Diamond REO SBFA Single Drive

[Cornbinder]

I've been wanting to throw together an old James House cement hauler for a while. I was glad to find that Jerry at modeltruckin.com does the proper decal graphics. I figured converting the hood to the SBFA configuration would be fairly simple, but GW trucks makes the hood in resin, so I opted to try that first.  The base for this is, of course, the old AMT DR. I'm using the early 90's reissue. 

First, here are a couple tractors I'm using as reference. This one will likely be #69, though it may end up being unit #65... if you have ever seen the movie "Collision Course" starring Jay Leno and Pat Morita, you have seen James House #65 pulling one of their custom-built powdered cement dumper. James House was part of Rex Transportation, so I'll also be using some photos of single-drive Rex Diamond Reos for inspiration. Here are a couple of 1:1 photos, courtesy of Tim Gibson.

Now, onto the model...

I kind of eyeballed the wheelbase, and used the hood to position the front axle. I don't think I got the wheelbase 100% correct, but it'll do for me. I also don't think I'll get the Anti-Sail mudflap quite right, but I can get it close, lol. Rear axle and suspension were pirated from a Ford Louisville- I may or may not use the fifth-wheel setup shown here. As far as tanks, battery boxes, and the like, it's basically just a matter of shuffling things around from their position as intended by AMT. 

#69 had the early style grille, so I made up a new insert. The AMT kit is missing a small chrome trim strip along the vertical centerline of the hood- on the real hood it is there to cover up a row of rivets which attach the skin to bracing underneath. To tell you the truth, I never even noticed this until Tim Gibson pointed it out to me... and he said he never noticed it himself until he bought his 1:1 Diamond Reo. I used the same thin square strip I used to make the details on the grille insert to make this trim piece. Naturally, it will be foiled after paint. 

I am not sure if I will do the model to look as it appeared in the junkyard, as it did in service, but I will say I'm not terribly interested in doing it in "as-new" condition, so let's just leave it at that. 

[Casey]

Another one to follow.  That will be a neat build.

What is the purpose of the pipe in front of the rear tires in the image of  #69?

[Cornbinder]

It looks like it's just the exhaust pipe, flopped over the frame rail.