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The Budd wheels on the garbage truck would make a great accessory parts pack. Plenty of folks would rather use those than the cast spoke wheels in so many of the old truck kits.

Well to start off, did you use a primer base before applying the yellow? Tamiya sells a great primer in white or grey that doesn't require any sanding and helps make the color coats cover better.

This is by no means a criticism of your survey as I appreciate the work you put into your site but I wish Italeri would take another look at daycab or medium duty stuff. For example it's a pain to fabricate a roof for the Volvo VN kit and you can forget about removing the sleeper on any of the newer Aero models if they were to produce one. I would think individual modelers would end up buying more of one kit if they had more applications than just a long-haul highway truck. Existing examples like the Ford Louisville (probably one of the more continuously available AMT trucks) or Ford C-series. Both offer a huge range of applications from fire apparatus, LTL tractors, bobtails (dumps, box, flatbed), etc. But again, thanks for your effort in getting the modeler's concerns to the manufacturer.

I can't help you with the ID of the trailer but you will probably find some photos of it at Internet Movie Car Database.

...and they choose a rebranded Italeri kit? I love the ad copy here that accompanies the kit on the website touting their in-house development. The only in-house development they do any more is repackaging and new decals. Which I suppose Italeri is catching on to with that wrecker release. Couldn't they have thrown a Beall tanker (doesn't even have to be chrome! save some production costs) and a 359 together? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they are at least still with us and re-releasing things, this just struck me as strange.

Great news about the flatbed, so much potential there... shortened, bobtail, etc.

This is what is listed at a few online retailers: ...and some partial instructions/parts sheet @ Paasche (in pdf)

If you are looking at the Monogram 1/16 trucks expect to pay big $$$ on ebay. There were only three tractors: a Kenworth W-900, a Kenworth Aerodyne, and a Peterbilt 359. The only trailer release was a regular flatbed. You'd probably have to buy the flatbed and scratch build a hauler body.

Good call on the tires, it looks stock like an aftermarket low profile set.

The photos aren't working for me but I had a similar plan. I thought about making a wooden frame and line the sides with that heavy plastic you use to cover windows during the winter. Then using a fan from an old computer but if a hood fan wasn't enough I'm not sure a PC fan would work either, I'll have to give that more thought.

That turned out great, awesome attention to detail. What wheels did you happen to use? They look great.

I tend to build up city trucks so my list skews towards those, one can only build so many Ford C-series and Louisvilles. 1. Freightliner FL or M2 Business class... or a Century class. I would buy a bunch. 2. Newer Hino conventional. 3. Sterling Acterra or other medium duty 4. A modern oval tanker... sorta like that fancy chrome Revell job. Maybe even just a tank that you can set on a bobtail frame. 5. A newer 53' trailer that can easily be cut down to shorter size with options for a modern reefer. The Italeri trailer is close but too short height wise. ...really any of the modern business/medium duty cabs. Many of heavy duty trucks in production are trickier to shorten the hood on than the older stuff due to increased angles in the hood slope/shape.

I doubt any are in current production. From memory there were a few... From AMT/: Great Dane extendable flatbed (originally an Ertl release)... Fruehauf flatbed... and your best bet, the drop deck lowboy. It was the most recent release so they are more plentiful on eBay. There was also the IMC flatbed and there are probably some resin releases from small operations. Again, all are no longer produced so your best bet is eBay or hunting around.

Steve, I don't know if you've run across this eBay auction but it has a couple decent photos. You might get more detail if you load them into a photo editor and bump up the contrast.

Thanks everyone for the leads. The Kitform wheels look ok but not great. The outer rim seems large and out of scale but probably fixable after some time with some sandpaper. That trick works great for the rears but the fronts have a different angle on the surface from the lugs to the rim where the holes are. Your example looks great by the way.