Old Albion

Ray, This looks a beast of a truck. Good photo angles helps to emphasise the details and the size of the truck and trailer. Looking forward to seeing the complete Michigan Train. Great Work!!

Well Done Ray!! This is looking great.

Ray, This is starting to look very impressive. Like the stripes as Tim says they look right at home on the Autocar. Great Work!

As Ray says "Good Start" Is this the Revell Pete 359 or the snap fit one?

I like the look of this. It definately has that vintage look about it. Great work so far!

Dave, Another superb project. The small items like the siren, lights etc, are these your own design or are they available as after market parts? Great work so far!!

Ray, I,m sure that Matt at Monkey Claw offers a similar modern KW conversion. Check out his web site. http://www.monkeyclawmodels.com/

One thing thats always puzzled me is how do the model companies carryout their research in determining what the market wants? Where do they get their information from. For example one of the most popular modern trucks in the North American market is the 379 Peterbilt. Yet no model company has produced one instead they go to the expense and trouble of manufacturing tooling and producing lesser known and less popular models ie 377 and the 378 Peterbilt. If anyone knows the answer I would like to know. Just as a matter of interest I wonder how many 379s 377s and 378s Peterbilt have sold?? Maybe there would be a similar ratio of model kits sold if the model companies produced a 379. Who knows? With regard to trailers I have plans to build a Michigan truck trailer that I saw on ebay sometime ago. The truck was a Mack R700, it was pulling a 5 axle dump trailer. I don't know what make of trailer this is. That Mack must be a beast of a truck, it really looks like its built for the job. What would a truck trailer like this gross?? I reakon 100,000lbs?? I have no real details of sizes etc so I will be using a lot of "Artistic License" and trying to gauge from the photo's. Either way I intend to have some fun building it, it looks a bit of a challenge. PS I hope the owner doesn't mind me using his photo.

This could be a little competition. Guess the country. I think its Germany.

Jim, This looks great. I like the interior colour works well with the white and the stripes. I notice you have BMF around the windshield. How do you do this? I've always wondered how its done. The stripes look delicate. I'm a bit heavy handed so I've always avoided them. Your work is of a good standard and something to be proud of. The first one back after such a long time away is always the most difficult but you soon get the hang of it.

Ray, With reference to the flat engine. The cummins and any other straight six engines is going to be quite tall. I assume that the engine sits flat below the frame. Is that why the turbocharger is on the side rail to give more clearance between the ground and engine. There would probably be a removeable floor panel in the bottom of the drom box??? Not much use when the truck is loaded. Exhaust Manifold to the bottom???? to keep the heat away from the drom and its load. The engine mounts hmm! Interseting problem. Will there be 3 off them to get the triangulation so the engine is always supported. Two will most probably be at the rear of the engine with one at the front. I assume all the mountings will be on the block only. This will allow for easy removall of the head, pistons etc when servicing and overhauling. The shape of the sump will need to be considered so that the oil pick up is at the lowest point and in the oil. One thing I havent quite worked out yet is whether the engine when looking from above is on the centre line of the two frames or whether it is offset. If it is on centre then there is a nice snug place for the bell housing and flywheel between the frames. If it is offset the engine will need to be lower for the bellhousing to clear the frame rail. My guess is that the engine is on centre between the rails. This makes much more sense. When you consider taking on a project like this with limited information. A lot of artistic license is needed. If you look at the vehicle from three aspects it may help you to resolve some of the build and design isses. 1. When freightliner built this truck how did they assemble it. 2. How did the driver drive it and how did he operate it? 3. How did the maintenance Engineer carryout routine and breakdown maintenance. This is an excellent project Ray and wish you well. Keep us posted on progress.

John, This truck looks great, I,ve never restored a glue bomb before but I bought a partially built AMT Kenworth that was missing the cab and hood for spare parts. Just trying to remove the bits from the frame that I wanted was a task in itself. Makes me more appreciate the work you and others have done on restorations. Great Work!!

Tim, Great looking truck. I haven't seen any models of the older style Freightliner conventional. This makes this truck pretty unique and that bit more interesting. Good attention to detail Superb!! 8)

Ray, Exhaust Pipes and Air Intake pipes from the kits never fit properly without some adjustments. I use as much of the pipe as possible. But to get the right bend angles so the pipes run in the right direction I first take a piece of round plastic tube the right diameter. Then I cut lots of little pieces all at varying angles. Once this is done I glue the different angled pieces together to make the desired bend. Finally when the glue has set I use some filler and then sand it so the bend looks smooth. Tedious but it works for me. Good Luck with the project. I like how its developing. By the way how is the KW?

Scott, Very Impressive. The attention to details is superb. Scratch building is great fun and very rewarding. Great Work!!

Ray, This is starting to look very impressive. The Autocar looks quite a big truck, very robust and well made. Well suited to pulling the pair of dump trailers. Great Work!

Anthony, This looks great. The finish on your trucks really is impressive, very clean, neat, good colour combinations and great ideas. Is that a pressure gauge I see on the hydraulic tank? Superb Truck!!

Superb!! 8) The colour scheme looks great all that chrome and the decals really set it off!! What a Great looking Truck, would love to have a go driving a real one.

There are a number of trailer kits available. Many have been re-released over the years. Try the model shops and of course eBay. Look for AMT, ERTL, Revell, Italeri. The dump trailer being refered to is the re-released AMT/Ertl Tri Axle Gravel trailer. This is reasonably priced and a is a good kit to build. Check some of the discussions on this web site for details of what people have done with this and other trailer kits. Also look for the scratch built trailers. There is obviously more work and planning but the results can be very rewarding. Either way what ever you decide to do Have Fun and Good Luck!

What a great idea. I might try that on a future build.

I painted the two halves completly seperate using differant base colours for both halves and the stripe. The trailer colours are as follows: Bottom Humbrol Maroon/burgandy No 20 Gloss top coat, base coat is a mixture of Revell No 36 matt red and revell No 8 matt black. I blended these together until it was as near as practically possible to the no 20 Gloss. Top Humbrol Grey No 5 Gloss top coat, base coat Humbrol No 106 matt grey. Stripe Revell gold No 94 top coat, base coat Humbrol No 82 matt orange. I have found that some of the Humbrol and Revell paints don't seem to have as much pigment in them as other colours, so I try and match the base colour to the top coat as best as I can to help with the overall finish. I,m not very good at painting, everytime I paint its a learning curve. But I can see that with experience I am improving. Many Thanks to everyone for the kind comments. Best Wishes

Ray, This is coming along great. Like your idea for the rust on the exhaust. Think I'll try something like that. Hope you get your truck sorted out soon. Good Luck!!

Dave, Check the Pete build page for details of the work done: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3105 The maroon paint is Humbrol No:20. This must be air brushed and you need a good base colour. I try and avoid the spray tins, the solvents that come off are evil. When I do use them its for small parts and sprayed outside in the open. The Tamiya and Humbrol brands are the ones I use. My local hobby shop stocks (Or used to stock) Humbrol paints and some Revell ones. Last I heard though Humbrol had gone into receivership and then the hobby shop closed. :roll: :x . There are no other hobby shops in the area so I,m looking on the internet for model shops. I found a really good one www.emodels.co.uk. These have a complete range of Revell paints Casey, Thanks for the comments. I like the little flag below your signature. Its good to remind people every now and then, that everything they have they owe to the efforts of others. We can't survive on our own without help and support from other people. Life is a team effort. Best Wishes

Craig, I like this Rig it looks great. The day cab Bison, Hiab, Low Boy and the colour scheme fit perfectly. Tim's right I checked some of those photo's it does look like the big Chevy belongs in one of Hank's photo's. Kurt's idea of oak planks sounds brilliant. I will definately try that some time. Great Work, keep us posted with progress. Best Wishes

Many Thanks for all the kind words. I'm pleased my little project has brought some pleasure to others makes it all more worth while. Thank You! I,m almost certain that my next project will be a Kenworth Heavy hauler based on the Alaskan hauler kit, but then I might have a go at a twin steer Autocar Dump Truck. We'll see. I was looking in the engine kit box yesterday and came across the DD 6-71N engine, that I bought some time ago. I remembered that this engine was serialised by Ken Smith in Detailing Model Trucks. The original engine that the write up was about was the Clint Freeman one. The one I have is the Griffin one. There is considerable difference and many parts are not supplied with the kit (As bought). I started to play around with the engine next thing I had started building it. This will be a fill in project while I get my head around the next major build and will post photo's when I can. Best Wishes