vincen47

Great build, all around. I enjoyed watching it come together.

Thanks! I agree, the bell housing is similar to the Paccar(?) transmission above. The rest of the transmission looks like an Eaton, with the rear splitter unit looking like a 15 speed, though they are also similar to a 13 or 18. Either way, the detailing he has done is amazing. I pre-ordered mine through Spotmodel today. The unit price itself was a little more, but the shipping quote to the states was much lower through them compared to GPmodeling, so it was less expensive overall. https://www.spotmodel.com/product_info.php?products_id=60235

Yep, looked at them a couple months back and thought there has to be a spare parts truck I could use for a fairly simple project. The glue bomb daycab Lonestar chassis fit the length of the side panels perfectly. The chassis was missing one of the axles, but the rear axle on the chassis lined up perfect with the front wheel opening on the sides, so I filled the rear opening. Only being a scale 32’ RV, a single rear axle is fine.

Excellent all around. Great weathering and an awesome display with the shed. Makes me want to get one of those kits.

Amazing detail. I’m definitely going to make a purchase. Do you know what particular transmission he based it on? It looks like an Eaton, but I don’t recognize the bell housing.

Here is a relatively quick scratch-building and glue bomb save project I started about six weeks ago. I typically don’t build this quickly. Tamiya pure white and candy lime green. It’s curbside - both the RV body and under the non-opening hood (just a simple engine block painted Cummins red). The real production Lonestar trucks did not come with the Maxxforce 15 that’s in the kit. Since I’m a stickler for engines, I wasn’t going to detail it out if it wasn’t in the real truck. I wanted to build more of a “home-built” toter, nice, but not a more fancy production-style coach like my Aeromax RV or my current 379 RV project with radius corners. Though, it has the fancier frameless windows you see on new RVs these days, mainly because, well, they are much easier to make. Years ago, Oldr-n-drt was kind enough to send me the cut styrene sides to a toterhome body, which I put to good use on this project. It’s been a long time, but thanks again! For the cab and chassis I used a badly warped daycab glue bomb I got off of eBay that had been sitting around waiting for inspiration to put it to use. I stripped, filled, sanded, and did my best to straighten it. Gluing the hood shut helped a lot. First time doing a flame paint job. I used masks from Lazy Modeller. A little tricky, requiring a bit of touch-up, but not too bad. I used a portion of the aero skirts from a Prostar, modified to fit. Most of the kit chrome was in bad shape and had to be refinished with Revel spray chrome. The front tires are Bridgestone steers from Moluminum. Photo etch from Czech Truck Model. Be sure to ask if there is something I didn’t cover. Hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you. I don’t always detail everything to the max, but this particular project has always been my ultimate “dream” subject/build.

Ha, well, that’s unique. One of those, “Hold my beer” moments when the idea of using a Nova popped into the guy’s head.

What an enjoyable looking build. Thanks for posting it. Great use of aftermarket parts to create something unique. One of the best things to me, is how you opened up the grille. That makes a huge difference.

Here we have the cab and hood started. First, the firewall needed some corrections, most importantly the intake port needs to be the same on both sides. I’m not sure why Italeri goofed that up, but the opening on the vehicle’s right side, left facing the firewall, needs to be lowered and modified to match the other side. While I was at it, I removed the shallow example of a windshield washer reservoir with the intent of rebuilding a more realistic version to attach to the firewall. I eventually decided to make one that mounted to the radiator housing instead, as seen in an earlier post. Then, I cut out and created the pocket for the windshield wiper motor. I added an Ultraroof from Models by Dave, and it has the visor mounting brackets built-in. I broke a couple of them, but made the repairs. They are delicate. A lot of filler to smooth things out. I’ll also need to add rivet detail to replace some of it that was removed during the bodywork process along with some that wasn’t there to begin with. The 379-127 hood is a Bill Drennen casting, purchased from P&P resin years ago. It’s a bit hard to find nowadays, but contact Jamie at Moluminum, he has the molds. I added inner fender detail, along with a good deal of clean-up and filler to get everything as perfect as I can. I’ll also be adding proper rivet detail to the hood shortly, just like the cab. It’ll still need more filler, sanding and a final coat or two (or three) of primer and filler/sanding in between, before rivets are added and a final coat of primer before paint. Preparation can be frustrating, and it is 90% or more of the finishing process, but it’s a necessary evil. I added an improved center hood trim piece from styrene strip/shapes, and that’ll get some rivet detail as well. To better fit those bigger front tires, I added fender flares from re-worked Italeri 378 fender trim with styrene strip/quarter round. The “J” hood hinges are from GW trucks. For the cab floor, I decided to experiment with balsa wood strips and laying the “hardwood flooring” similar to the real thing. Sanded and stained, I like the results, and it’ll just need another coat of floor wax. Probably won’t be able to see the cab floor very well on the completed build, but it’s cool. Certainly easier to lay this type of flooring than in real life! I hope you’re still enjoying the build. More to come…

Beautiful truck!

Excellent. The details do make all the difference.

Utilitarian, functional, and just down to business, this truck isn’t fooling around. Neat concept and backstory. It certainly looks the part. I like the aftermarket parts and your added details. Love the weathering, especially the dirt on the windshield and tires.

Beautiful trucks, both the model and your 1:1!

Nice shifter and flooring!