RoninUtah

Thanks for the kind words! I know I'm far from the most skilled builder on this site, but I'm generally happy with the results and I appreciate your comments!

I would be more than happy to pay someone to print a Cascadia in 1/25! Please contact me if you’re willing to do this.

Thanks, all, for the nice comments! They mean a lot to me. Thanks, Tommy! It looked like at least 75% of the reference photos I looked at showed these trucks with center point steer axles, and when I saw a set of center point wheels on the STS website, I knew I had to grab it for this build! I always like my builds to reflect a typical working truck of its time, so details like that matter. Here is one of those reference photos; when I saw this paint scheme, I thought, "I can do that!" The paints are Tamiya, by the way. I'm working on its baby cousin- Moebius's '65 Ford F-100 utility truck. I'll post a family portrait of all my 60's Fords when it's done.

This time it’s a late-60s- early 70s W-1000 COE. Cab is from TX3D, on an AMT Astro 95 chassis along with a few aftermarket parts and scratch-built things as well. On this one, I learned the hard way that you should NOT soak a 3-D printed model in water to get rid of mold release, etc. like you would a conventionally cast resin piece! First, there is no mold release to get rid of. Second, 3D resin is porous. It soaks up the water and warps. So, the first cab I got warped beyond repair, but Charles of TX3d sold me a replacement at a reasonable price. Not to let even a warped cab go to waste, I paired if with a bunch of parts box stuff to create an old wreck; it’s a hulk of a Ford that had long ago been stripped of its drivetrain and any usable parts and left in a field to rot. Now it’s on the way to a different fate, and as luck would have it, it’s being hauled by its much better cared-for brother. I was very pleased with this conversion kit. It fit pretty nicely on the Astro frame, in fact, it’s one of the few resin COEs I have made that tilts easily! The proportions are correct, the detail is crisp and accurate, and it doesn’t have that annoying graininess that so many 3d prints have. However, like all 3d printed resin, it is very brittle and inflexible. You have to be very careful in removing the rods that are printed in to hold the piece true; work from the front to the back to avoid stressing and cracking the cab. Also, it is printed to tight tolerances, so I had to do some grinding on the interior tub to make it fit easily without flexing and cracking the body. In other words, like all resin conversions, cast or printed, it takes some working and futzing to make them fit. But, I think it’s well worth the effort!

Very nice old F-series! I especially like the way you weathered the exhaust stack. Great work!

Great looking old A-Car. I sure miss dealing with Dave, he was a prince. Between Dave and later, Doug, I think I've built over half the AITM catalogue. Now unbuilt ATIM kits are going for at least twice the price, and that's if you can even find them!

Nice build! Well done!

Awesome build, it looks perfect! I really can’t see any warp in your pics. Great job, and +1 on the White COE as well.

Thanks, Chuck! I know what you mean- my builds are always a conflict between my impatience and my perfectionism. Usually, the former results in compromises that the latter can't stand!

No, but they wouldn’t be hard to make; it’s just “Consolidated Freightways” on two lines, all caps and italic. I’d make them myself but my printer can’t print white.

Thank you all for the positive comments, they are deeply appreciated! I’m still on the fence about stripping and re-doing the grille, though…

I'm sure that's true. I don't know much about the technical side of 3D printing, but I'm sure that it can be controlled such that the layers of material can be deposited in varying degrees of fineness. I guess that the finer (thinner) the layers, the longer it takes and the more material it uses. This one was fairly grainy; I've seen others where the surface had a satin-like texture, and I'm working on one now from Tx3Dcustoms where it's perfectly smooth and you can't see any texture at all. The trade-off is that 3D printing offers crispness of detail that traditional cast resin can't touch.

I’d love to see a new Cascadia in 1/24 or 1/25! Drives me nuts that about 40% or more of the class 8 trucks I see on the road are Cascadias and I don’t have any in my fleet! Also a KW T880…

I don’t have access to a 3D printer, but if someone would be willing to print one of these for me I’d be happy to pay for their efforts!

Here is my latest build, a Mack F-700-series, one of the most commonly seen American COEs of the sixties and seventies, especially in Eastern fleets. The cab is 3D-printed, from Neffy Customs, and I set it on an AMT Cruiseliner chassis (what else?) and AMT Mack DM-800 wheels and tires. The 3D kit included the cab and a complete interior, 3D printed even with the steering wheel and shifter in place! It also included fuel tanks and battery box. The 3d printing was very detailed and correctly proportioned (except that the little raised “eyebrow” in the center of the cab roof should be higher). However, the layer lines were quite pronounced, creating an undesirable “wood-grain” effect. I sanded them off the roof and most of the sides, but I didn’t want to go too hard to avoid sanding off the detail. I used a semi-gloss clear coat to further dampen the “wood-grain” effect, and now it’s not quite so obvious. Also, the printed parts were quite thick, requiring some grinding to make them fit, and resulting in a very heavy cab. I think it looks decent; you can see I struggled with painting the grille. I’m almost tempted to go in and remove the paint from the grille and re-do it, but it’s printed integrally with the cab and I don’t really want to deal with all the masking and touch-up that would be required. So, it’ll stay until it my perfectionism makes me crazy and I screw it up trying to fix it. There are a few other wonky things about the build as well; I cut down the Cruiseliner windshield to fit the narrower F-Series cab, which led to some unwelcome gaps at the top, partially concealed by a visor. The visor was a little warped and too wide, so it conceals the marker lights at the edges of the cab. I resisted using bullet lights as the marker lights, wanting to stay with the ‘60’s no-frills fleet truck look, but I might have to switch them out just so they can be seen. Anyway, I’d welcome your comments!

Awesome build, looks great!

Here's one used by a "bedbugger"...

Thanks to all who have posted such positive comments! I must admit, it's fun to build something that you'll never see in a hobby shop.

Great information, thanks for finding that! Looks like I should have made the heat shield on the exhaust stack a little fatter... The kit as supplied is set up as a gas job, with nice photo-etched brass "super duty" badges for each side of the hood. The "Diesel" badges I used are actually leftover Mack decals from AITM. They're not quite accurate, but close.

Great information, thanks for finding that! Looks like I should have made the heat shield on the exhaust stack a little fatter... The kit as supplied is set up as a gas job, with nice photo-etched brass "super duty" badges for each side of the hood. The "Diesel" badges I used are actually leftover Mack decals from AITM. They're not quite accurate, but close.

Some of y'all might remember the 1960s Ford N-950 from CIP (Dan Models) that I posted a few months ago. Well, here is its sister- a c.1965 Ford T-950. Ford's T series of the '60s were basically the same as the F series, but with tandem axles. I built this one on an AMT White Western Star chassis (for the Hendrickson rear suspension), and I added the kit Mercury sleeper, lowered to fit the Ford body. It's a highway tractor, unusual for its time but not unheard of, as many "bedbuggers" used these. So, here it is, with and without an AMT Fruehauf van trailer, and alongside the N. Enjoy!

Great build; I agree about the fleet truck comments! Nicely detailed and authentic looking. Bravo!

I agree; the cab was modified from the Nash Ambassador, which was their top of the line model at the time. To be fair, however, the original casting was a bit wonky, and the proportions of the cab are a little off compared to the 1:1.

Here is a funky one: This is an old "cheese-cast" resin kit from SJS Details of Brooklyn, Ohio; mastered by Seeman (according to the box). The kit was incomplete when I got it, but most of it was there. The Nash Haul-Thrift was made in limited numbers by Nash in the late 40s and early 50s, using body components from the Nash Ambassador. They were very handsome trucks, produced mostly for the export market. A few were sent to local dealers in the US for their own use (typically as wreckers) but they were generally not for sale to the general public. This one with came with an Ashton wrecker; I scratchbuilt (crudely) the corresponding Ashton push bumper. Most of the wrecker was scratchbuilt, as well. The truck is detailed as a wrecker for an actual San Francisco Nash dealership, using colors as close to the "official" Nash colors as I could get. Anyway, enjoy!