Tyson

looking good,once in awhile I like to build box stock just to change buildding than doing mods and scratch building.

 Terry

Even when I set out to build a model straight from the box I always end up adding one or two little details.  Than I think, "I'll just do this one other little thing too."  Then I end up doing a ton of mods and end up so far from the box it's ridiculous.  But in the end I think all of the little mods are what makes building enjoyable to me.

thats going to be one nice looking A car,i remember one thing autocar owners would do when they would customize their trucks was to swap out the single round headlights for the 359 peterbilt headlights.

I've seen a few Autocars with that mod.  Can't say I like it a lot, but then I don't really care for it a whole lot on Petes either.  I'm more a fan of single rounds.  Although I do like the double rounds more than the squares.

Well, I finished the building portion of the chassis.  Had a few minor setbacks.  The first being I royally screwed up some measurements.  I measured where to mount the steps and fuel tanks so the stacks would come out between the steps and tanks right in front of the sleeper.  Had everything glued down when I had the feeling something was off.  Sat the cab and sleeper in their spot, and noticed I'd made my measurements for both too far back.  The stacks would have come up right under the sleeper.  Fixed the situation by moving the steps forward a bit.  Filled the bigger gap between the tanks with a rack for a jerry can on the driver side and will hang a hook on the underside of the sleeper on the passenger side for a chain.

Second mistake was due to a mind lapse.  I modified the steering assembly to link up with the forward axle, but the fact that the steering assembly mounting position would interfere with the forward fenders didn't cross my mind until the glue had set.  Since I had already modified it to fit the axle position properly I remedied the problem by simply giving the fenders an ever so slightly higher mounting position.

Aside from those problems, I went ahead and added the shutters to my grill.  Decided against the articulated shutters simply because I would probably never use them.

After all of that I finally did get to slapping some paint on the frame.  Got the base laid down, and started to add some detail tonight, but my heart just wasn't into it.  Instead of pushing forward and being unhappy with the result I decided to just stop for tonight.  Here's a tease of where I'm at.  Again, sorry for the low quality iPad pic.

" />

Did a bit more work. Still focused on the left side, so the rest is still pretty rough. Ear and teeth are placeholders. Attacked the nose a bit tonight. I've also marked a couple of places that will be taken out on the jaw.



Also threw on a quick bit of colour in photoshop to give a better idea of what it's looking like.

Yeah.  When I made my aluminum foil base I was a bit too generous in the jaw.  You can see a bit of blue tac on the hood in the second pic.  That was actually there to hold on a bumper I was using for reference.  I'll definitely be addressing the jaw a bit later, because I know exactly what's wrong and exactly how to fix it, but I'm focused on the topside for now.

Critiques are more than welcome, but be assured I'm not accepting anything less than 100% replication of the source.  I've seen this movie, I would wager, more than anyone.  I really wish I would have kept count, but I never thought after twenty six years I'd still be watching this movie religiously.  Not too long ago I watched it back to back three times.  I'm well versed in how this thing should look.  As a child I dreamed of owning a truck just like it.  This is truly a labor of love for me.  I could, more likely than not, reproduce this thing from memory, but to make absolutely sure I'm using plenty of reference material.  Movie stills, promo shots, behind the scenes pictures, etc..  If there's ever an area I'm not 100% satisfied with I know exactly what scene to go to to confirm my suspicions.  For a perfect profile shot of the face in full view the best scene is where Camp and Brett arrive at the truck stop and the truck tries to run them down for the first time.

No need to worry, guys.  That jaw will be fixed, and that unflattering picture makes the jaw look way longer than it is even when it's already longer than it needs to be.  Thanks for all the feedback.