Brian Conn

...You captured the essence of a used truck with many unused miles......if I had a dime for every time I've seen this truck in my travels, I would sure have a heck of a lot of dimes.

....Back to the Ford/Garwood it's been a minute. I wanted to show a cable coming off of the winch spool, so I came up with this. For the cable I used a single strand wrapped around the spool and a braided double strand for the length of exposed cable. The cable is 015. round lead wire used in making fly fishing lures. I carved the hook out of a plastic fork. The Garwood hydraulic winch is rated for 8,000 lbs. and the dia. of the cable is almost spot on for 1:25 scale.

So here we go..... my first truck build W.I.P I started with the engine first in an attempt to fallow the kit build directions in order. I soon discovered an issue with the fitment between the bottom of the heads and the intake/engine block. Note the notched?? area between the bottom of the head and engine block and intake manifold. I don't know the reason for this, I just know that this is not the way it looks in 1:1 scale. Filled in the area with Styrene strip and Bondo Here's where I am at presently with the engine....aftermarket distributor and plug wires, scratch built fuel line,governor linkage to carb, water pipe from intake manifold to surge tank (surge tank not pictured) and riser for the oil breather on the Right side and ignition coil....started some slight weathering...I have not applied any dull coat yet , nor any wash. I had to slightly modify the bottom of the heat riser to properly clear the spark plug boots. Got the Ford C photo etch for this build which will really enhance the cab. Just for shucks and grins I compared the 534 C/I Ford truck engine against one of my 1:25 Fat Block Ford 427's and a big block Ford 460....this truck engine even makes them look small and puny.

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.

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

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 ☺️

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

Necessity is the Mother of invention I was having issues with my latest build and getting the outside tires to look like they are seated to the wheel while having the proper gap between the tires...here's what I came up with..... These are the old laces out of my work boots. The first thing you do is mount the outside tire. I used canopy glue on the outside (visible) part of the tire/wheel since it dries clear...I plan on entering this rig in future model shows and cant have dried CA glue showing anywhere. The parts of the tire/wheel that are not visible, I use CA glue. Mount the inner tire. Wrap the shoe lace around the area between the two tires...snug it down until the tires are seated to the wheels..you will still have to move the tire back and forth across the wheel to get everything set perfect.

..........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.

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

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.

......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.

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.

Just wanted to say thanks to who ever fixed the issue and got the site back up and running again....

...I have been a contest judge for a few years now with the local club (both AMPS and IPMS)...viewing this thru a 1280 x 720 resolution monitor screen (aprox. 22" across by 14" tall) this is easily a a top 5 ..top 3 build. Don't sell your self short with this one.

I have a Mack DM 800 ,tractor version, that I need to increase the wheelbase on. I have a 3-D printed oval tank that will be used with the build. I have scoured the internet including Big Mack Trucks.com with no luck finding any wheelbase options for the DM 800. I did find one spec sheet for the DM 800 showing multiple wheelbases, but the print was so small that any attempt to enlarge it only blurred it. Mack has a fair amount of wheelbase info. on some of its other models, but for some reason the DM 800 remains elusive. My question is to those of you who have stretched a frame to accommodate a body (dump,flatbed, wrecker, etc. etc) do you just dry fit the body and stretch it so the the tandems are where they are suppose to be or is there something else involved.

appreciate your in put ......I just presumed that finding info. on the Mack would be like my previous findings (dimensions) on the 60's era International Harvester DCO 405 Emeryvilles and VCO A 190's as well as the Ford C series cab overs....discovered volumes of useful information. Looks like I will have to add 12 to 18 scale inches to accommodate the tank body...still undecided about adding a pusher axle.

This part is more of a personal preference from past experiences. The AMT Ford C Series cab over is offered with a variety of bodies.... box truck delivery,trash truck and a flat bed,stake truck. I am going to presume that all 3 bodies mount the same way to the chassis...I am only familiar with the trash truck...in that there are locating pins on the chassis and corresponding holes on the body. I.M.H.O the trash truck body sits too close to the tires. In the 1:1 world this is inviting a D.O.T enforcement inspector to pull you over for an inspection...either your overweight or something is broke on the suspension....either way it will ruin your day. A good rule of thumb is aprox. 6" of clearance between the top of the tire and the bottom of the body ( box truck, garbage truck, flat bed. etc. etc.) with no load. As far as the box truck and flat bed trucks go , I don't know if they sit any higher or lower than the garbage truck body....from what I can tell from pictures of builds, they have about the same clearance as the trash truck. I am going with 6 scale inches (6 m.m) of clearance. I needed to add 2.79mm. to get 6.6 mm. The larger round tube is the spacer cut to 2.79 mm. It is Evergreen part# 224 1/8" tube (3.2 mm.) it fits snugly over the pins on the chassis. The smaller rod is the locating pin that fits into the bottom side of the body. It is Evergreen part# 212 080" rod (2.0 mm.) You will have to slightly open up the end of the Evergreen tubing to get the rod to fit inside. I will fill in the area between the new spacers to illuminate the gaps. 6 mm. of clearance, right on the money.

The cab presents the most visible issues. I've personally seen more than a few where the cab is still tilted slightly forward in the down position and worse. The stories abound about the frustrations some builders have had with getting the cab to sit right and to be able to tilt the cab forward without coming into contact with the grill. Despite what the instructions say, do not attach the rear cab support until everything is where it needs to be and your satisfied with the results. I had to make small notch on the inner splash panels. The reason was that the splash panel was sitting on top of the upper shock mount, thus not allowing the cab to seat properly in the rear cab support. Another area to take a look at is the radiator. The top of the radiator could possibly come into contact with the bottom side of the cab interior floor pan. When attaching the floor pan make sure that the foot box (rectangle box area adjacent to the doors) is level with the bottom of the cab and that the rest of floor pan is level. Doing this is the first part in helping to prevent the cab from coming into contact with the grill when being tilted forward. Note the area where I had to remove a portion of the underside due to clearance issues...some of it was due to scratch building , some of it wasn't. This is the second part in helping to prevent the cab from coming into contact with the grill when being tilted forward. The reason that the cab comes into contact with the grill is that the grill, when properly attached according to the instructions, is too far forward. With the cab in place, start removing material from the front portion of the frame rails. Test fit the bumper/grill, The round, outer portions of the grill need to be flush with the front of the cab. Here are some 1:1 examples:

Unfortunately there is not an easy "fix" .....a picture of the hood would be most helpful

Your very welcome! Look for a part 3 relating to the cab and its inherit issue and how to remedy it coming out soon...got side tracked with work and the winter storm.

The rear axle visibly looks good...its what you don't see necessarily that is the issue..allow me to explain. The AMT truck rear axle has a steel rod that is attached to the wheel assembly's. As you can see in the picture, the rod is much smaller than the center hole in the rear axle which can cause, depending on if a body is mounted, a clearance issue with the top of the tire and the underside of the body. As a rule of thumb, there needs to be no less than 5 mm. (5" in 1:1 scale) of clearance between the top of the tire and the underside of the body. More clearance is builders choice. Where this would not be an issue is with the C series tractor since it has a fifth wheel. WASTE NOT, WANT NOT I don't see common, ordinary things like most people, rather I see a potential, useful item to be used for scratch building....case in point. These are the guts out of a dried up click pen...the White piece is the perfect size to fit into the axle and also allow the steel rod to fit into. Its now a bushing of sorts that pretty much eliminates the slop in the rear axle and will add a small, bit more clearance between the top of the tire and underside of the body... aprox. 2 mm.. This is not a drill bit , but rather a reamer. Ream the axle holes large enough so that the White piece fits into the axle snugly. I found that I only needed to ream a small bit on each side of the axle for the pen piece to properly fit. Fit the piece into the axle and cut off the excess. Insert the steel rod, attach the wheels and you done. You can do the same thing with an Evergreen tube...unsure of the number or dimensions as I don't have any on hand at this time.

I get a lot of windshield time listening to talk radio....mostly news of the world, or is that news of the weird....anyway of all things the discussion of C.W McCall came up....could have been that I was in S.E Nebraska and he hails from the Omaha Area. Here was the gist of the story. Turns out there are 4 different versions of the song Convoy 2 by C.W himself ,the radio version and the movie version. One by Canadian Paul Brandt ....saw a Paul Brandt trucking rig on South Bound 75 North of T-Town today ...coincidence???!!!??? Bonus points if you know where T-Town is! And one by Irishman Paul Kelly , yea that's right the trucking in the U.K! Links to these songs can be found at Google

As I am finding out with my first truck build, an AMT Ford C series cab over, that AMT trucks leave some to be desired as far as parts fitment and related issues as I have read here and elsewhere on the internet. If you have built an AMT big truck with out any fitment issues, congratulations your one of the few, as for the rest of us...... I am going to break this up into parts, hopefully making it easier. PART 1: Squaring the frame The frame is the foundation from which a truck is build, much the same way a sturdy foundation is from which a building is built. Since the frames consist of two separate side rails and numerous cross members is up to the builder to take the time and make sure that the frame is square, if not then pretty much everything will not be in proper alignment from that point forward and make for a frustrating building experience. Everyone has their different ways as far as holding the frame sections in place while their being attached...if it works for you use it....personally I use a flat,steel building plate and magnets along with modeling clay. Use only the two side rails/frame pieces and the front most and rear most cross members. Use the rear cross member that goes between the frame rails and not the cross member that attaches to the body frame (above the truck frame) as in the trash truck, city delivery/Coke, stake truck. Locate a point on your frame that you can use as a reference..in this case I use the rear most locator pin on the frame that is used to locate the trash truck packer box to the frame. There is another one on the opposite frame rail same location. On the front I used the center hole on the frame half of the cab pivot/hinge. It's important that you do a diagonal measurement as pictured, it needs to be an equal length on both sides Once you are satisfied that the frame is square and true, attach the all cross members except for the transmission cross member/mount and cab support despite what the instructions may show. You will locate and attach those while doing the engine and cab alignment.