Oldmopars

Is this the dually kit? If so are you keeping the dually set-up? I am in need of the wheels and tires from a dually if you are going a different direction. PM me.

My Square body is still a work in progress. I am not happy about the wheels, and plan to replace them with some resin ones or from the Ford F350 Dually kit. I still have a ways to go, but it is going to be a replica of my 1:1.

So, as many of you know the Big Rig Build Off has been going on for the last several months and it is coming to a close soon. This Dozer is part of the set I am building. There will be a truck, trailer and this Dozer. I figured I would post this here on its own, then when I am done I will put them all together as a set. Last year a huge fire came through my are and burned over half of my land (15 acres). My house was not touched due to the efforts of the fire fighters. Lucky for me what did get burned was just sage brush and so I lost nothing to the fire except weeds. Some of my neighbors lost fences, trees, bushes, but only 2 structures were damaged. So, this build is a tribute to the men and women that worked so hard to save our houses. I built this mostly from the box, but with a lot of details added. The weathering on this is light as the fire crews take good care of their stuff and will paint it when it gets beat up looking. The Hydraulic cylinders and the exhaust are both aluminum, the cross bar behind the blade is brass and the blade arms and the blade surface are both covered in foil to give it the steel look. I painted the arms then scraped off the paint to expose the "steel" under the paint like it had been worn off over time. Where I live we have really fine soil in areas and I used that to weather it. The mud, or dried on dirt is dirt from my yard mixed with Future and in some ares some paint. Its fine nature is perfect for the scale. The engine and hydraulic cylinders are plumbed and the engine was oiled up with some Tamia XF-1 black and Future for a was. Never saw an old Diesel that didn't leak oil, so it needed it. Paint is Rust-oleum Painters Touch 2X Gloss Apple Red with Rust-oleum Matte clear. Enjoy. Oh, and this was not a new kit. This was a glue bomb I got in a box with other stuff. It was a mess. Much of the details were required just due to the original parts being junk. SOmeday I may add a roll bar/cab, but for now time is about up and I need to finish the rest of the project.

Due to the time issues, I think I am going to call the Dozer, Done. I need to get working on the trailer, it still needs a bit to go and if I keep going on the Dozer, I won't hit the finish line. So, here it is.

Due to the looming deadline and 20 other projects, full scale and small, I will not get the roll bars done before the deadline. I hope to add them in the near future, but for now they will have to wait or I just won't get it done at all. So I have an update with a little more progress. This shows where I am going. I still have a lot to do, a lot of details need finishing, a lot of little parts need to be added or painted. The track is just set on there because the rollers are drying. The trailer wheels are just mocked up, not attached. I still need decals on the cab and trailer. Need to finish the trailer deck. Its looking like Balsa wood will be my best bet. Everything else I have tried ends up too thick to be the right scale visually. I will just stain it and dirty it up a bit and it will look good. Inching ever closer to the finish line. I had big ideas to do more, but it is going to be close to get done what I am doing. 3 kits, fully rebuilt in 6 months is a tall order.

Very nice. It looks great. The light weathering is spot on.

As a big time fan of the 60's A body cars, I am loving this. During our early marriage my wife had a 64, I had a 63, 60, and a 63/65 Dart Wagon. Her brother had a 65 Signet and I later had a few 70's Valiants and Darts. I always wanted a Convertible, but never found one in decent shape for a decent price.

As I said before, progress has been slow. The B.R.B.O. in the truck area is keeping me busy. I am doing a tuck, trailer and Dozer to be done by month end. Anyway, I did get some color on the van From the beginning I have wanted this to look like a 70's van. So, the colors I chose are right on for the look I wanted. I have some orange,yellow, brown stripes from a 70's Dodge Ramcharger that will go on to finish the 70's look. I have a long way to go, and a short time to get there. But here it is for now. As you can see in the pictures, I have a few buggers to final sand out of the paint. I need to wait till it has dried for about a week before I do anything about those. This paint has to be really dry before I play with it. I learned the hard way.

I do not think the theme was bad at all, I love the idea. I have been so busy with a 1:1 motorcycle build, riding, working and the B.R.B.O in the truck section, that my Van has been a little neglected. I did get some paint on it, but that is about it.

As long as you are listing the kits short comings, don't forget that the headlights are way too high in the body and need to be brought down. The cab is a pain in the rear to assemble, and the cab catches on the bumper when you tilt it. Other than that it is a basic poor quality old AMT kit. I have several and they can be built into a nice truck, just needs a little extra attention.

I have not done it and I doubt anyone else has either. I do not think the D8H was every offered in a track loader option. I could be wrong, but I can't find any pictures of one anywhere, other brand, other Cats, but not the D8H. With that said, if you really want a loader, it could be done. It will be a complete scratch build and you will have to use another dozer as a guide. Give it a go and show us what you end up with.

I gave up on them, bent a nice paper clip to the right shape and glued the mirror on with Super Glue. The wire from the paper clip is better to scale anyway. I drilled holes in the cab to put the wire into. That way it holds and I am not fighting it.

Well, between busy life, ADHD, and Motorcycle season starting, the project has not been getting the attention it should. I am still making progress, but slow. The cab is 99% done, just needs a few decals. The trailer is about 85%, still need to add the wood deck and wheels and tires. The Dozer is a little farther behind, maybe 60% done. However I have painted most of it and started on the weathering. The truck will have very little weathering on it, it is a Fire truck and fire departments take care of their stuff and still looks new after many many years. The trailer will be lightly weathered, it is a trailer for hauling the dozer, it will see more damage and it would not be as clean and perfect as the truck, but still nice. The dozer will be the heaviest weathering. It will look fairly nice on the top sections, ut the lower areas will show the use that it gets. It will also not be shiny. I have hit it with some Matte clear to take the shine off. It will not be beat up at all, but will look like it just came out of the field after being used. As you can see in the first picture, the truck is near perfect, the trailer a little used, the dozer most of the paint on the lower half is gone and it is dirty, not shiny.

Remind us, what is the deadline? I have the cab finished, the trailer almost done, but the dozer is a long way off. I may have to just call it good with cab and trailer.

Looks great to me. Very well done. I like these trucks. You build a fine example of the FH-16

I built one. Several here helped with pictures and reference. Take a look at the thread here:

Very cool, I never knew that they used Aluminum for the frames. Seems like that would be expensive and lead to problems in salty areas.

Thanks, that looks good. I want to replicate some trucks used here locally during the fruit harvest season. Mainly I want to replicate the trailer, but it needs to be pulled by some kind of reasonable modern, but not too new day cab. Most are Internationals, but the right trucks are not in kit form and I just can't afford all it would take to do one of the resin cabs out there.

It would be the snap kit. I prefer the look of a day cab to the bulky sleeper.

I picked up a Revell W900 and was looking to see if anyone has converted one of these to a Day cab. I know that the tow truck version is a day cab, But is it even the same kit base? Anyway, I really like this W900 and it seems I could convert it, but was hoping to see some others that have been done. Both this sites search and Google did not return anything useful.

The 60's-80's at least GM and Chrysler (maybe Ford too) tried to make the turbine engine work in both cars and trucks. The power was never the issue, noise, fuel consumption and finally Emissions killed these things off. There was just no way to get that turbine engine to meet the strict emissions standards for a cost that allows for mass production and a profit. I wish they had been able to make it work, I would love to have a "Jet" powered car or truck. I think the most successful of all the Turbine projects was the 60's Chrysler Turbine cars. They made 55 and "Leased" them to customers to test. They used them all over the USA and logged a Million miles testing them. After the test most of them were destroyed, but a few survived, Jay Leno of course has one of them. Interesting time in Automotive history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Turbine_Car

I love this idea. I grew up in farm country and these things were all over the place. Also ones with tanks for spraying. Cool idea, look froward to seeing it progress.

Yes and no. ADHD can be a pain sometimes. I have been working on the BRBO, but then I got side tracked and I am building the Dick Mann Honda 750 racer, but turning it into a Cafe style bike. I guess I needed a mental purge. Parts of the BRBO are still on my bench and I did get some painting done and I am waiting for it to dry. So, I have not totally abandoned the project. The paint I chose is very slow to dry and I found that if I rush to work on it, it just goes to poo. I am better to paint, then leave it a lone for a week or 2. So, ya. ADHD.

You have done a great job on this one. Doing the front suspension had to have been complex. Add to it that the front of the frame is not even close to symmetrical. The whole front of the frame on these vans are off-set. I am impressed that you were able to make it all work like it should.

BTW, the REAL Daisy Duke Jeep was a CJ-7, longer wheel base and had the square door openings. The kit is not even close to the Jeep used in the show. And yes, I know in the show they would use anything that even resembled a Jeep for some of the stunts and a few CJ5's may have been used, but the main Jeep was a CJ7. At some point they decided to run the Jeep with no doors, so the "Dixie" logo was moved to the hood to replace the "Golden Eagle" that was on the hood. Otherwise it was just a CJ-7 Golden Eagle.