Ivor The Engine Driver

Boy, the thought of straight pipes on a 12-banger Detroit makes my ears beg for mercy!

Think I've finished with the wheels and tires. Drive wheels are from the kit. I glued small strips of square rod around them to add some character. Front tires are two-piece plastic from an old Tamiya parts pack. Added an eighth-inch spacer to create floats and glued on some more square rod. I don't know where the low profile floats came from -- they were in a bag of modeling parts I bought. The mud was an acrylic tan mixed with fine grain decorative sand.

We had a nice, quiet stay-at-home July 4th weekend and I made good progress on the stake bed or whatever it is loggers call these things. Made it of styrene strips. Working on the wheels and tires now.

Thanks. But I did need to disassemble the frame the first time because it was crooked. And I did strip the paint and weathering once because it was so bad. Before giving the frame another go I bought a Taurus kit, and coated and recoated the poor thing with mud, paint, dust and oil stains until I worked up enough courage to try the frame again.

This is a proof of concept project. The concept being: can a recently turned 70-year-old who hasn't built anything in 30+ years still create a semi-presentable model? I decided to find out after hearing that a new Transtar cabover was in the works and that at least one aftermarket vendor was selling International Emoryville cabs. These trucks resonate with me because I drove both for a time after getting out of the U.S. Army in 1972. Because I had my doubts that I could do justice to either of the Binder projects, I opted to build the AMT/MPC DM600 Mack to see if any modeling chops remained. At first I was going to build it straight out of the box, but mission creep set in, and it has evolved into a logging straight truck. Frame was lengthened two scale feet and I kluged up a pusher axle. This my first attempt at weathering. Well, second attempt. The first attempt looked like the Mack was assaulted by a toddler with crayons and eventually went down the kitchen sink. Frame paint is Tamiya orange. The dirt is a thinned tan craft paint thickened with very fine sand bought at a model railroad store. Rust was via the salt method. Working now on the tires and log box. Also looking for reference photos of the Mack 630 engine so I can do some plumbing.