RoninUtah

I actually finished this build a few weeks ago (before the Argosy) but I was waiting to post it until I got the decals from ModelTruckers. They came over the weekend, so here it is! The story: Late in 1960, Leroy Hewett, proprietor of the biggest (and only) auto repair facility in the small Hill Country town of Dent, Texas, decided to expand his business to include towing services when two local residents broke down in the same week on the same gravel road leading out of town. He consulted with the local Chevrolet dealership, owned by his cousin Henry, who advised him to order a new 1961 Chevrolet C-60. The truck was fitted with a Holmes 525 wrecker on a custom body, as Leroy wanted more space to carry tools, spare tires, batteries, and the like. Since this was his first wrecker, he numbered it #1, optimistically hoping that others were to come. They never did, but “Old Number 1,” as he came to call it, endured for many years pulling local cars and pickups out of ditches or from the side of the road, steam billowing from their radiators. This build represents Old Number 1 when it first came out of the Hewett Chevrolet paint booth in 1961, ready for work. This build is almost entirely 3-D printed; the C-60 file is by Andrey Bezrodny; I’ve seen several eBay sellers offering printed versions. The wrecker is a design by Shadetreemodeling, and it’s actually a Holmes 500. However, since those didn’t come out until late in 1962, I’m calling this one a 525, its predecessor, as they look superficially similar. The truck bed is Andrey’s, and I made the side panels from sheet styrene; the rear is adapted from an AMT Peterbilt wrecker. Decals are custom ordered from Modeltruckers. Enjoy!

I love it! A gritty working truck, just the right amount of weathering. Love the streak of exhaust soot on the trailer!

Thanks! They are a cool class of equipment. Even the little 1-ton stake trucks have those huge lift gates now- very distinctive.

Thanks, Brian!

Thanks, Victor! I love A&N's stuff- sure, they're pricy and a challenge to build, but they're incredibly well engineered and detailed. I have one more in my stash that I'll get to sometime, hopefully soon.

Thanks, Brian! Thanks, Jim!

Thanks! I should have brought the model to Burbank and shot it there, but my driveway is much easier!

That is looking great! Keep it up!

I lived in Southern California for a while a few years ago, where the entertainment industry is king. Film productions were a ubiquitous sight, and they always seemed like a big deal, blocking streets and sidewalks with crew, cables running everywhere, and fleets of specialized equipment and vehicles. I was always impressed with those vehicles; always meticulously clean, equipped with lots of shiny polished aluminum, belly boxes, and giant lift gates at the back. The biggest were full-sized Class 8 trucks, somehow seeming massively overpowered for their little box-truck bodies. A surprising number were older cabovers, usually Freightliner FLBs and Argosies, with an occasional Peterbilt 362 or “Darth Vader” 372. This build represents a typical one of these, from Universal Studios Transportation Department. It’s technically referred to as a “10-ton” truck in the industry, although the GVW is obviously much greater. It could be a grip truck, a camera truck or an electrical truck, equipped with a pintle hook to pull a generator. The cab is a first-generation Freightliner Argosy from A&N, the chassis is bashed from the parts box (since I knew it couldn’t be seen) and the truck body is cut down from a Moebius smooth side trailer. I scratchbuilt the belly boxes and side door, and the brilliant @Jürgen generously designed the lift gate from a couple of photos I gave him, and as usual for his designs, it printed perfectly, fit correctly and looks great. Thank you, Jürgen!

Very well done! Great period-correct detailing, I love the aluminum steer wheels/ steel drive wheels. I did one of these AITM conversions a few years ago, I did mine as a 3-axle 358 model, also 1965 with the stabil-aire suspension. A nice companion to the 359.

This is gonna be an awesome build, I’ll be watching to steal your ideas! 😆

Take a bow, my friend, you’ve absolutely outdone yourself! Super realistic down to every detail- I can almost smell the liquid asphalt looking at the pics! As someone who also specializes in builds you won’t find on anyone else’s shelf (although mine don’t hold a candle to yours) I especially appreciate how unique this one is. Congratulations!

What an amazing build! Completely realistic to every tiny detail. Congratulations on a job well done, you’ve outdone yourself! Now I’m looking forward to seeing the paver and a couple of rollers to finish those hot mix jobs!

I love that! And thanks for sharing that pic of your dad, baby you, and his beautiful 58 Chevy! Your next build… hint hint hint!

This has been so much fun to follow I almost don’t want it to end… but I can’t wait to see the finished model!

That is looking great!! A tuff looking truck for sure. Very impressive! Being a West Coast guy, I never saw a Brockway in person. Great to see one being modeled!

I’m posting this under WIP, although this project is now complete, but I wanted to share the build story. Those of you who have followed my work know that I work exclusively in 1/24 or 1/25 scale. There’s one important exception, though: The trio of 1/48 scale truck models that Revell released in the mid- 1950s. These include a White 3000 tractor, paired with a gas tanker trailer, a 2-ton medium-duty ’55 Chevy, and a Kenworth 3-axle tractor with a dry van (with Bekins graphics). The Chevy was introduced in 1955 and the White gas truck originally came out in 1956; both have been re-popped several times over the years, most recently by Atlantis. The Kenworth first came out with the van trailer in 1956, and was repopped only once, by Revell of Germany in 1980, this time with a flatbed trailer. I think I read somewhere that the molds were damaged, which is why it was never done again. I have all three; my Chevy is a 1995 Revell repop, molded in green, my White is also a 1995 Revell repop, molded in red (both retained the original 1955 and 1956 Revell copyright notices), and my Kenworth was an original 1956 moving van, molded in white. I built the Chevy and White around 25 years ago, and the Kenworth was an eBay find from a few years ago; the decals were unusable so I just painted it white and called it good. They were a neat group of models, and surprisingly detailed, considering the tiny scale. So, a couple of months ago, I was rebuilding my workshop and installing the shelving to display all my models. To protect the Revell trio, I placed them on a completed shelf, figuring they’d be safe there. I was wrong. I was installing a shelf on the adjacent wall, when it slipped and landed on the top shelf over the models. To my horror, the shelves hadn’t been adequately braced, and they collapsed spectacularly. All three models were smashed to smithereens. With tears in my eyes, I picked up and sorted the broken bits and pieces. It was a week or two before I could face them again. I decided to grin and bear it and do what I could to repair them. The Kenworth and the White, in happier times. The White is with its 1/25 big brother, a Jimmy Flintstone resin casting with a IMC/Lindbergh Dodge L700 chassis and interior. The three casualties. First was the White, since it seemed to have suffered the least. The trailer was remarkably unscathed, losing only a wheel in the mishap. The tractor was another story. It had split mostly along the seams, and the cab had a nasty crack right down the center over the windshield. The chassis was okay, losing only a wheel off the steer axle and the fifth wheel. I clamped the cab together, using regular plastic cement along with CA to repair it; the rest of it was relatively easy to repair, using plastic cement and patience. The cab even tilts normally now. Next up was the Kenworth. It had suffered the most damage; the cab had broken in several pieces and the hood split in two; the steer and one of the drive axles broke and the front wheels broke off. I was able to recover most of the parts, except for one of the mirrors and a bit of the cab. Luckily, the trailer survived without any significant damage, for some reason. I started with the cab. The roof had broken off, taking with it the top of the driver’s side door and parts of the pillars, as well as a triangular bit from the left rear corner. I scratched the missing door part and installed it, but then I found the missing original part and substituted it for the scratched part. I used putty to fill in the crack in the hood and the gap where the back corner had broken off and got it close. I scratched a center pillar to replace the one that disappeared and tried to re-align the cab to close a crack in the back of the cab. While that was drying and curing, I repaired the hood and front fenders. I discovered that the entire model had warped with the damage, so I adjusted it as best I could to get it to fit. I created new turn signals out of styrene rods, and my friend Jürgen created an exact replica of the mirror as a 3-D model- Vielen Dank, Jürgen! I printed it up and it fit perfectly. The model is still a little warped, but I filled the gaps with putty and touched up the white paint as best I could. The cab lost its roof, along with some of the plastic supporting it, and the hood was cracked. Here it is mocked up with the fenders. Restoration started. The piece at the top of the door is made from sheet styrene, but I later found the original part and used it instead. Cracks and gap filled with first coat of putty. The cab mostly fixed, the gap between the hood and fender is due to warpage. Last was the Chevy. It had mostly broken along the seams, and the wheels and axles had broken off. This was another glue and clamp exercise; the hood had been lost for some time so I found another on eBay. It was Atlantis blue, so I painted it green; I also painted the top of the cab since it had been badly scratched in the mishap. The paint doesn’t quite match, but I’m kinda okay with that for some reason. So, all three were restored, as best I could. Unfortunately, they’ll never look the same, but at least they look okay on the shelf- from a distance. I still get a lump in my throat when I remember what they looked like before the "accident," but they’re the best I can do. The three restored models on the shelf. They look okay, if you don't look too closely. Thanks for bearing with my sad story!

Very cool, good job "hiding" the print lines! A resin printer would have created a much smoother surface, but I agree about the mess, and mine requires constant maintenance. Even using water washable resin the stuff gets everywhere. Looking forward for further developments!

Thanks! You nailed what I was going after. Ordinary trucks for their day, built and used for hard work with a minimum of frills and nothing fancy.

Power steering and automatic transmissions are for weaklings!

Danish! Of course! I should have known! But in all fairness, pre- Euroband Danish and NL plates were pretty similar. So, I guess your truck is working on a dairy farm!

Very cool build, Jürgen! I like the Dutch plates! Even though DAF is owned by Paccar, along with Peterbilt and Kenworth, they’re virtually unknown in North America except for some Class 4 and 5 COEs that are branded as Kenworth and Peterbilt (although they are really DAF models.)

I usually post over in the Big Rigs section, this is my first time posting here. From the days when 1 ½ to 3 ton trucks were the norm, here are 1/25 representations of what Detroit’s big three automakers had to offer back in the day. I just finished the Ford; it’s a Jimmy Flintstone resin cab, with 3D printed frame, flatbed body and wheels from various designers; interior and glass are from the old Lindbergh pickup kit. The “Job Rated” Dodge is also recent; the cab is 3-D printed from files by Ditomaso147 on Cults; the body and wheels are from other designers and partly scratchbuilt. The Chevy is an old Ron Cash resin kit I built about 20 years ago, with parts from a donor ERTL (now AMT/ERTL) pickup kit. Gotta love them old cabovers!

Most of it would turn black eventually anyway!