RoninUtah

Very cool!

I agree, that will look perfect. Also agree about the 2- hole Budds on the drives; not sure if I would chrome them though. Love that loooong hood!

Progress, finally! My hood came today! But when I test – fitted it, I discovered that the Revell cab I had been planning to use was too small. Disappointing, because I really like the opening doors. But there was no way I could make the gaps on either side of the hood look right so I bit the bullet and built the Italeri/AMT cab from the 377 kit. However, since it was a 377 and not a 378 cab, it had the little fender ends at the bottom of the front. I cut them off and filled the gaps with little bits of sheet styrene. I’ll let it dry and then putty and sand it and hopefully it won’t be too noticeable. The important thing is it looks like it will all fit right with the 3406 engine in place.

Man, that turned out nice! What a beautiful job, it looks like a true Canadian classic! Well done!

Well, we won the fourth place People’s Choice award! Not bad for going against a lot of really cool cars in a car show full of car guys!

Yeah, like I said earlier, they added 379 headlights to their standard 359 and called it good. I purposely didn’t want to build this as the Stepp’s rig because I wanted to have more latitude in building it as I wanted, although it’s not much different.

Thanks, Brian!

Thanks everyone for the kind comments! If you happen to be in Utah this weekend, this model will be on display along with three others of mine at the Autorama show in Sandy, just south of Salt Lake City.

I hope Round 2 will buy them and put them out under the AMT brand!

Dang, this is looking like a truck! I like the Utah plate 👍

I agree with the others. Square headlights are part of the "look" of this particular truck.

Thanks, Jeff! As I mentioned, it won't be anywhere close to the level of detail and realism that you bring to your builds, but it will be fun!

Thanks, Gary! It won't exactly be a Resto Rod, just a nineties truck that is still working hard today. And yeah, if you don't break the rules all you'll get is another boring box build!

Thanks, Landon! Exactly- one of the real rigs that inspired this one was a 1995 379 with a Cat 3406 that I saw here locally- I had a chat with the owner about it and he called it his "money pit" because he couldn't resist adding custom doo-dads to dress it up. it was a nice rig...

My hat's off, Bren! That weathering is incredible! If that dolly gets any more rusted, it might get pulled out for an OOS violation at the next weigh station!

As I mentioned in the write-up for my Peterbilt “Can-Do” wrecker in the Under Glass section of this forum, in the stash of parts and partial truck kits that came with the wrecker there was another set of 3-axle Peterbilt frame rails. So, I thought, “Ah-ha! Now I can build a cool Peterbilt 379 heavy-haul tractor with those! That should be easy!” Famous last words. First of all, I knew I’d have to improvise, since for some reason the big kit manufacturers never did a Pete 379. The closest they came is the 378, the 379’s little brother, which has a much shorter, sloped hood. So, this build would have to be something of a Frankenstein's monster. I put together sort of a facsimile of a Peterbilt chassis with the frame rails, using spare crossmembers, suspension, axles and such; it’s more Kenworth than Peterbilt at this point, but who’s counting? Fair warning: this build isn’t going to be nearly as detailed or accurate as the stuff the rest of you guys do! So, I’m using a bunch of donor kits for this build as well. I picked up a Revell “Marmon” glue bomb for (relatively) cheap on eBay, since it has the same nice Peterbilt cab as the wrecker, with the opening doors. I’ll be using a mid-rise sleeper from the AMT re-pop of the Italeri 377 kit, along with the dash (The Revell Peterbilt/Marmon dash is actually a late 359 dash, but the Italeri/Revell/AMT 377 and 378 have the correct dash for a 379). But then, I got stuck on the hood. I knew I wanted to put a Cat 3406 in this truck, as it’s such a classic engine for a 379, but then I remembered that that big engine requires a longer hood! All I have are 359 hoods, which are too short and have the air intake cut-outs (which 379s don’t have). So, what to do? I briefly considered grafting two of the 359 hoods together, but the trim on the top doesn’t match, and I’d have to fill in the air intake cut-outs as well as where the two pieces met. It would look terrible; I don’t have anywhere near the bodywork skills to pull that off. But then I remembered that when I did my Peterbilt 389 (based on an Italeri 378) a couple of years ago, I used a third-party resin hood, lights and X-15 engine; all I had to do is stretch the frame about one scale foot. Fortunately, Paul at ST Supply still had a 379 conversion hood in stock. I just ordered it today… I guess if I keep throwing money at this thing I might have a decent looking build! So here is where I am so far. Chassis is done, and I mocked up the approximate locations for the cab, hood and sleeper. You can see the gap where I need a longer hood. It’ll also get a big-ol’ headache rack, light bar and a bull bar, naturally. Hopefully it will turn out like I plan it… as long as I keep throwing money at it! The chassis at the top was for the wrecker. The one on the bottom is the parts-box frankenstein. Rough placement mock-up. Obviously, that little 359 hood isn't gonna make it. Here you can see the difference in hood length between the 359 and the 389. Yes, the wrecker is actually a 359, although Revell claimed that it was a 379 in the box blurb. They just put 379 headlights on their standard 359 and called it good.

This is looking amazing, Jeff, I can't wait to see it built! Your attention to detail is first rate.

That’s amazing! It’s fun watching this come together!

Still is!

Actually, mine looks exactly like yours! And it seems that every ten minutes I’m on my hands and knees with a flashlight underneath it, looking for that tiny part I just dropped!

Those layer lines are tough to get rid of, especially if you’re using a hard resin or filament. It kind of looks like woodgrain- it takes a lot of sanding, and you don’t want to send too much of the detail off. Adding a good heavy layer of clearcoat after you paint it helps. That said, your cab looks great! Keep up the awesome work!

Thank you for the kind remarks! I agree, if ever there was a kit that needed to be re-popped, it’s this one!

Hey Jürgen, I don’t know how I missed this thread, but I’m blown away! As others have said, your skills in both designing and printing keep getting better and better. Looking at your work, it makes me think that maybe I should be working with PLA instead of resin! Especially now that my printer has been down for weeks due to a failed LCD screen!

It's not easy! I have to gently reach under it just aft of the outriggers, making sure my fingers reach the chassis, to pick it up. It's a monster.

I think I might have mentioned in another post that a couple of years ago, I got a deal on a ton of miscellaneous Revell parts that a hobbyist in California wanted to get rid of and sold to one of my contacts. They were mostly from the Kenworth wrecker kit; he must have bought a dozen of them to cannibalize for parts. There were enough parts for two complete wrecker builds- I built one and sold the other- as well as enough to build another as a tractor. There weren’t enough left over parts after that to build anything complete, but there were plenty to put together a few donor chassis for my 3-D builds. Part of the deal was for another hundred bucks he’d throw in a complete Revell Peterbilt Can-Do wrecker. Sold! It was a great deal, especially considering the stratospheric prices these are getting on eBay these days. The kit sat in my “to-do” pile since then, and I was sort of dreading it since I knew that it was going to be a challenging and complicated build. But I buy kits to build, not hoard, so I decided it was time to bite the bullet and build the damn thing. It took three solid weeks of staying up late and putting in hours in the workshop. It was a challenge, for sure, but like all German Revell kits, this one was well engineered, fit together reasonably well, and the instructions were logical and clear. I knew I needed to just take my time and do it as well as my limited abilities and elderly hands would allow. This is a BIG kit- the instructions have 172 steps, and there are 461 numbered parts! It came together pretty nicely, I think; although a few of the moving parts were designed to such tight tolerances that they needed some work to slide smoothly (and even then, some still don’t). So, here it is. I didn’t really like the kit decals, but I had a couple of sheets of the AMT Peterbilt wrecker details, so I adapted them for this build. I kept the “Can Do” decal for the bug deflector- it has a special meaning for me as that is the Seabees motto, which is where I first learned to drive a truck (now over half a century ago!). The truck is awesome and fun to put together- huge float wheels on the steer axle, opening doors, lots of chicken lights and other custom extras. The only after-market parts I used were the front fender extenders (from Paul at ST Supply). Everything else came with the kit. The truck itself is supposed to be a Peterbilt 379 (it’s actually a 359 kit with 379 headlights, the arched 359 dash is a dead giveaway); it not a true tri-drive as only the rear two axles are drive axles, but this thing is huge. The engine is a Cummins big-cam twin-turbo 475, and I imagine it would probably have had a 10 or 13-speed Roadranger. The wrecker is a Challenger 9909 70-ton rotator, definitely one of the heavy recovery big boys… it makes the Kenworth look puny by comparison. This model is so big I don’t know how I’ll fit the thing on the shelf! So, enjoy, and oh! All those parts included the frame rails for another tri-axle build. I picked up a partly started Revell “Marmon” (The infamous Revell Marmo-bilt, which is yet another Peterbilt 359 but with a Marmon grille, hood and badges) for cheap off eBay, so I think I’ll be starting a Pete 379 heavy-haul tractor in the near future. That one will be fun! First a couple of reference photos of a similar rig: And the model: