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Built almost entirely with left over parts from other kits. Holmes 750 style wrecker unit entirely scratch-built.

I have "embraced" PE (photo-etch) and am learning to work with the new material. Every part is now a learning experience. The details are removed. The fuel tank steps and straps gave me lots of trouble with adhesion. Most glues do not work well, and the steps had to be soldered. A piece of bathroom tissue is used with Elmer's Glue mixed with water. I have also taken the leap into adding some plumbing and wiring to this build. Thin thread for electrical wire, .020" & .030" styrene rod for air lines, and telephone wire for the transmission. The interior sub-assembly is finished and set aside.

Modelled after a real wrecker used by a local towing company. Real wrecker weighs 103,000-pound necessitating 5 axles and special permits to operate in most states. Boom rotates 360 degrees and is poseable. It has a scale 8 feet of travel on the frame. Model is almost completely scratch-built using styrene plastic sheets and structural shapes.

Calling it done until I figure out what it's going to haul. I meant to build it out of the box except for the Moebius singles, but things happened lol Scratch built the mud flaps, the mudflap girls, and the rear bumper light bar. Combined both kit supplied stack tips into one taller unit. Lost a cab light somewhere, so I robbed a set out of a damaged K123 kit. Swan ornament purchased here (awesome quality on those! Love em) Rebuilt the mirror hangers with .040 styrene rod.

The boredom has worn off, and I am back on the bench. A new journey begins. Now beginning my 4th build, IMO I have realized the painting and detailing of the cab is the most critical part of the model. This will be an experiment. 5 kits will be built. Some of the mundane assembly and painting will be "production-lined" to save time with set-up and clean-up. I will try new things and test the limit of my skills. Failure is learning. One (or more) of the kits will probably be sacrificed and end up in the junkyard. I will try different paint schemes. It will also allow me to choose the "best of _____ part" for a showroom build. At the Cummins factory, holes are drilled for brass rod. It will be nice to not have to relearn every step. Some of these are from other kits with variations. "The Seem" First attempt at cutting out the doors was done with an X-Acto knife (an impossible task). The panel scriber worked much better (but still required an insane amount of patience - be prepared to take your time). A template of the floor is made for quick fabrication in the future. Pockets are fabricated for the new door handles. A thin piece of sheet is glued to support and guide an more natural curve on this PE part. The windshield wiper is carefully removed, I am getting lots of practice in manipulating the styrene.

Some areas I'm just making it up as I go. Like the steering and shift tower parts.

With my farm chores backing up on me, I didn't have much bench time this weekend. I did manage to make new mudflaps (thanks for stealing one kitty cat) The hangers are a little on thick side, but they'll do the job.

Fuel tanks coming together, more detail work. Visor is scratch built and ready for final fit. Grill stripped, all goobers removed and rechromed.

Well the weather becoming cold and snowing here, so I can get some bench time this week. Added some more color to the hood (too much white). Still working out the fuel tanks and roughing out a new visor.

Here's some pics of my new 1926 Mack Stake truck. Built box stock with custom built racks and some mild oil and dirt staining which is hard to see in the pictures. This was the log truck version, but I wasn't crazy about the load so I decided to change the bed. I did find certain things that I didn't like in this kit, like poor locater marks and some fitment issues but nothing insurmountable. All in all, I think it looks like a nice model of an historic truck. Sorry about the small pics; for some reason the pictures won't transfer correctly from the camera to the computer.

This is currently my only truck build. It's meant to be a Post Apocalypses RV that was patched together from various bits to roam the wasteland. I started with an Autocar Dump Truck and Italeri 20' Container. Reefer unit converted to HVAC system, Air Filtration, Power Fan, Custom front bumper and a frame mounted generator to name a few of the upgrades. Stretched frame, new wheels and tires, pusher axle and many 3d printed parts leads us to where we are today. Occasionally I add a few more bits to it as I find or design files. Hope you enjoy, I know it's a bit different from what you're used to.

Last build of the year.

I finished this build right before Christmas last year. No frame stretch, just removed sleeper and scratch built the flatbed and fuel tanks.

Option #1 it is.

Basic kitbash of the Dodge L700 and Ford C900 Garwood, lovingly tossed together and weathered. There's a very brief build chronicle in the workbench section.

It was much easier and quicker to use the PE part above than cutting out the grill detail on this cab. This experience will certainly make me think twice before trying to do a whole radiator. The third window is added to a short cab. PE window gaskets applied. Using a sanding sheet taped to a flat surface greatly improved the problematic cab seam.

The weather is too bad to paint the LTL 9000, so I decided to dig this Kenworth out. I bought it from Ollie's a few years back. Between the vague directions and me messing up the paint, I put it away shortly after and used it to rob parts. Now that I've built up my spares box a little, I think I can finish it. I sanded down the cab and primed it, then I shortened the frame and converted it to single axle. The 370 Cummins is almost all there and mostly built. I have a spare Ford mail truck which will give up its 27ft trailer for this one.

A couple of better pics without the day glow green reflection of my work shirt.

This was built from an old Mark Savage cab. It has an M11 Cummins from Gary Wallace.

Moved the hood/cab back to center the front wheels. Used wide front wheels and changed the offset to narrow up the front axle.

Since it warmed up to 16`f I decided to do an outside picture..... This shows the air tanks a little bit better as well as the correction that I made to the fuel tank by moving the fuel line back to the rear fittings and adding a line to the sending unit and running it back to the cab area.

The last is a Great Dane Reefer from the old Ertl kit.

That looks pretty awesome Victor!! I don't like my wheels to roll, at least not on every axle. For me it is an accident waiting to happen! I like to leave the brakes on.

Went with the entire Moebius front floats/super singles set. The battery boxes are in place and I went with the optional roo-bar front bumper.