mackinac359

Swweeeet! The W900 is beautiful! Tim

Project Blue Star. I started with an original issue AMT White-Western Star, a resin hood and etched metal grille from Illini Replica Conversions (old stuff I bought back in '02). I stretched the frame, modified the sleeper crawil through a bit and added a few bits and pieces from the parts boxes. All the pics of the build are on http://public.fotki....ch-1/blue-star/ Thanks for looking! Tim

The metal framed kits were around '81-83? The reissued of the 1/16th scale 359 is from Revell USA which owns Monogram. Tim

Let's hope the tooling for this kit got lost and Round2 never finds it. I agree, the box art showed what would be a beautiful 359.. a 36" round-door sleeper, right hand tool box, newer headlamps.. it looked like a great kit. Then you look at the sides.. "what the..?" toy-like mirrors, those aren't Alcoa FrontRunner wheels, a 63" sleeper, the wheelbase is all wrong.. what on Earth? Is that a Detroit Diesel 8v71 painted yellow? The side panel photos show the hood on the model and the tires don't fit under the fenders. Then you open it up..the cab roof has a recessed center section, the passenger peep-window isn't cut open, the windshield leans back too far and is shaped like a 379 (about 6 years ahead of itself here), the hood has the raised panel seam rib being about an inch thick in real scale, the fenders aren't bad - but once again a model company has put the rear of fender step in the wrong location (they aren't mounted at the bottom of the fender on the real truck). Now lets look at this 63" sleeper. The roof shape is all wrong, uh-oh, the sleeper only scales out to 58 inches. They did get the door shape right but they put the right door in the wrong location - at the rear of the bunk. Nope.. the door should be forward (again, look at the Revell USA (Revell AG now) 359 kit sleeper). Looking at the chrome trees, the fuel tanks are usable if you sand the big seams, the grille - ug - the top (crown) is wider than the sides and isn't tall enough to look right. The headlamps are okay. The mufflers are toy-like. the horns are toy like - a lot of this looks like a snap-kit, the shifter looks too short, chrome fan belts? Really? Why is the 5th wheel plate chrome plated? The steering wheel is chrome too? The wheel is nicely detailed though. The Luberfiner finally has the right shape for a Peterbilt, however they have the bracket being much wider than the Luberfiner tank. The roof air conditioner unit is too small. The "Dash of Class" instrument panel isn't shaped right either - the real dash (look at the Revell versions) has an arch like the steering wheel to the top of the dash. This kit has a flattened out top of the dash with hardly any arch. The detail on the chassis plastic parts is very thick, heavy-handed. Again, toy-like, The mudflaps would be nice if the Pete oval wasn't 1 inch thick in scale. The decal sheet has 2 stripe options, a couple of company names, some license plates and pin stripe scrolls. I choke at the thought that Ertl called this kit a "Precision Series". It's nothing more than snap-together slotted pieces with metal and plastic clunky parts that don't build well and don't even look like the product it represents. I'm surprised they even got this by PACCAR for licensing. Can you tell I don't like the kit ? This is the only kit that I have ever bought that I actually cursed out loud when I opened it up to inspect it. I keep it for the box art cover - if they would have had that as the model inside the box, they'd have had a hit. Okay.. rant mode off. Tim

The cab, hood and sleeper are pure fantasy (ok, junk). There are some usable parts. The air cleaner cap is great. The frame is okay - the spring suspension okay, nothing to write home about. Overall, an awful kit. Tim

Is that plastic sheet you use? Tim

Nice! The weather gives it the right look. Tim

Good deal ! Tim

International Transport tractors were always yellow and green. Sometimes the green was dark green. Tim

Assemble the entire frame minus wheels, engine/trans, fuel tanks, battery box, tool box.

The most difficult task will be getting the fluted ribs on the top of the hood to line up and not look spliced. You need to add 7.5 inches to the rear of the main hood. The hood will not widen any more so make sure you keep the rear width constant. You will need to make longer lower hood fender skirts. The exhaust piping under the frame, the air cleaner piping, the drive shaft and steering linkage will need to be lengthened also. The frame will be lengthened aft of the rear front spring hanger 7 inches to account for the longer hood. Here's a quick 'what I did' I just put together - hopefully this helps. http://public.fotki.com/mackinac359/how-i-did-it/359-long-hood-1/ Tim

Most impressive ! Tim

You're going to need longer shelves! Tim

Cool build. Tim

Cool build! Tim

Hobby shops carry clear acetate in various thicknesses. This is what I use. Easy to cut. Tim

The color for the Detroit Diesel in a truck the age of the Titan would be GM Detroit Diesel Alpine Green. The later engines (recent years) are more gray in color - a blueish gray. Tim

Illini originated these. I'm not sure if the Aussie sellers is re-selling the AITM and Illini castings or casting their own versions but they appear to be the same trans-kits. Tim

I thought the white one looked like an engineering mule. Tim

For a tridrive/tridem the measurement would be the center of the center axle. If a twin-steer the measurment would be from the center of both front axles. Tim

Love the big sleepers. Tim

Well d'uh.. if I'd had looked at the rad instead of drooling over the motor I'd had seen you made it nice and deep. Tim

Better put a deep-core radiator under there. The basic 352 radiator couldn't cool that big powerplant! That is why they developed the 352 for the 1510sq inch radiator, the puney 950sq inch rad just wouldn't do it. Tim

What's on the CD ? Tim

Nice collection. Tim