Ack! Ack-ack!

Hugh, enjoy this really nice kit! One problem should be fixed while still building: The snow plow brings a lot of wheight onto the front wheels. Unfortunately the tire walls are rather thin, so the high wheight will flatten the front tires sooner or later. I recommend either to lower the plow completely in order to take away the excessive wheight. Or block the front wheels and glue blocks of styrene under the rims in order to prevent the tires from being pressed down. Actually the colour choice is limited. If you want to build a German road maintainance vehicle of a public owner the authentic colour scheme is always a yellowish orange body with a black chassis. My instruction sheet says that this is also true for Swiss and Dutch vehicles, only Austrian vehicles have light blue bodies.

I am not sure if Unimogs are known in North America. Some information may be useful. The first Unimog (Universal-Motor-Gerät) was designed shortly after WW 2 originally as a light agricultal vehicle. Because of its unique off-road abilties, is manoeuvrebility und numberless attachments its successors were widely used f. e. by the building industry, energy suppliers and emergency services. Armies worldwide use Unimogs as light trucks, there are even armoured reconnaissance vehicles on Unimog chassis. Unimogs are really ubiquious as the backbone of road maintainance in Germany. Even the smallest village has its own Unimog with various attachments. In summer they are used f. e. as street sweepers, for mowing grass and cleaning road signs, in winter they are used as snow blowers and (as shown on the model) as snow plows with salt spreaders. I had this Revell Germany kit for many years (I think it is out of production now) and built it some years ago. Its quality was rather high and building it was a pleasure. If you are interested in this unusual vehicle I would recommend the kit if it is still obtainable.

I am really pleased with the response for this model. Thank you all, I appreciate it very much!

Flawless model and a spectacular interior shot!

Perfect!

This is an Arii kit I built 10 or 15 years ago. The old Japanese instruction sheet gives no clue when the kit was released. To my knowledge it is still available. The only issue I dimly remember was a fit problem of the windscreen. Though a nice replica it is 1/24 scale, so among other models of American cars it looks rather big.

Both are beautiful, but I love the blue one!

Thanks for the feedback and sorry for this very late reply due to three boring weeks of seaside holidays without modeling. I would call the base colour of the cab rather medium ivory, i. e. a mixture of much white, some yellow and a little red, maybe one or two drops of black. I always use Humbrol and Revell enamels. I still have the sealed jar with the blue mixture. My writing on a piece of tape says that it is 50% Humbrol #15 Midnight Blue and 50% Revell #52 Blue.

Another perfect colour scheme on one of your models!

Perfect colour scheme, beautiful rig!

Simple but attractive colour combo!

Nice colour! I love the door lettering!

Jürgen, thanks a lot. Once again I appreciate your helpfulness. Would you mind sending me your German e-mail address by pm? Discussing questions not of general interest directly would be less inconvenient than posting them via USA in the MCM Forum.

Jürgen, thanks for the great explanation. Your technique doesn't seem to be too difficult provided that one has the required tools. But this is the problem, unfortunately I don't have a XY-table and I am afraid it would be way too expensive for me. Do you see any chance to cope without it?

Thanks for the compliments! As mentioned I foiled the grille. To be honest I never liked Alclad very much so I use it only on very small parts. If foiling is possible I use BMF but if its orange peel look becomes too obvious on large areas I use household foil.

Super clean and VERY beautiful!

Very nice colour combination & paint scheme!

Hi, I built this one five or seven years ago. Actually it was a nice kit without major issues except some poor chrome parts. Particularly annoying were several deep ejector marks on the visible side of the chromed grille. The only remedy was sanding and foiling the complete grille.

What a unique and flawless model! Still wavering I followed the link you gave in the Mack thread for the GMC 9500 cab. The link explains a lot but not how you made the grille. I searched the web, no other carefully finished cab touches your result, not least because of the grille. It looks like a PE part. Unfortunately etching would be beyond my skills. In case it is not etched how did you make it?

Two impressive rigs! The unusual load of the Peterbilt is particularly attractive.

Convincing workhorse, nice scene!

Well done! Without junior modelers modeling will become a dwindling hobby (I am afraid it already is ...).

Jürgen, thanks for the trouble! This is the detailed and meaningful information I was looking for. Obviously most appropriate would be Dodge COE, International and Mack C, but the Dodge cab is presently unavailable and in my view the original Mack C looks a bit odd. Therefore most likely I will start the Fleetstar but I am not yet completely determined. The picture of your GMC that chuckyr posted here is soooooo beautiful ...... Anyway thanks again!

Thanks a lot! I have just edited my first post and added 4 pictures. I hope you like them.

Thanks for the compliments! It is often luck of the draw if colours and paint schemes on a finished model really turn out as nice as hoped for. This model is one of the few exceptions when I was really happy with the result. Unfortunately I have no WIP pictures. Probably I would have taken WIP photos if I really had been sure to finish the trailer successfully . The unusual length of the complete rig made photos very difficult unless from a rather sharp angle. Otherwise the increasing distance between model and camera made details of the model hardly perceptible. I am going to take some additional big photos of the tractor without the trailer probably tomorrow.