RoninUtah

I LOVE the splatterguard idea! I've ben struggling with screens for a long time, and this is brilliant! Thanks!

Thank you very much!

One more pic- I forgot to post it initially. A little Freightliner Fever (with apologies to the great Red Sovine): 1949 Bubblenose (Resin by CIP); 1960s sleeper (Modified AMT DD) and 2016 Argosy (Resin by A&N).

Hello, everyone! I’m new to this forum, but hot exactly new to modeling. My first build was an AMT (or maybe SMP?) ’59 Chevy 3-in-1 kit, brand new in those days. Needless to say, I made a mess of it, but I was hooked. I was totally jazzed that I could build an exact miniature replica of a car I might see driving by my house! For a long time, all I did was cars- always 1/25, and always showroom stock; rods and customs never interested me. The truck bug hit me big when I was in my early 20s (I joined the Seabees and drove real ones) and I’ve been a big rig guy ever since. That was when AMT first came out with its line of big rigs, and I built them all. Other priorities in my life took over, but I still dabbled, and a couple of years ago I got back into it big-time. Now, I’m pretty much exclusively focused on highway tractors, slowly building up a collection of American rigs from the earliest days to the present. I’ve done a lot of resins, along with out-of-the-box and modified plastic kits. I’ve built just about all the American trucks that are available and interest me, and I’m now starting to dabble in other trucks from around the world. I consider myself to be an above-average builder, but I know I’m nowhere near the same league as some of the others on this forum. Some of y’all’s skills are incredible! I’m looking forward to learning from you all, and to contributing what little I can. Here is a small sampling of my collection: History of GMC COEs: 1938 (Resin by Jimmy Flintstone), 1950s Cannonball (Resin by Frontier); 1960s Crackerbox (Resin by AITM), AMT reissued Astro kit,(modified with original 70's Astro grille and cab accessories) Oldest and newest Peterbilt long-nose conventionals: 1949 Iron Nose (resin by AITM); 2021 389 (modified Italeri 378 kit with Kootenay resin hood, grille and fenders) 1976 Kenworth Bicentennial pair (Revell conventional kit; ERTL COE kit; decals by Modeltruckin.com) Two Jimmies, both resins by AITM 2022 KW W900 (Bashed from AMT T600 kit and Revell W900 kit, with numerous mods and aftermarket parts)

Thanks! Yes, if I can find period correct ones, CF decals would be perfect

For sure. I know I have a list of about a dozen conversions that I had planned to eventually get. Hopefully someday!

Erik, great news! Looking forward to building this one. It inspired me to drag out my old Chevy wrecker... this is one I did about 15 years ago. Both the truck and the wrecker are old Herb Deeks resins. I also have a '50 Chevy COE he did; as I recall he also did a similar 2-ton Ford conventional and COE. Wish I had gotten those as well!

Thanks, Jim!

Just finished; resin build from CIP Models in Romania, chassis is an AMT WF Single Drive. Fuel tank and battery box were scratchbuilt to approximate the originals. The resin casting was great, very precise and generally correctly detailed. If I were to do it again, I'd sand off the underscaled marker lights and replace them, but that's a minor point.

And I just finished the bubblenose. So (to stay on topic) here are the first and last Freightliner COEs to be sold to customers outside of CF:

Now that I've been accepted, I can post pics... Here is the Argosy...

Great detailing, excellent tips and techniques, thank you! A couple of points: When the Peterbilt 359 was first introduced in 1967, it had the 2-bar grill that was included in the original AMT California Hauler and the first version of the wrecker kit. This was changed to the 3-bar grille in late 1967/ early 1968, so your build would be accurate for a '68-72 model. As to engine color (that engine looks awesome, by the way!) in the 1960s and early 70s Peterbilt required that engine builders paint their engines white for a "clean" look; consequently, most '60's Petes came with white engines. Not to reveal my age or anything, but the California Hauler was my first big truck build- I bought it when it first came out! I remember sending away for the sleeper cab, as it was extra. The "glass" was molded with a greenish hue in the plastic. I still have that build; I did some minor repairs and replaced some missing cab accessories and it's now on my shelf. It's not bad for a beginning build that's now over 50 years old!

My first post to this forum, so please bear with me. I recently completed the A&N US Argosy; ordered in February and sent in April. I put it on an Italeri chassis; I had to modify the axle locations and shorten it somewhat. This was an exquisitely detailed and precisely fitted kit, beautifully crafted down to the packaging!. However, I found that the US version appears to be the Aussie version with a LHD dashboard; the exhaust stack was on the wrong side for a US truck and took some improvisation to make it work. I'm not used to working with brass parts but I didn't have much problems with them except for the fuel tanks, which were such a hassle that I gave up and used a LoneStar tank (left side) and a shorter parts box tank to fit the repositioned exhaust stack (right side). Everything else fit together quite nicely. That said, this was one of the more challenging builds I've done. This "second generation" Argosy was only available in the US as a glider kit, so I fitted mine with a DD Series 60 engine, which was by far the most popular engine option for Argosy gliders. I tagged it as a Nebraska owner-operator rig, as that would have been a typical glider customer. I couldn't resist painting it in CF green; it was all I could do to refrain from using a spare set of AMT CF decals to create a "what if" fantasy! Next on my bench is a Romanian CIP models bubblenose Freightliner, which will also be in CF green. From the last Freightliner to the first (more or less)! If someone can help me with how to post pics to this forum, I would appreciate it... I don't know how to assign an URL to my pics. Thanks!