Andy Oldenburg

After building a few shiny stock and custom cars, I was longing to try something real dirty again. So, car wise 😂. This Revell pickup was at hand and I am not the first to build one with a rough patina body. Thinking about how to give it my own spin I came up with a dump bed. I knew this would not be a simple chore, but I had ideas about the engineering and in the end it all worked out fine. For some details you might want to check the WIP thread I had during the building process. The paint job was a lot of fun. Not having to worry about dust or messy spots. But the work does add up. On this body I started with a grey primer, then a rust colored layer, the top coat in off-white plus the blue stripe (all Molotow rattle cans). After several stages of sanding and salt treatment, I then built up the detailed rust effects with different AK rust, smudge and weathering colors, applied with a rough sponge. Makes about 12 steps. Just about everything on this build is box kit. I did add many details though on the interior and engine and bay. The lifting mechanics of the bed and carved and cut from styrene rods and sheet, plus a few brass rods of different diameter. I opened the doors and the bed door and made the hinges from 1mm brass rods. The closed cabin doors are held in place with super magnets hidden in the door panel and the bench. For the bed I was happy to find a scale matching checker plate in aluminum. Building the interior was fun too. I had this idea of the imagined owner, probably a gardener, still driving dad´s or grandpa´s old truck. Still running, but over the top due to hard work and nobody caring about the looks. The bench is wrecked, the holes covered with an old blanket. Extra details all over the dash, including a big coffee thermos mug. of course, the interior is a mess too, including an old pizza box. The engine received a decent amount of detailing. Lines, cables, hoses, and the pulley wheels are all connected with a rubber belt. Everything adequately smudged and rusted. The undercarriage has some extra detailing with the lifting mechanics and the cables for the parking brakes. The kit shocks for the front and back were replaced with home made absorbers (styrene tubes and brass rods), and I wrapped real looking springs from 1mm aluminum wire. I hope you like the finished build. Thanks for all the cool reactions during the WIP process and thanks for giving this post your attention! If you would like to see the pickup in "action", I would be pleased if you watched the video: https://youtu.be/40tImz2U_do

Hello Espo, Zippi, Meechum and all the others (no offense for not mentioning😊), thanks for your kind replies! I wanted to take pics of the finished build yesterday for the "under glass" post, but the light was crappy. It´s gotten autumn and dark so fast😕😒😖. Had to delete everything and hope to get that done this weekend. Best model building wishes, Andy

I´m turning into the finishing straight and have only a few things left to do! The engine has received a decent amount of grime to match the body. I added some details and am quite satisfied with the looks. After it´s dropped into the engine bay though, only half of the details will be visible...😕 The distributor is home made from aluminum tube and brass rod, the lines fit into the thin gap between them. Further added: throttle with spring, fuel line, pulley wheels with a rubber "v-belt". I deconstruct the kit part and remake the wheels to match the belt. Everything was treated with AK rust streaks and engine grime. I also added radiator hoses and hoses for the air conditioner. I strip the copper filament out of the vinyl and fill it with wire. The wire I can stick and glue into holes in the block, so I can bend them into any direction without fear of tearing them off again. . Attached to the chassis, all those lines and wires look a mess. The radiator is glued in place and will fit smug into the bay. This looks very neat now. The lines are all in place. I enhanced the bay with extra details: The brake booster received it´s brake line, the battery has better contacts with wires, a relay connects the main lines. The dump bed is working fine! There is only a little bit left to do now. Soon, I will show the finished build on an "under glass" thread. Thanks to everyone that took a look and for your friendly support!

With some builds I like to imagine a story or setting to match my build in real life. Especially if the 1:1 car could have a "story". In this case the owner is a gardener or farmer. His old pick up was handed down by his father or ever grandpa. He keeps everything running and in good shape, but would not spend a dollar on the looks. Neither on the outside or the inside. Of course the interior is in a messy condition. On the dashboard I added some trim around the glove compartment and a parking brake lever. That gardener is a coffee addict so he needs a big thermos can close at hand. The bench is all run down. Covering the holes with an old blanket must do and that has gotten quite dirty itself. From his last lunch on the job a old pizza carton is still left. The floor is covered with rubber mats I cut from a thin place mat. The door panels are enhanced with fabricated handles. Everything has received its fair amount of patina. The dash and the floor with the bench are attached and the gap at the rocker will be filled in the end after connecting the body with the chassis. I´m not so happy with the detailing of the suspension with this kit. The springs are non existent and the shock absorbers look too crummy. I made my own shocks with styrene tubing and brass rods. The springs are wrapped from 1mm aluminum wire, easy to bend and move into the right shape. The rear drive axle is connected to the chassis with brass rods. Painted flat black, they hardly show afterwards, but keep the axle in the correct place and will hold the weight well. The shocks have received some patina and the spare wheel is mounted. The parking brake lines are made of thin jewelry cable I found at a crafts store. The pulling part is crafted from 1mm brass tube and styrene rod. I connect certain small parts with wire pins. I was one day tired of messing my models while gluing the door handles and mirrors. Things go wrong so easily. Now I drill the parts 0.5mm and stick them on brass wires. I can now determine the exact point to which I want to attach them and then glue with white glue. No more slipping or running. Here are those parts attached. You can also see the half open windows on the door. The wheels have their share of patina and rust. And valves also made of 0.5mm brass rod. The bed door is connected and working well. I´m working on the engine now and hope to get done completely during the next 2 weeks. I will show up again! Best wishes, Andy

It was about time to follow up on this build. Thanks for your patience. The mechanics were all done and I was looking forward to the paint work. Since this is going to be a rust bucket it always is exiting what the final looks will be. After fine sanding the body parts I sprayed a base coat of gray to check any flaws in my work, a bit of putty was necessary. Then a layer of rust brown to be covered by the off-white of the "original" car. Now it looked almost like the unpainted model parts again. To give the body a little bit of class I added a stripe of light blue to run around the the whole build. Now comes the messy part of sanding and finishing the body to get that rusty, dirty look. After sanding with 400 and 800 grit the body looked like this. Not so bad, and if one was in a hurry you could leave it like that. But it does look quite one dimensional. To treat the parts with rust and grime I use a piece of ripped off foam from an old cushion. You can tear it into shape to match your needs. I put small drops of the effect paints on a saucer and take up only a minimal amount with the sponge. I start with the rust and move on to the darker paints. if I apply too much, I can wipe it off. The rougher the foam, the better the effect. After several steps of dabbing the parts look like this. Topher wanted some more input about the doors. The trouble with doors is that they tend to hook up at the the hinged gap. Straight sides are easier to open, but folded contours like on this C10 make it worse. On all doors I sand the edges as thin as possible and also on the body line where the doors are hinged. Thin meaning almost blade thin. This is risky, because you don´t want to widen the gab by mistake or having to add sheet styrene to repair. But this will reduce that grind exceptionally. You might just need to pull the doors out a tiny bit. The bed floor is covered with a checker plate sheet aluminum. I found this at a model fair and knew that is was perfect for my C10. It took a while to make it fit well. And because this is a commercial dump truck it received a decent amount of dirt residue to reduce that shine. Next time I will show the progress on the interior and chassis. Thanks for watching!

Hi Topher, thanks for your reply. I will follow up on the next stages and can send further images with the doors working. Right now I am on holiday in France and it will take another week or so until I can help you out with more science. Best wishes, Andy

Hi David, thanks for the response are your knowledge! Seems I am on the right track. Actually I used all the impressions that I have picked up in my life from constructions vehicles and such. Not that I have anything to do with that business wise, I am just a curious guy that gets impressed by BIG things. The tailgate, well, I just thought it would flap down and let the earth slide off. I don´t know if chains or such would be necessary to hold it.

After building some glossy stock models and show cars I was in the mood to create something "dirty" again. No, nothing X-rated; a pickup with a visible rust attack and heavy patina. This old AMT kit comes quite fine for that, because the molding isn´t very clean and I am not going into a shiny low rider paint job. I do want to spend some time on some special details though. Hinged doors and hood have become a standard for me. But my best idea was to get the bed engineered to rise and tip the gravel, earth, junk or whatever onto its determined area. I have refined a special technique to open spaces on a model body. I used to cut with blades, micro saw or a tiny electric circular saw. It did the job, but it always left a lot of extra work to clean the cuts. Cutting with a scalpel or cutter knife also meant risking my finger tips. By chance I have a small awl which I sanded VERY sharp and with this tool I scratch out my doors, trunk etc. It works quite fast and the result is great. The gaps all have the same width and running down the imprinted gaps on the bodies is easy. The tailgate should drop down like in real but also keep in place like a real one. The gate itself is connected to the bed with 1mm styrene rods in 2mm tubes. Making the latches turned out easy, but I did have to get the parts drilled and connected to the precise spot. The hood hinges had to be attached to the firewall in a early step. There is no way to get that done if you want the paint job to look good and let the hood really close exactly. Now it´s time to find the sweet spot for the bed hinging. Since I had no images to copy I had to think about how this could look like in real life. The bed has to lift up without scraping the cabin or knocking the bumper (which I could sacrifice, if necessary...). All the hinge parts are fabricated from sheet styrene and tubes in different thickness and diameter. I hope you can understand the steps I took to get the hinge working. At this step, all the pegs are still extra long and the engineering is still in the rough. Sanding will be done before I go on to painting. Just getting the bed to tip didn´t satisfy my ambitions, because I wanted a "real" look to the model. My pickup needed a lifting hydraulic system (well, a fake one). Now I had to build that system from scrap styrene and brass and find the right position to make it work. Here again I hope that the images explain how I did it. It would take too many words. The "lifting" setup is connected to the chassis frame, the "lifted" part with the brass rod is hinged to the bottom of the bed. That small part on the side will be the hydraulic pump, to be attached to the frame. This is my second build on which I have connected the door hinges with Tamiya epoxy putty. It will fill gaps due to curved bodies, you have plenty of time to fit to parts to the exact place and they will not slip anymore, and no epoxy glue will run and mess your build or jam the hinges. Just remember to rough sand the surfaces before gluing. Drying time is a whole day, but I have enough to do to bridge that time. After the putty is hard you can work it in any way. The doors will stay closed with the help of super magnets inside the panels and under the bench seat. Here you can see the flat magnet already glued under the panel, with the counter magnet to check on the other side. Double and triple check those magnet ends. I once had to rip a falsely glued one out of a seat and it fortunately went OK. The door sides are all closed and now the sanding and painting can start. But first I have to end my holiday trip. Can´t wait to get home and in my model "cave" again! Best wishes, Andy!

Hi Jason, you did a great job on this build. Never mind if the color isn´t thaaaat correct. You had fun building it !😉🤜🤛

Hi Claude, great idea and even better execution! That´s a rod I would like to see at a meeting in real life! Fine details and beautiful look🤙

Hi Ron, very nice "quicky" rod! cool stance and the chopped roof matches perfectly!

Hi Scott, great build and a very hot color! Looks great on the Starliner, otherwise unfortunately an underrated car and model. Many nice details! Did you fabricate the air filter yourself or is that second market?

Hi Michelle, well done build, I would really like to see more of the details you mention. I have great respect for all that 3D printing stuff and seriously thought about going down that road. Maybe some day..... How many parts does this build have?

Hi David, very clean execution, the color matches perfectly. Like how everything is tone in tone to highlight the De Luxe look. Nice idea too with the exhaust pipes.👍

Hey Alex, very neat job, a classic color choice!👍

Hi Jim, John, Andrew, Mike, J and Brian for checking out my post and your friendly replies!

Hello and thank you to all my responders! Thanks for your friendly support! Best model building wishes, Andy

Hi everybody, nice to be back on the FORUM! I guess just about all of us have built this model before. This AMT/Ertl kit isn´t a highlight of complexity, but a grateful victim for customizing and heavy body work. I refrained from chopping the roof and wanted to keep the silhouette original. But there was plenty of work to do to make it my show rod. I shaved off all of the trim, door handles, roof drip and wipers, because in real life, this would be a show car with no street ambitions. I was out for round surfaces like polished pebbles. Beside the doors I cut out the trunk to accommodate a bench for the "kids". On a dark silver metallic there are 2 layers of metallic green (Molotow rattle can). Before the first layer I taped the shadow stripes on the fenders, hood and roof, making them a lighter green. Top coat is AK clear varnish. The wheels, disc brakes, calipers and the headlight lenses are from Scale Production. I hade to slice the front wheels to make them fit. The trunk is hinged with 1mm brass rods in 2mm styrene tubes. On this build for the first time I attached all hinge parts (trunk, hood and doors) with Tamiya epoxy putty. I was able to bridge gaps easily and everything stayed in place right from the start, without having to tape or stabilize during the hardening process. Unlike epoxy glue, nothing runs, drips or messes up the build. Just take care to rough sand all the sticking surfaces. The cushions are carved from modelling foam and covered with 2mm foam rubber. The door panels are also made of foam rubber placed in a frame of half-round stryrene. The armrest and handles are made of styrene and 1mm aluminum wire. The back of the interior compartment is also covered with foam rubber, with everything spray painted in a light leather toned finish, same as the seats. The floor is flocked in a matching color. I chose the custom dash from the kit and gave it some TLC with printed images for the gauges and the radio. Bare metal foil, wire rings, some toggle switches and a key chain enhance the dash. I added a headliner made of rubber foam also, along with sun visors and the rear mirror. I treated the engine with as much cables and lines as possible. The pulley wheels are deconstructed from the kit part and connected to the block with brass rods, then I wrapped a thin rubber belt around the pulleys. instead of a engine fan, the radiator has a cooling fan system. The brake booster, coil and relay are home made and just about completely fill the engine bay. The exhaust manifolds are from the kit, turned upside down and heat bent into shape. I liked the idea of keeping the exhaust pipes asymmetrical and since I chopped the hood a bit, they look fine creeping out of the sides. The carbs are 3D printed Holleys from Scale Production. The air filters are crafted from grid aluminum and spare covers. Because the rod is dropped, I had to adapt the front and rear suspension by grinding and cutting to lower by about 1 cm. Fuel and brake lines were added, same as shock absorbers. The rear end and the transmission are narrowed and rebuilt to accommodate the fat wheels. Now some images with all the doors open. This build was real fun and I hope you like it. Thanks for watching and if you watch my video, that would make my happy too! https://youtu.be/U-r7jinDEvg

Hi Supernurd, I wish it was "real" and mine! But I get along well having the Moebius version😄

Hi David, thanks for your nice response!

Hi Steve, George, Carl, Ken, Larry, Petterway and Doyle, Many thanks for your kind response! I´m very happy you like my build. Best wishes, Andy

Hi guys, thanks for your friendly response! This hobby means so much to me, and my motivation is just to have fun and make those tiny steps forward in my skills. But well yes, I do enjoy getting the feedback out of our forum community 😊🙏😉 @Emre - Actually the door and trunk cutting was about 2 hours. What takes more time is the finishing with the lips and getting those hinges in a correct place. I am still not completely satisfied with the turnout, but it is getting better. I have a new technique to cut out the shapes. After the stress with scalpels ( they get stuck and are quite dangerous handling) and with a tiny circular saw (gets hot and melts the styrene) I SCRATCH out my doors. I found a small awl in my tool box and sharpened it and i just follow the molded outlines. I takes about 10-15 careful scratches to get through. Additionally I minimize the thickness of the body by grinding or sanding from the inside. Here are some images from my current build. It is worth a try! @Bill - you could be right about the mirror.... But I found images both with and without a mirror. Maybe it was an option to order. But I did refrain from adding seat belts 😂

This is a Moebius kit and while I was building I remembered how I missed the crisp molding and the fine details of this manufacturer. Everything fits perfectly and the parts have more texture and sharpness than many AMT kits. This 300 is a fine example. The Chrysler 300 was a muscle car long before the term was established. Real power and a handling for fast driving, it wasn´t your average family car. Even the design looked fast and ahead of it´s time. Offered only in black, white and red, my choice for my build was easy. My goal was to get as close to a sales room mint stock look as possible. The red body is rattle can Montana Gold label S3000, finished with 2 layers of AK clear varnish. The BMF and the decals are protected under the final coating. I had to do some sanding on the bumpers because they had some molding issues. Instead of brush painting the Molotow chrome, this time I airbrushed the big parts with Molotow liquid chrome. After 4 days of drying they received an finish with AK clear too. I didn´t use much second market items this time. Actually only the door handles and the windshield wipers. The kit comes without a rear view mirror, so I fabricated it from styrene and a 8mm brass rod. I opened and hinged the doors and the trunk and equipped the door panels with hidden magnets. The second magnets are hidden in the front bench. The dash is enhanced with wire gauge rings and tiny toggle switches. The kit shift and winker levers were replaced with thinner home made wire levers. Plus the parking brake. The engine and the bay received a bunch of added details like extra wiring, hoses and lines. The radiator front is covered with metal mesh. The air filter cover and the valve covers are pimped with etched metal hex nuts. This is the first time I have equipped a model with lighting. It did add some extra time because I needed a little consulting. But fortunately I have an electronics shop in town and I could buy my stuff there. They only have 3mm LEDs though, so I made the best of it. In the meantime I have sourced 1,2mm LEDs, so the next build with lighting will give me some more options. Especially for the interior lighting. The battery is hidden in the gas tank, which I can open if the battery needs to be exchanged. I was able to hide all the wires and the lines to the front are the "brake and fuel" lines on the undercarriage. I hope you like my build and would be happy if you watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NeDH_tsS5Yg Thank your for watching and best wishes!

Hi Brian and Claude, many happy returns for your nice remarks!

Hi Steve, to you too thanks for your friendly response!