Ben

Thanks Jim! On the real Western Dist. Pete, they extended the hood and the cowl 18" so I did the same on mine.

For those who were trying to go to Fotki to view all the pics I recently uploaded, Fotki is back up so your able to view them now. www.public.fotki.com/lotso

Sorry guys, don't know what's up on their end??? I have a Photobucket account but I only use it to post pics here. Wouldn't do me much good now anyway as i'd have to access Fotki to transfer everything to Photobucket!

If you've ever wanted to buy the "orange tube" but mom said you had to buy the "blue tube"..........you might be a young model builder.

LOL, I like that last one!!!

Yep! Never fails! I spend three hours uploading over two hundred pics to Fotki and tell everyone to go look....and the site goes down!

Thanks Chris! I'm really looking forward to the BJ rig your building! That has always been one of my favorites!

I just added some more in progress pics of the body work being done on my Western Distributing 53 Peterbilt as well as a new album showing an all new, completely scratch built Allison MD4560 automatic transmission that was intitially made by Klaus Lassen in Germany and when I obtained it, I added more detail and then had it cast into resin. These transmissions will be available very soon. www.public.fotki.com/lotso

LOL, don't ya hate that!!! I added the fill tube detail and filter decal to detail it up on my little Cummins and it will all be hidden by the frame rail when I install it!

Not recently but there are some on there I built several years ago. I'm hoping to add more soon!

For anyone interested, I just added several good reference and literature pics of the 1693 to my "Engine reference" album on Fotki. www.public.fotki.com/lotso

For anyone interested, I just loaded a bunch of new pics to my Fotki albums and made a couple new albums. One of which is of some truck cab masters that I am currently working on and hope to have cast very soon. Theres a modern Kenworth Aerocab flat roof cab and sleeper, a Peterbilt 352 day cab, and a 352 Peterbilt big bunk cab. These will all be wet sanded after the body work is "perfect" and the all proper rivet detail will be put back on. Theres also some new model truck wheel pics, some engine reference pics, real truck pics, ect. Ben's Pics www.public.fotki.com/lotso

LOL, DOH! I forgot all about the Mack kit! I guess it was the color that confused me! Darn, I was hopin that it was a 1693!!!!!! Oh well, back to square one!

Sweet!!!!!!! I have a lot of super detailed parts that may be able to be used in place of some that may be on there such as the alternator, AC compressor, fuel filter mount, things like that. I can also machine new fuel and oil filters for it out of aluminum as well as individual pulleys for the belts.

Ok, just puuled a dozer kit out and checked. It's not from the dozer kit! Man, I hope it is a 1693!!!! It may be a non aftercooled version. The aftercooler is the big boxy looking part on the upper left side of the motor in the pics above. Some were aftercooled, some were not. If that is a 1693, I hope you'll consider disassembling it, cleaning it up and recasting it!!!!!!!!

That's not the motor from the AMT Cat D9 bulldozer kit, is it?

I don't know the engine well enough to know but I was wondering, where did you get that? Is it 1/25 scale????

Man, awesome just don't do it justice! Can't wait to see it run and see how you make the little human in 1/8 to drive it!!!!!!

Whoops, just noticed this is about being a young model builder! LOL If you've ever "painted" a model with pastel chalks and thought it turned out great..........you might be a YOUNG model builder! LOL If you've ever wondered if you could build a cool model by only using parts from your left over parts boxes........you might be a young model builder. If you've ever used an Erector set to make a steerable axle..........you might be a young model builder. If you've ever used purple, 1/4" thick velour to carpet an interior and the model actually won an award........you might be a young model builder. If you've ever thought it was cool to buy a model kit, build it and then blow it up with firecrackers......you might be a young model builder.

If you've ever been caught shopping in the cosmetics section for a good brush to dust your models with......you might be a model builder. If you've ever said "oh no, I won't part with that one, I have plans for it!".......you might be a model builder. If Tower Hobbies holds their company picnic at your house.........you might be a model builder. If you've ever sat in your car trying to think of what to say so you can take reference pictures of real vehicles and not be considered a terrorist............you might be a model builder. If you've ever snuck a model kit into your home and spent a half hour trying to convince your wife that you had that kit already.......you might be a model builder. If you've ever got a giggly when you heard an old kit was being reissued........you might be a model builder. If you've ever almost had an accident in your shorts when you heard an all new kit was being released of your favorite subject....you might be a model builder. If your "need to buy certain kits list" is priority over your "need to pay bills list".....you might be a model builder. When your watching a movie and someone says "it's gonna get real bad, we better go out and get supplies", it reminds you that your low on super glue and putty......you might be a model builder. LOL

I really want a couple of these 1693's myself and would consider doing a master as well (hopefully Dave will beat me to it!!!! ) but I would need several good, up close reference pics.

Looks like the paint turned out nice Dennis! It kinda looks like Calypso green which is an IH color. Not sure if they used it on the 4300's but they did use it on the 9300's. Jerry at ModelTruckin.com sells factory stripes for the 4300 in different colors if your lookin to add some stripes to it?

Silver State produced earlier model Peterbilts such as the 1952-54 350 model. I am pretty sure they never produced a 351. Dave Natale of AITM (American Industrial Truck Models) now has the molds and plans on reissuing them some day. Tim Ahlborn mastered a 351 tilt hood and it was cast by Bobby Griffen. I'm not sure if Eric has the molds for it or not? Clint Freeman produced a 351 butterfly style hood conversion kit but that's long out of production and i'm pretty sure nobody has ever reproduced it yet?

Hey Chris, usually the suspension would be painted after assembly on the real truck. They would take the wheels off and basically spray everything red. You can however, paint the shocks a different color to break things up. Giving the impression that they had been replaced after the truck was painted.

Hey Chris before you glue those half round strips to the trailer sides, take a long straight edge and a very sharp pencil. Place the edge of that straight edge where the side edge of your half round strip needs to be and draw your straight line. Now you will have a line to place the edge of the half round right up too as your gluing it in place. That should keep things straight and even.