RoninUtah

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!

Cool build, nice weathering!

Nice build, Brian, I like it!

That looks great! Did you spray the Duplicolor straight onto the styrene, or did you uses a primer? I've always been afraid that auto paint might craze the plastic, but yours looks perfect!

Very nice build! I also did one of these AITM Loadstars... I did mine as a boring all-grey box truck, but it's not nearly as nice as yours. I remember when I was in the Seabees in the early '70s we had a Loadstar with a Holmes 750 wrecker. Every time I pulled motor pool duty I'd have to fire it up about 2 AM to pull somebody out of a ditch or somewhere where they weren't supposed to be! We also had a bus, similar to a school bus, with a Loadstar front end and drive train. They were fairly reliable pieces of equipment, as I recall.

That's a beauty. Simply amazing level of detail!

+1 to what Brian said. I thought mine was pretty good, but compared to yours it looks like a toy! I see you even have the luberfiner in the right place- Dodge had to install them upside down, because there wasn't enough clearance to get the filter out from the top! One minor note: Most L1000 had a pair of air tanks on the driver's side, attached to the bottom of the battery box and slightly offset vertically. See attached pic. Great work!

Thank you all very much!

Thank you, Gary!

Thanks, Jim!

Back in 1969, when AMT came out with the first Peterbilt 359 “California Hauler” kit, I was a truck-crazed 19-year-old kid. I had been building model cars for a few years back then, so I immediately grabbed a new Pete kit and then sent away for the sleeper cab (it was separate when the kit first came out). I still have that build; I recently “restored” it by replacing missing cab accessories and mudflaps and such, and I think it still holds up pretty well for a 50-year+ year old build. (geez, I’m old!) So, when Round 2 re-released the California Hauler kit not too long ago, I thought I’d build another one, more than a half-century later. Since the AMT version is a ’67 (with the 2-bar grille) I decided to do it as a ’68-72 version with a 3-bar grille, as if it was a brand-new unit still on the lot in Newark. I cut out the grille and added nylon grille cloth and cut grill bars out of wire (I need to figure out a better way of straightening those). Otherwise, it’s a straight-up box build with only a couple of other minor mods. And yes, the engine is painted white! So, here is the brand new 1968 Peterbilt 359, by itself and together with its 54-year-old counterpart. Enjoy!

Thank you!

Thank you very much for the kind words! Yes, that’s the reason why I chose the Louisville as a donor. This one is an early N series, before Ford raised the roofline to create more headroom, I believe in 1966. Although it’s a curbside model, I used the bottom of the Cat engine that came with the Louisville. I was very pleased with the CIP conversion; it was crisply detailed, accurate and fit together nicely. They’re a little pricy, but worth it in my opinion.