Mike77

Looking good so far! Don't worry, I hit more than a few snags with mine.

Yep, the black/gold striping is from modeltruckin.com.

Nice rig! I have a friend who drives for Roehl.

Here's a mock-up of the Kenworth as I'm tackling the chassis work. I decided to go with dual air intakes so naturally I had to add a second air cleaner! Not necessary in the real world I'm sure but I had room on the frame for it. The fun part (Not!) will be doing all the intake and exhaust piping. Once it's time to permanently mount the cab and sleeper I'll line all the striping up. The emptiness under the sleeper will be dual chrome fuel tanks on both sides, and the area between the tool box and rear fenders on both sides will be a chrome KW conventional-style battery box with steps. It's gettin' there!

Lookin' good Jeff, you're nearing the finish line!

I have a couple of old 352 cabs and I thought about that but in the end I decided to fill that depression in with a piece of styrene. It looks like it could be a vent door as opposed to an exposed vent, which in our fantasy model world works for me. With the paint and striping over it it's barely noticeable.

Of the show or what we got there?

I showed up a little after 6am and stayed until the doors opened. I was pleased to see that after quite a few years of not making it there that it was still a very good show. It wasn't as big as it used to be but that's to be expected in the internet age. Honestly I feared it might be even smaller. I picked up a 1/16 Peterbilt kit and a Moebius trailer kit from the guys from Chrome Tech, as well as a couple of Hot Wheels display cases and some other odds and ends. I probably could've spent more $$$ but common sense prevailed. I definitely plan on going back in September for the next show there.

I'll be heading out the door for this one in a few minutes. I used to go regularly but I haven't made it there in several years for various reasons, so I'm interested to see how/if it's changed. I don't expect I'll come home with a carload of goodies but hopefully enough to make getting up at 4am on a Sunday worthwhile!

Thanks guys! I've built truck models off-and-on over the years since the 70's but I've never done a BJ rig. When I decided to do this project I didn't want to do just a standard BJ & the Bear recreation for two reasons...1) it's been done a million times already by other builders, and b) having to try to recreate every little detail based on which owner claims to have the most faithfully recreated copy of the original truck makes building it more like work than pleasure. This project is not meant to be a practical OTR truck, more of a fantasy piece that looks cool sitting on a shelf. I have most of the chassis done, I'm just waiting on a few pieces to arrive before it goes to paint.

Coming along great Jeff! You'll be putting "Under Glass" in no time.

Nope, just regular tandems. I see pics of conventionals with condo sleepers at least this long, and the cab/hood combo of a conventional is probably longer than a KW Aerodyne cab, so I figure I can get away with it. Believe it or not the sleeper was originally longer but after looking at it a little common sense prevailed and I took it down a notch. I had won an Ebay auction for a bunch of Aerodyne cab shells and that's how I made the sleeper. I wanted to make one that matched the cab roof rather than just a box-style sleeper. I've started on the chassis and it'll be 17-1/2"-long. Besides, it's a model...I don't have to drive it anywhere anyway!

I must've missed this one being that it's a post from last year...but WOWZAA!!! That's one killer-looking KW!!!! Are those lights on the backside of everything scratchbuilt or aftermarket?

Very nice build!

I got the main decals on today...it's actually starting to look like a rig now. I have some detailing to do before clear coating, then more detailing to do.

Lookin' good! It gives me motivation to get the decals on my project

Thanks guys! I wanted a drop visor but the aluminum one on Ebay has too much of a drop for my taste. Since I planned on painting it red anyway I went ahead and made one from styrene. Jeff, I check my decals and they all seem to be fine thankfully. I bought two full truck & trailer decal sets so that I'd have plenty for the extra sleeper and any potential decal application problems I might have. As with any masking there are several areas I have to tweek but nothing too bad. Yours is looking great and I think once I get the decals on mine it'll start looking like something. I still have to decide whether to put the stacks in between or run them all the way back. I've seen them both ways on these big COEs and I'm leaning toward running them all the way back to give a smoother transition between the cab & sleeper.

Model painting can be a real Bear sometimes, but I'm not monkeying around anymore. Who knows, maybe the paint fumes are making me a little bananas!

Thanks for the info. Hmmm...I guess I'll have to decide what to do with that spot.

On the KW Papa truck cab there's a rectangular recess on the front. On photos of the real truck(s) there's a vent there but in the kit there doesn't appear to be a part that goes there, nor is anything indicated on the instruction sheet. Should there be a vent there?

Just an update to say I've made a little progress. My father passed away last Thursday so it might be a bit slow-going on this project in the short term. I did get some white paint on everything but there's not much sense in posting pics as they wouldn't show anything different than the white primer pics.

Now that's when it really comes to life...when you get some red laid down on it. Sorry to see that terrible rash on your hand Jeff!

The start of another project in white primer...

Great progress Jeff! Quick question since I'm doing my first KW Aerodyne in years...how hard is it to get the interior tub in if the headlight piece is already attached to the cab? It'd make things easier on my project paint-wise to do it the way you're doing it.

Ok, maybe not.