. 

This 1/25th scale kit is huge! There are over 300 parts and with the addition or deletion of the sleeper roof extension (1 part), you can build two versions. The sprues are wrapped in plastic! A quick inspection of the sprues gave me the impression everything was very well molded without visible injector pin marks or flash and very detailed. The tires are soft vinyl and appear very realistic. The parts also include a thin metal, flexible grill insert. This is a very nice touch.

The decals looked bright and in register. They will be used to add woodgrain to the interior, a nice dashboard, various exterior markings and a trucking company name.  Your choice for company names are Erb a real Canadian company and Moebius Transport. 

There is a downside to this kit; the instructions for building the engine are very poor. They show a couple of color shots of the engine and use text to tell you to add the parts. If you are not familiar with the Maxxforce engine it is a real trial. (I am building this engine as I write this preview) I would suggest you use the engine instructions from a Moebius Prostar to build the same engine, these instructions were great with exploded drawings. So as not to end on a down note, the rest of the instruction sheet is great, with color call-outs for the parts on a separate page. I copied the color callout page, so I didn’t have to flip back and forth in the instructions.

Moebius is honest and rates this kit as a skill level 3. Bottom line this is not a kit for a beginner because of the engine instructions, but it looks like it will be a very detailed and easy build of a new subject for the average to experienced builder. I bought three of these kits because the kit itself will build into two different sleeper versions and I plan to do a daycab, without a sleeper. I may need one more to build a wrecker version. So, yes, I highly endorse this as a well done kit of a modern truck that is still in production.

Robert Myers

July 2015