Pete68

Your welcome. I never noticed anything wrong on the truck tank besides the decals will be the main attraction.

What is the deal with them this year and it’s not just because of the Holiday season. I’m sorry to hear that Gary I’ll still be watching

More impressive updates enjoying this build as well as the other high end talented modelers on here.

Nice job on the Power Plant.

Not necessarily Steve it’s called “Modeling” and doing what you enjoy building and the ones who enjoy watching your incredible updates to these static models are very impressive and shows the craftsmanship and talent you have. Like you I enjoy the “Odd Scales” getting out of the main stream sometimes is a good refreshing start. Build what you enjoy my friend we’ll be here watching your magic.

Looks good Jürgen chrome turned out nice.

The Brake shoes are impressive just like the rest of the build great craftsmanship

Nice job again on this conversion. There’s something I like better on the 86’ bunk than the standard one. Great job on the Posable steering I’ll be falling along.

I thought I would do a review on the AMT 1/43 Peterbilt 359 kit and it’s history. This is probably my favorite out of the Model Truck Kits AMT offers. My first encounter with this truck was around 1977 when my Mom bought the Dannon Yogurt Truck & Trailer set for me. I was around 8 years old. Over the years I’ve collected all the TnT series and sold them then bought what I could back. If you get a chance look up the October 1973 issue of Overdrive Magazine Phil Jensen does a great article on this Model and Tips how to build it with its flaws. So let’s get into the history of the AMT 1/43 Peterbilt 359 T-700. The model was first Announced in the 1973 AMT Catalog along with the Fruehauf Reefer, Fruehauf Exterior Post Van, and the Kenworth Cabover. Here’s a pic of a copy of the announcement my brother Bill made for me in 1988. This Copy was in the following year Announcing the release of the Peterbilt/Holmes Wrecker T-705 and now we have Box Art. Different Box Art. From its debut in 1973 these were the Box Art till 1976 when they dropped the sales of the single Box kits. After 1974 AMT starts adding French writing to the Box lids The Glass: For some odd reason and I can’t find any source of what years they did this or if it was a random thing but AMT add to some of the earlier 1/43 Peterbilt kits Tinted Class. I have a few but these are very rare In 1975 The Sears Wish Book offered the Peterbilt 359 with the Fruehauf Reefer Trailer as a exclusive only to the retailer. I’ve never seen what the box art looked like but on a guess I’m thinking it was a value pack with the Boxes below with the sticker on the boxes. In 1974 1/43 Peterbilt made the front cover of the AMT Model Catalog and sharing the spotlight with it’s Big Brother in 1975. Pretty impressive I thought. In Mid year 1977 AMT announced the Truck & Trailer Combo Kits with the Peterbilt 359 and the Peterbilt 359 Holmes Wrecker T-785 to be the first in the series. Also they released a exclusive Truck & Trailer set for K-Mart. 1978 Matchbox/Lesney bought AMT and moved them to Baltimore MD. from Troy MI. and the TnT molds went also. They kept releasing the Peterbilt 359 as a Truck & Trailer Set and started re-selling again the single model kits until Ertl bought AMT dropping the 1/43 Truck & Trailer sets only. Here’s some box art of those years from 1979-1983. This one is a very rare and hard to find Here’s some pics of the Ertl years. Sadly 1987 was the last year for the 1/43 Peterbilt 359. Heller releases the 1/43 Peterbilt 359 Truck & Trailer and The Peterbilt/Holmes Wrecker in 2007-2008 This is the 2007 Box Art notice it’s very different and “Peterbilt” is missed spelled. I hope you enjoyed this review of this little gem. I wish AMT would have kept going with this 1/43 line of trucks by adding a Cabover Peterbilt 352. I’ll be doing more reviews on AMT 1/43 TnT series in the near Future.

I thought you would like it Ken. I hope it helps.

Just Beautiful Ron. You did a great job on that Acar I’ll be looking for it over on Under Glass.

Yes I’m having the same problem with the Mail not because of the holidays either had a package late summer made to my post office then was resent to Omaha NE. I live in Missouri after that it went to Texas and got delivered at a different address. Glad the seller on eBay printed me another set of decals and he got a refund from the postal service. Had one this week I tracked do the same so I called our local office and intercepted it yesterday before it left again because this package could not get replaced.

Me too They we’re a neat color. I’m planning some day to do a 1/43 Kenworth K-123. Ken here’s a pic I found for you on the net.

Great looking collection Jürgen I really enjoy looking at you Model trucks they never get boring. That trailer is going to look awesome. Last night I dug out some old 1/43 tank bodies I’ve had for many years thinking of a plan for a set of 1/43 double Tankers. I’ll be following along when your ready to finish the trailer and maybe give me some pointers.

Yes that’s correct. They added stack mounts to the Pete cab and swap the Alcoa old style front wheels for a more Tube type modern wheels instead of the original ones that look like a Split Rim. No chrome as you mentioned and the tires are the plastic glue together kind which AMT offered after about a couple years of the release of these kits. Some day I will do a info thread on these little gems and there history and their dirty little secrets they have you never catch until it’s too late and the model is built. I’ve collected and built a few of these since I was very young at one time having all of them that AMT put out and a couple AMT/ERTL and one Matchbox.

Not who you think it was eBay. If you think it was Bill he will not part with his I bought all of his a couple years and he regrets selling them. So he bought his Collection back again after I bought his first one and now I doubt if he would sell them.

AMT just made 4 Trucks and 2 Trailers. Peterbilt 359 California hauler Peterbilt 359 Holmes Wrecker Kenworth K-123 Cabover Kenworth K-100 Areodyne Fruehauf Beaded side Trailer with RL Thermo King Reefer Freuhauf Exterior Post

Thought I would start a topic for the Truck guys like me on the cool Truck/Trailer stuff you guys get. Post any related Big Rig Truck/Trailer Model stuff you have gotten lately. I got these this week in the Mail. The 1/43 Pete has the rare tinted smoke glass. The decals are from Model Truckers. All decals I got are in 1/43 scale

Well I’ve got a few more 1/32 to finish and that’s it for me for good while. Think I’m going to stay in 1/43 Scale it’s a nice satisfying scale for me and I’m weird like that 😂

Your welcome Brian

Your welcome

Yes it did especially back in the eastern states where back then the roads were terrible. Very cool you rode in a Crackerbox always liked the looks of that truck but never really wanted to build a model of one.

Sorry I missed this one Steve another great build in 1/32 scale and transforming it to a more convincing look.

Beautiful Kenworth I like the paint scheme. Well done

Nice build