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This is my annual summer project. Well actually I had started a Kenworth W900L but got tired of working on it as there are all kinds of little détails to work out... I'll post something of it later.

Anyhoo, for now, this is it, It's an Italeri LTL9000 wrecker that I am building as a restored daycab work tractor for shows. So there will be some things that might look out of whack for some of you, such as the frame that will look a bit long. I'm not bothering with cutting the frame as I scrapped the orginal kit frame once I found I put it together skewed and I don't want to screw up this one. So I used the frame off of the Freightliner FLC instead. It's a pretty nice fit, thanks to the members who helped me out on this.

Now, this truck is going to have a white cab with red and black stripes with a Tamiya italian red painted frame, fuel tanks and battery boxes. I swapped the wheels for some 6 spoke wheels all around with wide super single tires and wide rims in front. The wheels will be the classic red spider with white rims and chrome baby moons in the back. The wheels are resin parts from KFS and are looking pretty good, are very nicely cast and fit just right on the kit axles with some adjustments. They are made so they can rotate on the kit front axle. I modified the rear axles so the rears can rotate too. The kit's front axle was too wide to allow the wider rims so I swapped it for a shorter KFS 1:25 scale item.

I will change the exhaust system to have muffler stacks from a Revell Kenworth instead of the skinny stock pipes. I also swapped the Cummins for a Detroit Diesel Silver 8V92T from Auslowe. This resin casting is pretty good, although I had to do some trimming and sanding here and there, but it IS a very good kit compared to kits from another source. It is based on the AMT Kenworth Aerodyne kits engine and goes together well. This engine fits pretty nicely in the Cummins place. (It's smaller, I did notice.)

I will install a headache rack also and probably a hydraulic oil tank for either a future dumper or who knows, a gooseneck lowboy? So I will try to upload some pics soon.

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I used white primer from Alclad, the cab has been painted directly from the rattle can with Tamiya bright white and the frame is again Tamiya, Italian red. The seats and interior is Tamiya wooden deck tan.

I made the decals for the engine using Testors clear decal material and stuff I picked-up from the web and copied to tinker on with 'paint' and then transfered to Word to scale down to the size I needed.

The colors are really "in your face!" but they look good together. Once detailed and striped, the truck is going to look pretty good i think. i had ModelTruckin' decals for a Ford LTL, but I can't find the folder i put them in... I might have to make some on the old computer... We'll see.

I'll get more pictures up sometime today.

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Robert , glad to see the pictures. I am a big fan of Ford Semi's and was really excited to see this . Awesome choice using the Detroit.

I have several pics of 1/1 engines. Here is a well used one to give you some reference on breaking up the colors some or adding depth.

42.jpg

Let me know by a p/m if you need other views.

Fantastic workmanship , keep up the good work.

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Robert , glad to see the pictures. I am a big fan of Ford Semi's and was really excited to see this . Awesome choice using the Detroit.

I have several pics of 1/1 engines. Here is a well used one to give you some reference on breaking up the colors some or adding depth.

42.jpg

Let me know by a p/m if you need other views.

Fantastic workmanship , keep up the good work.

Thanks man! Some day I'll get to do some weathering on my rigs. I'm still into the "brand new" or perfectly restored stage of things for the moment. I know there is a rust imitaion that is very convincing on models but I can't remember the name. I've trying to find it but even at Michael's they don,t know what I'm talking about. By the way Sean, I was thinking an 8V92 put out about 445-475HP stock, is this correct?

As for Ford big rigs, I have a soft spot for the LTL 9000 and the CL 9000 cabover and also the W9000. To me the LTL is the best looking Ford truck and definitely one of the best looking trucks ever made. And the 8V92 is my favorite sounding truck engine too. I remember those old CL9000 leaning into corners as they looked like their cab was going to flip over! Thay were pretty awesome trucks as well.

I have a CL 9000 transkit from KFS that I'll build once I get more experience with resin parts. AND I also have a twin turbo DD12V92 that might end up under that cab... That sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it?

Edited by BigBad
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Thanks for the comments!

Terry, the cab back panel is an item from Auslowe.

So i made some progress today, i detailed the wheels, added baby moons in the back and the front ones are installed on the frame. The rear ones are ready to install as well as I fashioned some axles from aluminum tubing for them. All wheels rotate freely, and the front ones steer. I'll have to adjust the lenght of the drive shaft as the detroit engine and the transmission are much shorter than the kit items. I'm pretty happy with the paint, it came out nice. I don't think I'll have to polish and wax. I'll do the BMF on the fuel tank straps, and on some cab details, but there surprisingly not much chrome on these cabs. It doesn't matter 'cause these trucks were more work than show. I have to paint the interior of the cab to match the seats. paint the sun visor, chrome paint the headache rack and modify the drive shaft and also make some diamond plate panels for the frame. Then apply the cab decals. Then it's assembly time. Now for the next pics:

15d7wax.jpg

2rnadxk.jpg

245zspj.jpg

14k86io.jpg

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well, the stripes didn't go as planned. The paint scheme was the pretty much the best looking Ford had at the time, but it seems my material was not up to the task, or rather I'm not experienced enough for it yet. So I went with the next best thing, a set from Modeltruckin'. Not exactly the Ford stripes but something similar that will look not too bad. Well either that or no stripes... So I'll see how that works. Now, to finish the interior, and build the rest of the frame. I might add some tool boxes on the sides. That's an option though. Also working on the headache rack. Photos soon.

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