2023 BRGB Movin' On Kenworth

[Rockford]

Looks like you're doing my favourite pin-up truck justice. My goal is to do one myself one day. Have you sorted colours yet? 

[leafsprings]

Completed the interior, just mixed some off white, some beige, some yellow with green buttons, used the Revell dash decals and AMT steering wheel. Not going to experiment with the exterior color, will  use the correct color from Scalefinishes,  Ivy Bronze, also called Ivy Glow, a 1973 Ford car color.  The exterior of the Movin' On trucks look the same in both seasons, but, if you look closely, there are 3 main differences.  I have noted the changes from the season 1 truck in photo.  No red dot front oil hubs, no air tank on frame and no bias ply tires.

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by leafsprings

[Force]

4 hours ago, leafsprings said:

Completed the interior, just mixed some off white, some beige, some yellow with green buttons, used the Revell dash decals and AMT steering wheel. Not going to experiment with the exterior color, will  use the correct color from Scalefinishes,  Ivy Bronze, also called Ivy Glow, a 1973 Ford car color.  The exterior of the Movin' On trucks look the same in both seasons, but, if you look closely, there are 3 main differences.  I have noted the changes from the season 1 truck in photo.  No red dot front oil hubs, no air tank on frame and no bias ply tires.

Well the photo of the truck in your post is not the TV series truck, it's a promo shot from Kenworth promotioning the V.I.T package wich came in 1974 and this paint scheme was available from the factory, I think the promo truck had a red interior.
The TV series trucks did not have the door part of the lower arrow stripe and had S.Pruitt in white under the side window, G.V.W. 78.100 at the bottom of the doors also in white, but otherwise the season 1 trucks had pretty much the outside appearence as this one.
There are lots of differences between the 1974 and 1975 trucks except for what you have mentioned, the placement of the KENWORTH side emblems on the hood are different, the KW bug on the grille and the other emblems are chromed on the 1975 trucks while the 1974 trucks had them in gold, the Stemco oiler hubs on the front axle are different style and the drive tires as you mentioned, the interior is slightly different, the engine and trans are different and the license plate setups are very different, the season 1 trucks had west coast plates wich changed some under the season, the season 2 trucks had east coast plates except for one wich was California, the others were New York, Illinois, Georgia, Texas and a "bingo plate" and they were the same throghout the season, the season 1 trucks had no California plate at all but had Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and a "bingo plate" and they changed some under the season.

Great work on the interior, looks good.
The buttons on the seats were also green.

[leafsprings]

Thanks again Hakan for all the extra info. A good publicity photo of the season 2 truck is impossible to find, screenshots are about it. You are very correct about the paint scheme on door and emblems. The interior photo is excellent, missed that one, shows much better detail of the seats with green buttons and red and yellow emergency and parking brake knobs, didn't think they were color coded back then.  The black and white reference photo is of great help also. Made some corrections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by leafsprings

[Rockford]

Love the old big white steering wheels. Should still be around today. Good job mate. 

[Force]

4 hours ago, leafsprings said:

Thanks again Hakan for all the extra info. A good publicity photo of the season 2 truck is impossible to find, didn't want to use a grainy screen shot. You are very correct about the paint scheme on door and placement of KW hood emblem. The interior photo is great, missed that one, shows much better detail of the  green button seats and  red and yellow  parking and trailer air knobs, didn't think they were color coded knobs back then. Made some corrections, found a little KW horn button decal!

 

 

 

You're welcome.
Keep up the good work.

[Pete68]

That interior looks great very nice. 

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Looks awesome! This may end up being the best Movin On model ever. 

[leafsprings]

Moved my attention to the fuel tanks.  The Revell VIT tanks leave a lot to be desired, they have an unsightly seem on the ends and appear to be slightly shorter than the Movin' On KW tanks.  Purchased some longer Revell KW Aerodyne fuel tanks with the same unsightly ends off ebay, but they are a bit too long. My solution was to slightly cut down both ends of the Aerodyne tank and use AMT fuel tank end caps. First photo is  Revell VIT tank.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by leafsprings

[cifenet]

The interior looks very luxurious!   Nice job!

And a good technique to hide the tank seam line!

[Rockford]

Good idea on the tanks. The convex end plates are definite KW trait. 

[Force]

Keep up the good work Tommy.

On 4/25/2023 at 9:09 AM, cifenet said:

The interior looks very luxurious!   Nice job!

And a good technique to hide the tank seam line!

The interior was intended to look luxurious, the V.I.T. stands for Very Important Trucker and was the top of the line interior with diamond pleat button tuck panels and high back seats and was available in different colors where you could either have the buttons in the same color as the panels or another different color like on the Movin' On trucks.
On the season 2 1975 trucks a few panels was opposite colors, the inserts in the headliner in the cab were green with beige buttons.
The season 1 1974 trucks had no green panels at all, just beige with green buttons and no inserts n the headliner.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Force

[leafsprings]

To replicate the low profile oil cap used in Season 2, I cut out the grease cap on the AMT Freightliner wheels and fitted an AMT KW  rear axle cover. Will be painted frame color of course.

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by leafsprings

[Rockford]

You often see the chassis rendered in black on models of this truck, but I perceive that it was the same green as the bodywork. What are you doing with your rendition?

[leafsprings]

It is actually quite common for truck frames to be painted the same color as the cab, the Movin' On truck frame matches the cab color as well. Yes, all front and rear hubs will be green.

[Rockford]

I'm pleased to hear it. You've done your homework. 

[Force]

12 hours ago, Rockford said:

You often see the chassis rendered in black on models of this truck, but I perceive that it was the same green as the bodywork. What are you doing with your rendition?

 

11 hours ago, leafsprings said:

It is actually quite common for truck frames to be painted the same color as the cab, the Movin' On truck frame matches the cab color as well. Yes, all front and rear hubs will be green.

Yes the chassis with axles and suspension is the same color as the cab, hood and sleeper on the trucks used in the TV series.

A suggestion Tommy, take a small round needle file and do a small indentation between every other bolt on the axle covers and put in a small dot in the middle for the oil fill plug and they will look even closer to the low profile Stemco oiler hub cover.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Force

[leafsprings]

On 4/30/2023 at 1:38 AM, Force said:

A suggestion Tommy, take a small round needle file and do a small indentation between every other bolt on the axle covers and put in a small dot in the middle for the oil fill plug and they will look even closer to the low profile Stemco oiler hub cover.

I see what you mean, hard to see those details with darker color trucks, brilliant idea Hakan!

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by leafsprings

[Pete68]

Like the updates on the wheels nice. 

[leafsprings]

Finally got around to paint on the cab, front end, sleeper and frame. Usually, my builds are rattle can colors, but for this one, used scalefinishes Ford Ivy Glow via air brush. Because of the metallic nature, the color looks lighter or darker when in different light. This was a Ford truck color for '73 and '74. Last photos are what convinced me the '75 vintage KW was a lighter and brighter shade. Must have been  fairly brand new by the  shiny clean look of the Alcoas. IMO, the first season '73 KW ( with 50th anniv gold hood peak) was a slightly darker Ivy Bronze, a '72-'73 Ford car color. These photos were taken outside light. Will be polished out when paint is cured.

Edited May 29, 2023 by leafsprings

[Force]

Looks good.
The 2 season 1 trucks were 1974 models, not 1973, because the V.I.T. package with the luxury deep button diamond tuft interior, the 60 inch sleeper and the gull wing bumper didn't come until the 1974 model year and the trucks used in the series were as far as I know regular production V:I.T. trucks, but the 2 trucks in season 1 had gold KW bug and KENWORTH emblems anyway even tho' the gold emblems was for the 50th anniversary in 1973, and it's the same on the 1974 V.I.T. trucks on the promotional pictures I have...I don't know why but they did...maybe because the V.I.T. was a new special "top of the line" truck series, V.I.T. stands for Very Important Trucker and 1974 was the first year this package was available on the option list, I don't know but it's my guess.
The 2 season 2 1975 trucks had regular chrome emblems.
As we have discussed before I can't really tell what color the season 2 trucks were as information on them is scarce, I know for sure the season 1 trucks were painted Ivy Bronze and I do belive the season 2 trucks also had that color as the paint scheme is the same on them...but I have nothing to prove that as I have not found any information on it.
And to try to compare and determen what color it is looking at old photos or movie stills in different lights is not that easy as a color can look different depending on light, shades and quality of the photos.
To make it even more confusing the color name Ivy Bronze was available on 1971 Mercury and 1972-73 Fords except Mustang, the same color also go by the name Ivy Glow on 1972-73 Mustangs and Ford pickup trucks, and Ivy Glamour on 1973 Mercurys, all of these has the same color code M5072 and are the same color shade.
But the 1974 Ford pickup truck Ivy Glow color has a different color code M5396 and it's a different color shade from the earlier.
Never the less, it's your model and you do as you please and it will for sure look good ether way, so keep up the good work.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Force

[Rockford]

I keep looking for updates on this project. Good to see the colour going on! Can't wait to see it finished. Force makes a good point, that it is practically impossible to form an opinion on a colour from the TV screen or stills, probably because there was so much intense artificial lighting being used. Sometimes it looks really dark green and other times there's a like a golden tinge in the colour. Yours does look great though. Keep up the good work. 

[cifenet]

Great paint job!  Smooth!  You may not even need to polish this.   I know laying out a good paint layer is the half the battle, but this is progressing well.

[leafsprings]

22" Alcoa's from AMT Freightliner, Michelin Radials from the Revell KW kit and Cummins 6 cyl. and radiatior from the AMT KW kit.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by leafsprings

[Force]

Looks real good Tommy, this is what I would do.
But unfortunately the Freightliner wheels are not entirely correct, the raised part where the lugnuts are shouldn't be there as that part of the wheel is not raised on the real wheels.
On the real Alcoa tube style wheels there is a flat area where the lugnuts are and from that flat surface it is a smooth curve out to the edge with a small lip where the lock ring is seated as can be seen on the wheels in the picture below, no raised part what so ever.

But all the lock ring wheels in AMT truck kits has that raised part and it has allways bugged me as it doesn't look right.
On tubeless Alcoa wheels and some steel wheels there is a raised part where the lugnuts are, but not on the tube style aluminum wheels regarless if they are 5 or 10 holes.
Another thing with the Freightliner wheels is that if you don't do anything to them the lock ring sits too far out, it needs to be further in so the edge of the ring don't go past the edge of the disc part of the wheel itself, if one don't modify that the wheel looks to be almost like a wider floater wheel.
Here is another example to show what I mean.

Most people do not care about these things but I do as I want it to look right.

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Force