dptydawg

Great job of scratch building. Detailing on the hydraulics is excellent. It looks real sharp. What are you planning to attach the scraper blade to? Carl

Very nice work. Your shop looks very good Carl

sharp looking truck, Dan. Those big Horns were a tough truck in their day. For some reason though they were not very popular with fleet owners. I like the display base that you have. carl

Hi Bob I'm sure that you have checked out this site as part of your references but others might be interested in just what the Smith brothers turned out. http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/s/smith/smith.htm I was talking with an old time Labatt's driver on the weekend and he said that at one tiime they had a Smith brothers custom wrecker that had the streamliner cab, but it was sold reather than restored. You are making great progress on your tractor. Good work on the engine. Carl

Bob, quite a few years back Old autos magaxine did an extensive article on the restoration of the LaBatt's truck. I don't know if they have an archive section and I don't know when it was published, but it might be worthwhile checking with them for reference material. You can fine them at http://www.oldautos.ca/ You are progressing quite nicely with this project. Carl

There is a diecast 1/25th scale Cat 3516B Genset made by Northcot. It can be detailed up quite nicely Revel Germany also made a V10 genset as a load for their 6 axle flatdeck It is very basic and need a lot of work to detail it out. I think that this may have been patterned off a Sultzer V12 motor but it was condensed to fit the box. Carl

Those trucks had to be the all time coolest beer haulers. I've always wanted to build one but never got arround to it. I'll keep a keen eye on yoour progress. Carl

Kevin, That is a sharp looking truck. Do you have iany history on the FWD mixers? The Budd cab looks as good on it as any of the Fords or Macks. Looking forward to seeing your results If I get the RRR to the top of my to do list it will likely be as an 8X6, not the 10X6. Carl

This is on my to do list to build it is a Rubber Railway 5 axle articulated concrete truck. The centre axle is missing from the front section of the mixer. The original is a one off machine. There were several 4 axle mixers built but this is the only 5 axle one. The original is currently being restored by a local cement company. I would like to recreate this truck in 1/25th scale. Carl

Hi Alex The paint I use on Detroit Deisel engines is Badger 16-47 light green water based acrylic. Its the closest thing I've found to the right colour. Hobby shops that specialize in model trains often carry Badger paints. Thanks Carl

When I first reead this string I thought that I have a couple duelly models that I could post. Seems I have several. Most are from the fire service though. This is a Dodge Van cab and chassis with a RoG Unimog fire rescue bdy grafted onto it. I added duel wheels to the van. This one is a diecast 58 Chevy that I built a new flatbed for and converted it into a service truck. The engine was replaced with a 4V-71 Detroit. A Matchbox F450 diecast converted to a mini-pumper A 1969 MPC firetruck kit AMT Dodge 1996 Ram2500 Snapkit

Hi Geoge, Interesting model. Nice job of scratch buikllding and weathering. Carl

Nice job of scratch building and weathering the old girl. \it looks a lot like the farm trucks that I see around here. carl

It looks like most of the plow trucks in my neighbourhood. Excellent job of weathering. it looks quite real. Carl

This project is close enough to done to call this truck in service. I started off with a diecast 1/24th scale Matchbox model of a KME F450 Ford mini-pumper I wanted to replicate our Summit F550 Compressed Air Foam mini-pumper (Call Sign 11-2) . Since the original was a diecast I gave up on the idea of converting it to a 4 door cab and went with a standard cab instead. After a lot of scratch building here are the results as 11-2 arrives at the fire hall The only diecast bits left are the door skins hood and cab. Everything else is plastic. Thanks for looking Carl

Hi Cato this tank is approx 47X17X23 outside dimentions. The glass is about 1/2"thick. I made a frame of coner moulding and added a plexi shelf in the middle and a plexi top. The whole thing weighs well over 100 lbs. I bought a heavy duty work bench stand when they came on sale at Princess Auto. mounted 3/4"ply fore shelves and top, put caster underneath it and the aquarium on top. All in probably about $200 for everything. I have no idea about the make. bought it from a large pet store that had a sale goiing on. Thanks Carl

Hi Derick The Unimat is OK for plastic but useless for anything harder. The mill set up works well. it is limited in the size it will handle. \i'm not a machinist so the unimat is probably a lot more capable than I am. I've had this one for many years now. Thanks Carl

I have three old jewellry store glass case that I display some of my models in. I put a set of casters under two of them so that they can be rolled about easier. I sometimes set p displays at historical machinery events. I also have a a 100gal aquarium that I use as a display case. Dioramas suck up a lot of real estate. Most of my non diorama models are displayed on a large roadway diorama table ore on wall shelves Thanks Carl

Your cat is comming together very nicely. The ROPs and winch are excellent scratch builds. Your weatherig is looking good. Carl

Great looking dio, Melvin. You have done a nice job of weathering the car and driveway. Now you need to build a figure of yourself balanced on the roof of the car burning some rod into the goal post. That would sell the story without any need for etra narative. Carl

Here are a few of my scratch built models. thanks for the oppertunity to show them The cab and chassis of this Scot Fire truck are all scratch built from Evergreen bits. The body work and ladder are a severly bashed AMT ALF ladder kit. This is a 1/25th scale model of a Tom Sandy Gravel crusher. it is totally scratch built except for a few parts box items. A model of a Lombard steam powered log hauller. It is scratch built around a boiler and other pieces from the 1/25th scale General steam engine kit. Thanks for looking Carl

I've had a Unimat 1 for several years now. It works fine with plastic and wood. its suposed to turn soft metal but I've never had a great deal of success. I was using mine this afternoon to turn out a straight bore fire nozel. Strangely enough I recieveed an email today from the Unimat dealer with his Christmas specials. This is the link to Unimat www.unimat-1.com I hope this is useful Carl

This is one of the DG productions pole trucks. I'm not real sure that they still exhist, But there are still models available from time to time. Carl

Now retired I spent 30 years in the nuclear industry as an operator. The last 20 licenced as a control room operator by the CNSC (Canadian equivelent on the NRC). I also spent 37 years as a volunteer fireman. Retired from that as a chief. Thanks Carl

I'm assuming that the break is at the pivot point on the front axle. You may have to reinforce the axle with a bit of brass or plastic strip epoxyed onto both halves of the axle. There will be quite a bit of stress on the joint because the weight of the tractor's engine is all on that pivot point. You may have to sacrifice the pivot and glue the axle solidly to the tractor. Carl