Scratch Built 1951 Mercedes-Benz L 6600 Sa & Tank Semitrailer (BV-Aral Livery)

[Plastheniker]

Thanks for the recent replies!

 

On 12.5.2019 at 3:59 AM, chuckyr said:

I don't know.  I'm sure if they did, it would have been most likely around the east coast of the United States. The dense population centers of the eastern US are more similar to the dense European geography than any other part of the US during that period of time.  By the mid 1950s, North American truck manufacturers were adapting their vehicles for the newly constructed interstate highway system.  Continuous high speeds, long uninterrupted driving shifts and larger, more comfortable cabs would have possible made typical european truck platforms unsuccessful in the "States".  Volvo tried to enter the US heavy truck market in the late 1950s and failed.  They didn't get it right until the late 1970s and they had to acquire an already existing dealer network.  To my knowledge, the first Mercedes truck to have limited success in the US was the L series of the late 1960s and early 1970s.   There were a number of European auto manufacturers trying to compete in the US after WWII.  DAF and Skoda tried an failed to sell automobiles in the US.  Furthermore, with the 1966 US federal vehicle regulations requiring safety and pollution controls on all new automobiles, most  smaller European manufacturers were eliminated from the US market. 

 

Thanks for the interesting background information about the American truck market after WWII. Considering that Czechoslovakia was a communist satellite state of the USSR until 1990 it is really amazing that the Czech manufacturer Škoda (later LIAZ) tried to enter just the American market. To my knowledge there was no such attempt in Western Europe.

 

In the meantime I did a little research. Exactly as you said Mercedes appeared on the American market not before the late sixties/earliy seventies with a few medium-duty L-series trucks. These were not assembled in Germany but in Brazil. When I travelled through the U.S.A. in the eighties I saw several L-series trucks that looked more or less different from European models.

 

Knowing this the picture of the mid-fifties' L 326 with running lights remains puzzling.

 

 

 

[chuckyr]

3 hours ago, Plastheniker said:

Thanks for the recent replies!

 

 

Thanks for the interesting background information about the American truck market after WWII. Considering that Czechoslovakia was a communist satellite state of the USSR until 1990 it is really amazing that the Czech manufacturer Škoda (later LIAZ) tried to enter just the American market. To my knowledge there was no such attempt in Western Europe.

 

In the meantime I did a little research. Exactly as you said Mercedes appeared on the American market not before the late sixties/earliy seventies with a few medium-duty L-series trucks. These were not assembled in Germany but in Brazil. When I travelled through the U.S.A. in the eighties I saw several L-series trucks that looked more or less different from European models.

 

Knowing this the picture of the mid-fifties' L 326 with running lights remains puzzling.

"In the meantime I did a little research. Exactly as you said Mercedes appeared on the American market not before the late sixties/earliy seventies with a few medium-duty L-series trucks"

 

Guest what?  I have seen them personally!

Edited May 13, 2019 by chuckyr

[Silver Foxx]

This is a superb build , you are a top class modeller .

[Ack! Ack-ack!]

Fantastic and really unique, as usual museum quality!

I remember your styrene tyre tutorial very well but how did you achieve these parallel wavy grooves?

 

[Plastheniker]

Thanks for the latest replies!

 

 

On 24.5.2019 at 8:24 PM, Ack! Ack-ack! said:

Fantastic and really unique, as usual museum quality!

I remember your styrene tyre tutorial very well but how did you achieve these parallel wavy grooves?

 

I am planning a major styrene/resin tire tutorial but I don't know yet where and when. If you send me an e-mail address by PM I will send you the link later.

 

 

 

[Ack! Ack-ack!]

Thanks a lot, PM sent!

[kilrathy10]

What an awesome build.... Your skills always amaze me.... What an outstanding effort.... Beautiful paint... Beautiful subject.... Beautiful work.... Just BEAUTIFUL!!!!!