Cornbinder

Very, very cool!

Just to prove that I am 1- still technically alive, and... 2- still making some progress on something, here it is wearing it's new shoes- courtesy of Moebius. 

3 hours ago, Casey said:

Check your PMs. 

Did but didn't see anything...

Might need to grab a set of that Casey guy's fenders for it... 

Here she is, all finished! Well, due to the magic of digital photography I do see a few areas that could stand further touchup/attention, but for now I'm fairly pleased.

It's pretty much done, so here's a teaser pic until I'm out of work tomorrow and the sun is nice and bright. Provided it doesn't rain...

Stuff like this is why nowadays, when I see something aftermarket I like, I grab it ASAP. I miss out on way too much cool stuff waiting.

That would have been the perfect setup. 

I'm not much into scale railroading, but Athearn makes some really great stuff in HO (1:87) scale.

Here are a couple of 1961-1969 Ford F-850's. On the left is a stake bed done in the Baltimore & Ohio railroad livery. The J. Fisher Concrete chain-drive mixer is even more impressive! The two segments on the end of the spout detach, and the uppermost one folds up, much like a real one would. The drum even rotates.

Being a big fan of the C-Series, I also have many of the vans and tractors. The Bowey's and Old Colony tractor/trailers share the same single-axle beverage trailer, but the trailers used in the CF and Roadway versions are different. The two vans are also the same basic truck aside from the markings- the Kalmbach Publishing truck has Budd-type wheels, while the winery van has spokes. 

Not a whole lot of progress, but I got some reflectors on the sides of the dump bed. They're self-adhesive rhinestones from a craft store. I also added some mudflaps, which I pirated from a Louisville short hauler. I still need to figure out taillights and probably a hitch, and do a little more last-minute type detailing. But other than that I think this one is pretty well dialed in. 

All very cool!

That bullnose KW needs to happen, in model form. 

Nice! Looks perfect paired up with the van.

Can't go wrong with a day cab 379. 

Pure old school, gotta love those stripes! It's cool to still have models from early on in your model building adventure. 

I like it. That AMT 1100-Series 359 is a bit rickety, so my hat is off to anyone who can build one as nicely as this one!

Nice! Been a while since I've seen someone do a 377.

Very cool! That's a great kit, all it takes is a little talent to make it a real standout. 

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. 

As of now, the driver's mirror is repaired, the dump bed is painted, weathered, and permanently installed, and the tarp has been fitted. The barrels are residing in the dump body along with a couple of shovels and a road cone, I'll be adding a bit of residual gravel and rocks to the edges of the bed. 

Amazing how much progress you can make on a project when you actually work on it, is it not? 

S'pose one more update for the evening.

Added a few appendages to the dump body. And filler. Quite a bit of filler! Also shown here are some other items- two shovels, a traffic cone, and a barrel, all of which may or may not end up in the bed. I also made a tarp- it is a piece of Scott blue shop towel wrapped around some 3/32" aluminum tubing and painted flat black. 

Well...

A month or so ago, the White took a tumble and lost the appendages shown. Fortunately it was easily repairable, and the only AWOL piece is the lower driver's side mirror bracket. The mess was boxed up and forgotten about until earlier today.

A few hours of fiddling, fitting, and cursing under my breath and.... I'M RIGHT BACK AT THE POINT WHERE I LEFT OFF BACK IN JANUARY!  Well, I did make a few changes. I reinforced the mounting points of the rear axles- they were pretty weak to start with (we all know the gluing surfaces on these old AMT kits can be more "theoretical" than "certain"). Any loose parts were reglued and reinforced if needed. I also added a couple of wooden planks for the dump bed. The strips are real wood. The sausage is, of course, Jimmy Dean. I still need to reattach the driver's side mirror, not sure if I'll check around to see if I can find the missing piece or bite the bullet and rob one from another kit or make one from plastic strip. 

Oh, worse. Way worse. 

One of the parts I make at work are the rear engine mounts for Navistar. Let me tell you... Moebius got them totally wrong.  

For me, the only real problem with trucks is that I don't want to mess around with parts for little ones when I spend all day making parts for big ones. 

Yeah- seems like a lot of modelers- particularly US modelers, are all about muscle cars or '50's stuff. And I have absolutely no problem with that. I've built my fair share of both. But these microcars are kind of like heavy truck models in the respect that they aren't something you see all the time at model contests and shows. I think that's one of the reasons I gravitate toward them. And a lot of them are unusual. I can go to any car show and see as many '69 Camaros as I want... but I have yet to see an Abarth 695 or a 2CV at any of the shows I've been to.