mackinac359

Check with Dave Natale of American Industrial Truck Models at www.aitruckmodels.com You'll have to email him from his site and ask if he has the old MTFAco fire items. Tim

Brian Very nice!! Tim

Josh Cool! Tim

I just published the January 2007 update for www.truckmodeler.com www.truckmodeler.com 200+ photos added! Tim

Thanks guys ! Tim

Here's the latest.. this time we're going back to 1986 for a 359-127" BBC with a first generation raised roof sleeper (359 had the sleeper before 379). I combined a Revell of Germany 1/25th scale 359 with an Italeri 377 for the wheels, sleeper and fuel tanks to make this LargeCar. I stretched the Revell chassis 25 scale inches in wheelbase, and also stretched the frame between the front cab mount and the leading edge of the frame to account for the longer resin hood (Griffen from www.stsmodeltrucks.com). The 1st generation stand-up sleepers had a RH door. Mine is a LH door from another 377 sleeper mounted on the right. I could have used a RH door from a Revell sleeper but already used the sleeper from this kit on another truck. So, my RH door is a suicide door.. not quite correct. All sorts of parts are covered in Bare Metal Foil including the grille sides (after I cut in the panel seam that Revell (and AMT) missed), the undercab lightbars, the door jambs, door handles, fuel tank straps, air cleaner straps, window trim, sun visor, snowcaps on the horns (I sanded down the face of the horns eliminating the visable mold seam and covered in foil) and other doodads. In order to give the 359 a mid '80s look, I went with the square turn signals from an AMT amber tree and the rectangular roof lights from a 377 kit. The Warren Transport Inc., logos are decals from the USA/North American decal sheet from Kit Form Services www.kitformservices.com and are quite nice, the perfect finishing touch. Thanks for looking! Tim

Smoooooothed !

Idunno Nice look Pete you got going there! Like Jarius said, the group is small, and sometimes it takes a day to get replies. I haven't been able to check the forum due to the holidays. Tim

That does look nice! Tim

How about making it an '08 389 ? Or an '08 367 Or an '08 365 A 379 or 359.. hmmmm. 359 would be easier, 379 would take more work..hmmmmmm. Tim

Yup. Not a Marmon. A Revell P'bilt 359 with a Marmon grille and decals. Funny thing.. the chassis parts still have the Peterbilt oval on them.. They'd have done better putting the Marmon grille on a Kenworth W900 as they looked closer (cab wise and fender shape) Tim

Ben Thanks! Tim

Dave The KTA looks good! Tim

Ken Thanks! Is that your 387 with the Allied trailer? Nice. Tim

Kurt Thanks! I started working on this on November 25th. Cab, hood, fenders modified and primed by the 26th. Painted on the 26th (late evening). (I wrote down a time-line as I did things for some reason). Each evening I just worked various things. The nice thing about Italeri kits is that they go together so easily, even when you modify them. Tim

Here's the lastest from the Timbilt Truck Factory... Inspired by this truck (Photo courtesty of Mark Reitz) The truck is a 1994 Peterbilt 357 tilt hood modified to have frame mounted flat fenders. The truck is unit #115 for the Waukesha County Highway Department (Wisconsin). Waukesha used the truck until 2002. The photo below shows the cab/hood and dump box after modifications and painting. The kits used: Italeri P'bilt 377A/E and Paystar Dump Truck and Ford Snow Plow. The plowblade was scratchbuilt from Evergreen and Plastruct. The plowframe is from the AMT Ford SnowPlow kit and modified. The spreader unit was scratchbuilt from plastic. The cab and fenders are on the frame. I used resin wheels and tires on the front and can not remember where I got these items from! Here is the finished plow Since this started as a 377A/E I needed a battery box and smaller fuel tank. The fuel tank (RH side) is from a reissue AMT Peterbilt 352COE. The battery box is from an AMT P'bilt 359. I reworked it slightly to resemble the taller modern battery box. Aside from the roof not fitting properly, I like how this turned out and enjoyed building it. Thanks for looking! More pics are at http://www.timstrucks.com then click on the Recent Builds page. Tim

Engine color if in a pre 1984 Peterbilt: Detroit Diesel Caterpillar Cummins Engine color would be WHITE. There were exceptions, but before '84 white was the color that Peterbilt ordered its engines. Caterpillar was the last to stop painting them white. Tim

Oooo, that is a nice truck. Great inspiration. Tim

This has the makings of a cool truck. Tim

Nice pics! Thanks for posting the links. Tim

Jarius That is the problem. Keeping the camera at eye level for the original photo AND keeping the model in perspective with the photo. I wish I would have thought about backdrops when I snapped the original photos. I could have paced out the locations and planned the view. Tim

Winter is about here (okay, it's gonna snow tonight). I need a nice indoor photo backdrop rather than plain old white poster board. I got to thinking that if I enlarge a photo of a real truck related location, I might be able to use the photo as a backdrop. I selected several photos and sent them to www.yorkphoto.com to enlarge to 20x30 poster size. Here's the poster size cut to sort of scale it down to look close to the right scale (1/24-25). Here's the same poster and model. Look close at the yellow and white P'bilt.. look behind the model at the yellow and white tractor.. same truck! Here is another backdrop Same backdrop, just a different truck and angle as the first view. Here's another with the same backdrop. This view has nice sky color, but I can't seem to get the models to match the perspective of the real trucks. Here are a couple of others. I am playing with lighting, positioning and diffusing of the lighting. I have all winter to experiment. Thanks for looking! Tim Additonal pics are on http://tahlborn.web.aplus.net/facback.htm

OR... how about a load of primered truck hoods heading to the factory? Tim

Matt Glad to see you made it over here ! Tim

Dave I won't be doing the next update until next weekend at the earliest. Tim