Cornbinder

Wish I had this much ambition! I've had a Crosley Farm-O-Road scratch build planned for years and I can't even be bothered to do that.

Love it! I've always wanted to do something similar fitted with a flat bed.

Shaping up quite nicely. With that color scheme she'd look right at home in East Lansing.

Love it! I still see these occasionally in use as farm trucks.

I'll have to buy that cab now because my father has a 6x6 Reo out behind the barn.

Damned shame that has to be covered up by a hood.

I love it! I have those same decals somewhere.

Love these trucks. You definitely did the subject justice.

Love it!

Shaping up to be one beautiful brute already!

I must confess I bought way too many of these when they came out

Nice! Is that the stock wheelbase?

Very nice! Even as-is. Even though it doesn't look like it would take an awful lot to bring it back up to 100%

Lovely! The local gravel pit once had a similar unit to this.

Love it! I need to get around to an R one of these days.

I recently nabbed three Italeri parts packs and thought I'd take some photos and show people what's in the boxes. We'll begin with 720- Truck Accessories for European and American trucks. On the box top we see illustrations of what's included- various parts and three figures depicting Waylon Jennings, your creepy uncle, and former BBC Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond. This sprue contains some mirrors, mud flaps, sides to an underbody tool compartment, and a road hazard triangle. There's also a very nice bottle jack. Here's the engraved detail on the mud flaps close up. The other sprue contains more parts and some pieces to the figures. Here's a close up of the detail on the bolt cutter and some of the air fittings. I consider this kit worht buying due to the chromed smokestacks and cast six-spoke wheels shown here, but you also get some nice air horns, a variety of lights, and more. Clear lenses are also included, along with coated wire for use as air and electrical lines. Lots of decal graphic choices, though the US plates are way too large- they might look about right on a 1:16 scale vehicle. The European plates look much closer to correct in size. 764's box art is similar, showing what is included. Among much more, here you get another Michelin man as well as what appears to be the love child of the Big Boy logo and the Elephant Man. You also get not one but TWO creepy uncle figures! Someone at Italeri must be very fond of Bibendum, aka The Michelin Man. If you're thinking this one doesn't seem to include as many pieces as 720, you're right. The chrome sprue gets the job done, and includes plated cab lights with separate clear orange lenses. Sadly- the clear parts sprue is missing from my particular example. The decal sheet is simple but contains some interesting and useful markings. The topless blonde graphics are a nice touch. Lastly, we have my personal favorite, 776. This is the third example of this kit I have gotten over the years. I struck out on this one. I'll explain why later. This sprue is dominated by the lift gate components, and the six spoke cast wheels. Here's the detail present on the cast wheels, and some of the lift gate components. Here we have the components for the Effer knuckle-boom crane. This one is molded in a red-orange, the other two I've had were molded in gray and orange, respectively. Here's where I struck out. The first two of these I bought had the soft vinyl Michelins. This one has the old two-piece plastic Michelins. Perhaps this is an earlier issue of the kit? And the decals- most of these are for the crane but the lift gate is not overlooked.

This was a quick and relatively pleasant buildup of the old Ertl Precision Series kit. You know, the one with that diecast frame that seems to scare off many a modeler. I didn't have too much trouble with that, but the diecast front spindles sucked, so I made new ones from plastic strip. Other than the roof top A/C unit and the decals it's totally box stock and finished in Tamiya flat yellow. I also cut away the exhaust stack and replaced it with aluminum tubing.

I have not, but I have a few military kits I want to get around to sometime. This one is a done deal, Showroom pics coming soon.

This is a kit I've wanted for a while. I recently was able to nab one at a not-too-terrible price. The diecast frame gave me pause, but it turns out to be a minor matter. The diecast front spindles were useless and replaced with new ones fabricated from styrene. The tractor will be weathered to resemble a semi-retired rig, no pun intended. Much of the hit chrome has been stripped. The metal frame has eight pins, meant to protrude through corresponding holes in the bumper to simulate bolt heads. Things didn't quite line up, so the pins were filed off and replaced by heads cut from straight pins. More building and detailing to come....

The engine is in. Not much will be visible once the cab is on but I have it some weathering. I tried Vallejo pigments for the first time and I'm reasonably happy.

Love it.

Love it! Just the right amount of dirt and schmutz.

I've wanted to build this for years, so I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on this project.

I've been buying the Revell Peterbilt 359 snap kits for years. For being snap kits they're actually not too bad (aside from the terribly-fitting tires and visible snap tabs on the cab), and they're cheap. If you want that Cat engine or what have you, you tend not do feel as bad about hacking into a $25 kit as you would a $60+ kit. But I always wanted to do something crazy and, you know, BUILD one. But I wasn't about to leave it box stock! Oh, no. I set about building something of a mild custom. I began with the grille. It is the stock kit piece, but I removed the molded headlights and brackets. I also removed some mold seams, and scribed in the missing cut line for the grille crown. Headlight brackets from a round-light 359 were modified and fitted with headlights from a Revell '29 Model A Roadster kit. I also cut out the grille mesh and replaced it with some grooved plastic sheet, which I believe was meant to be for a steel roof in 1:48 scale. The red oval is from the Revell decal sheet- it may or may not stay there. The hood ornament was also removed- I may reinstall it, I may use another style, or I may leave it off entirely. I'll know once more progress is made and the Pete "tells me what it wants". I also began the "daycab-ification", by cutting away the molded sleeper and the portion of the sleeper floor molded to the chassis. I may go with a flat panel, or one more like this... I may not even modify the wheelbase. Plenty more to come-further modifications including straight pipes and possibly even an extended hood. I'm not planning for anything over the top- just a nicely-done custom job, but something that would still be practical as a working tractor.

Well, I was going to order a couple of cab conversion kits from AITM. But I guess that's on hold until next payday now. 23 years of exposure to the elements and metal fatigue and the left front leaf spring mount on my F-250 decided to file for (and receive) a divorce from it's lower half. Hard to see in the pic, but the eye of the leaf spring is touching up against the fuel tank filler tube. So tomorrow after work it's getting lugged off to Midas, because even though it'll cost me quite a bit more to have them do it (the mount itself is only about 40 bucks), they can do in a few hours what would take me all weekend. So... the Ford F600, IH Fleetstar, and GMC 9500 long hood are on hold for the time being. I suppose that means I have a bit more time to worry about the current projects I already have without having to worry about any new distractions.