Mack DM 800

[Brian Conn]

  I was busy for the few days that the site was down....I'm still working away on the Ford/Garwood trash truck, just needed a change of scenery.

  In 1976, the Bi-Centennial year, I was 11 years old.  I was building a variety of kits, thanks in part to subscribing to a model of the month club through the mail.  My skills , if you want to call them that, where typical 11 year old.  I've improved some what in the last 50 years...I think???  I remember seeing the first release of this kit and wanting it, but I knew that I did not posses the skills that it would take to build it...may be when I get older.

  I got this kit earlier this year, thanks to family at Christmas time.  Thought that I would be deeper into the build than I am, but sometimes life gets in the way.

  My goal is to at least have a curbside build by the 4th of July .....I'm not building it as a tractor.....I have other plans for it in mind, so it will be just a truck with no body on it as you might see at a Mack dealership. 

This is what the color will look like for the most part...some of the chrome pieces will be painted as there seemed to be an excessive amount in this kit.

 

Got some of the sub assemblies put together....every thing pictured will be Blue.  Got some more sub assemblies to put together as I am going to airbrush all of the exterior Blue assembled and attached to the frame sub assemblies, then the Red grill, hood and cab areas  

   

Edited May 14 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

  Got everything chassis wise primered.  Had black parts, white parts and an over abundance of chrome parts that all needed to be one color.   Everything pictured will be blue.

    

[Brian Conn]

......Some days its the Gold Mine, some days its the shaft.....today it was the Gold Mine.

  Went to the Heartland Model Car Nationals in Overland Park, Ks. (Kansas City).....the contest itself is a predictable joke, but the vending area is awesome.  My first stop the past few years is the derelict truck area....great for the scratch builder and the prices, they wont hurt.  Picked up this unit for $30.00.  The milk tank portion will be removed and used on the Mack build.  I have scoured the internet looking for a 1:25 milk transport tank with no luck...this is the first one I seen anywhere. 

Forgot to get a better picture...has a complete engine and transmission.

Will have to scratch build the milk pumping portion.

 

Even has the inspection/clean out hatch

 

  Not sure yet what I will end up doing with the I.H   Its too good of a truck to part out.

Got the Blue areas painted...another touch up coat should complete it. 

[Gary Chase]

This is gonna be good, watching. 

[Gary Chase]

Any progress on this build? Just checking in and watching. I have this kit and looking for ideas. 

[Brian Conn]

Thanks for asking ...my first post to the web since Sunday.

                   Unfortunately bad news...This past Monday we here in Topeka were hit with 70+ M.P.H winds.  I now have a tree on my house and power was just restored with in the past hour to my home.  I plan on getting back to it A.S.A.P as I still have the goal of having ,at least, a curbside build by the 4th of July.  I did manage to get the frame/chassis done paint wise..still have some touch up work on the cab and hood to do.      

[Brian Conn]

  I had some one inquire about the International Harvester milk tanker,,,here's what I have been able to find out about it.

It is an ERTL kit from the late 70's    But the kit is of a tractor and not a milk tanker...I still have no clue where the milk tank came from....other than that it is the same truck....a late 70's International Harvester S series 2575

[Brian Conn]

..........DESPITE procrastination, busy season at work, life and recently being a storm refugee I have made some decent progress.

   

As I have stated before my goal is to have this a box art , curbside build (no engine or transmission) by the 4th of July.  I will come back to this one later and assemble the engine and transmission, stretch the frame and add the milk tank and additional decals.  Got some sticky tape residue to deal with on the hood....used scotch clear tape to mask off the area dividing the red and blue, no problem...used Tamiya tape in other places no problem( great stuff!!),,,,used some expensive blue painters tape...leaves a sticky residue ☹️

The white stripe decals just barely wrapped around the backside of the cab..didn't like the way it looked...so I taped off the the backside of the cab since it was molded white to create white stripes.  I do need to go back and do some touch up work with some white paint.

  

Need to put some heat to the smoke stack and straighten it out.

Edited June 28 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

 

  A minor setback.....

  I never was quite happy with the position of the smoke stack, so I removed the smoke stack and the battery box.  While I was at it, I made some cab locating pieces....now the cab sits where it is suppose to.

The cab sits on the four vertical pieces that are part of the frame.

The kit locating bosses leave a lot to be desired..they are pretty small.  I had some Evergreen styrene angle pieces laying around, so I made taller locating bosses...still a small bit of wiggle room left for final cab alignment.

I think what I am going to do, unless someone has a better idea, is to attach the completed interior tub to the frame and then lower the completed cab shell over the tub.

 

 

Edited just now by Brian Conn

Edited June 30 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

Starting to look like a truck...glass and stripe decals are next!!!

Studied some pictures of the 1:1 DM 800's smoke stack location and repositioned the kit offering...in doing that I also had to move the battery box and air tank back on the frame.  Shot a coat of floor wax thru the airbrush....now it shines like a new penny ☺️

Edited July 1 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

  I set a goal of having this a curbside build by the 4th of July and I made it!!!!!

  This is my way of saying Happy 259th Birthday to the United States of America.  This build is far from being done, in fact the cab is not even attached as the interior has been barely started and there still is some body work to be done.