Old Albion

Jarda, Thanks for posting details of this exceptional build. I have had a look through all the photo's you have posted, very impressive and reallistic. The details and weathering are superb. Dave

For oil, diesel and air lines I use a piece of fine electric wire. Strip off the sheath (black rubber bit) and use this for the lines. Dave

Tim, Great looking truck. I like the 4 axle trailer as well. Nice combination. Dave

Kurt, This really is an impressive project. Is the frame and hood cast in reasin? Or is that the colour of the plastic in the kit. The reason I ask is I have an AMT Alaskan Hauler in the same colour. When I first got the kit I thought someone had made a resin copy. But that was how it was made by AMT. Thanks for sharing. Dave

Tim, Those photo's look superb. An excellent subject and build. It really does have the 1970's look. Dave

Jarda, The engine detail looks great!! Very impressive indeed. As for the front tyres and wheels these always looked odd to me. I have a plan to build this kit sometime in the future and will use the KFS wide wheels and tyres. Dave

Mike, I like the interior details and the dash especially, that looks great. Also that rusty manifold on the engine looks very realistic. I may try that on a future build. Such a simple snap kit, but yet with a bit of imagination it can be transformed into a very inrteresting truck. Very Nice work!! Dave

Kevin, Looks good so far. The Transtar really is a great kit and well worth getting. Dave

Many Thanks for all the kind words. Its not the easiest kit to work with, the instructions and some of the parts leave a lot to be desired. But with a little perseverance the result is quite pleasing. Thanks Again Dave

Well I finished this a couple of days ago. A very interesting project which I enjoyed a lot. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Thanks for looking. Dave http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/kenworth-alaskan-hauler/

Kurt, Its good to see your making progress on this one. Keep up the good work. Dave

Jarda, I think you will find that the kit radiator and cowell are not quite right for the 3408. Its a big engine and needs a lot of cooling. The kit radiator is perhaps a little thin and the cowell is flush. If you move the engine back and rework the radiator and cowell it should be OK. Check the 359 Pete below in the photo. Hosted on Fotki http://public.fotki....ference-photos/ Look at the alignment between the air breather pipe work and the compressor on the turbocharger. Also the rear of the radiator cowell and its position relative to the end of the front of the frame. Hope this helps. Dave

I'm not keen on the idea of seperate sections for builds and discussions. Many of the discussions stem around a build topic and question the need for splitting them. I do think that it would be good if we could have certain topics pinned to top of the truck forum, for example the thread about engine types and colours. Dave

Dennis, The paint work is excellent! Great project! Dave

Superb weathering! They look great. Dave

Jim, A superb looking truck. The colour really suits it. Nice work. Dave

Scott, Excellent details and weathering. Superb project and one to be proud of. Dave

Tony, Thanks for the kind words. Yes I will be doing some weathering, although I have not decided how much. But it will look like its done some work. Gordon, I must appologise. I forgot to say that it was the frame rails only that I used from KFS. I used some of the KW frame stretchers and made 2. The KW frames rails and stretchers are pretty unique and a generic frame is not accurate enough. I did consider streching the kit frame, but decided that it would be better to keep the kit rails for a possible future KW project and use the KFS rails for this build instead. Dave

Gordon, The frame is the one from Howard at Kit Form Services. http://www.kitformservices.com/tq.html Check item TQ88 Dave

Tim, I have various lengths of plastic round rod. I have a length which was the right diameter for the cap. All I did was to file and sand the radius on the end to the desired profile. Once this was done the cap was cut off to the correct length. A small piece of rod was glued to the side for the snorkel elbow Hope this hlps. Dave

Rob, I wondered about this myself. But came to the same conclusion as you, that the snorkel picks up warmed air from the engine. Dave

Chuckyr, This is one of the photo's I have been using for reference. Note the breather and the exhaust. Also the bottom tie rod on the right hand mirror, cranked to miss the top of the breather cap. This truck has no sun visor fitted and can only assume thats to stop a build up of snow and ice between the windscreen and visor. Dave

Excellent! Nice colour combination. Dave

Sergey, The attention to details especially those hinges are increadible. Dave

A little update. The KW is almost finished and ready for paint. I'm just finishing off some of the pipe work for the exhaust and air intakes. Hopefully I can start painting this week. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/kenworth-alaskan-hauler/ Thanks for looking. Dave