mackinac359

That's no H, it's a 352-110.. and a smaller scale kit too.. bringing that kind of cash !! YIKES! Tim (38801cherrystreet - the old Newark, CA address for Peterbilt Motors)

Ray Cool A-car frame. Tim

The AMT Don's Wrecker, depending on the issue (T522 is original issue and runs $40-75 on eBay as of late). If it is the later issues (larger cab) then it is the same kit as the current Peterbilt 359 wrecker, so $20-30. The International mixer is probably in the $25-35 range. The Revell trailers are bringing big prices on the 'bay. The Revell 359 kits run from $39-50, the Can-Do wrecker is still available and sells for $60-80. the KW Wrecker isn't a current kit,m but sells for about the same.

Ron's question about making a 379 cab out of a 359 cab was spooky. When he posted that question, I had just started to work on converting an AMT 359 cab into a 379! I did this just out of boredom using spare parts. Based on the real cab seen in the background of the photos. A Peterbilt 379 cab, set up for dual breathers, dual exhaust, '06/07 doors, large rear window and Unibilt air ride cab. The cab on the left is the my 379, the cab on the right is an AMT 359 cab. I cut two AMT cabs, one in half, the other 1/4 inch left of center. Then I mated the longer right half to the left half, reworked the windshield mask, doors, rear window shape, roof shape, added the mounting holes for air cleaners, hvac fresh air screen, door handles, etc. The huck rivet detail was painted on.. and boy did my shakey hand run askew! The rivets go all over the place.. but looking close at the AMT cab and the backwall has the same problems with molded on rivets! This cab will sit on the shelf beside a 359 1100-series cab shell that I did a few years ago. If you're bored, don't want to build an entire kit.. just grab the parts box and find some component that looks interesting and build that! A low-cost quick build that satisfies the need to work on something. Thanks for looking! Tim

Ron The kit has sold in the $50-90 range. I've paid close to the top price. Once nice thing about the Italeri Peterbilt kits, they almost build themselves. Very nicely done. If you want to start "cheap" (yeah right), try the Italeri (or Revell) Peterbilt 377 kit. This will give you an idea of the Italeri quality and how the kits go together (multi piece cabs). Tim

The Italeri 378 kit would be the BEST choice. The darned kit is getting extremely difficult to find, and sellers are getting good prices for it. We need to get Italeri to reissue this kit. What say everyone write letters to Italeri to reissue the thing??? To convert the 378 kit to a 379: 119" BBC Cut the top of the hood off at the "beltline." Remove a small triangle shaped sliver of the hood sides, with the most removed from the rear of the hood. This will "de-slope" the hood. the 119" hood has much lesss slope than the 378 hood. Reattach the hood top. Straighten up the front and rear edges of the hood. Temporarily attach the grille to the hood. Mark a level line from the seam on the grille (lower grille sides - crown seam) and then scribe in the panel seam on the hood sides. 379 on left, 378 drawing on right. If you are skilled at adding the huckrivet detail, the 379 hood will have them all over, you'll need to closely examine a real hood or clear photo. The cab mounts will need to be lowered slightly to adjust for the lower top of the hood. (379 sits 1 inch off the frame, 378 sits 3). Here is another Italeri 378 converted to a 379-119. I also modified the cab to an Ultracab raised roof with '06-'07 door glass. The sleeper is a 70" sleeper with the front wall and roof front from the 377 kit. If you want to build a 127" BBC 379 with the Italeri 378 kit, Spauldings has the hood shell, but the grille isn't quite right. The grille shell from the recently reissued Revell snap 359 kit is perfect. You'll have to shave off the headlights and rechrome the shell, but the shape is dead-on for the 379 and does fit the STS/Griffen hood. This is the same grille that Bill Drennen used for his 379 resin conversion. With the longer hood, you will need to move the front cab mounts rearward, along with the other mountings (sleeper, cab rear). Exhaust piping and air cleaner piping will also need to be extended. The steering column to the steering box will need lengthening. Tim

Ron This is possible, but there are a LOT of differences between a 359 and a 379. On the 1:1 truck, the 379 only shares the doors of the cab and the sleeper w ith 359. Everything else is different. In the model world, you can modify things. The 379 cab is wider at the cowl and back wall. The roof shape is different, the windshield shape and angle/rake is different (379 windshield leans back more). The fenders are shaped slightly different. The hood is entirely different. In this photo you see a 359 with the hood tilted. See how the windshield is shaped and the rake of the center post. Also not the firewall, the fresh-air vent on the side of the cab, the small step on the bottom of the fender and the steering box is aft of the axle. Here is a similar view of a 379. Here is the right view of the 359. Note the air cleaner piping runs through an extension panel from the cab. Here is the right view of the 379. Note the air cleaner piping runs through the cab, and the hood has no angled cutout for the aircleaner. As for the actual modifications to make a 379 from a 359.. you'll need to widen the kit cab about 1/4 inch. Rework the leading edge of the windshield mask so that the centerpost leans back more. Reshape the top of the cowl slightly (379 is flatter). The 379 roof is tapered more at the front and rear. The roofcap is free of rivets and panel seams. Cab view forward: Cab side view: For hood lengths, there is a 119" standard hood 379, and the longer 127" BBC length. The length refers to the length of the hood and cab (bumper to back of cab). The 119" hood has a slight forward slope to the hood, the 127" hood is fairly flat (1 degree slope). 119" BBC 379 with a 36" sleeper 127" BBC 379 Hopefully these photos have given you a little idea of the direction you'll need to go. Tim

John I thought I had a spare Mack engine but didn't, so the engine is the good ol' Driptroit. Tim

Kurt Thanks! Once you build Mack you don't go back. Ha! I've got 10 built Macks in my fleet. More to come I'm sure. Did you send the photos to photos@plasticcowboy.com? I haven't checked the inbox in a day or so. Tim

Here's my latest, this one is a .... nope, it isn't a Peterbilt... it's a Mack ! Combine an AMT GMC Astro/95 COE and a Griffen Designs Mack Ultraliner resin COE conversion.. and a 1:1 truck for inspiration.. add some glue, paint and Evergreen plastic.. The Inspiration The Model Side View The Grille Since the grille is molded to the cab, I masked the grille after priming so that the detail wouldn't be lost in the paint. I covered the entire face with Bare Metal Foil with careful burnishing, then painted the flatblack, using my finger to remove the paint from the raised detail. Details The mirror bracket is aluminum tube bent to shape. Door handle is made from bits of scrap plastic covered in BMF, the grab handle is Evergreen strip cut to size and bent to shape painted with Duplicolor BumperChrome. The battery boxes are the Astro boxes, mounted on square tube, an air tank mounted below each with a step added. The lower cab step is plastic coated Plastruct rod bent to shape. Curved Muffler A Mack MUST have a curved exhaust. I can never bend aluminum tube to look right.. in my parts box I found this perfectly shaped curve.. look close.. the muffler is actually the muffler from the Revell Snap-Kit Peterbilt 359 turned upside down! I cut the end at an angle.. a perfect looking curved stack. Interior I added some cab detail such as maps, log books, cigarettes and other odds n ends. Funny, I put cigs in some of my trucks, but I don't smoke. I weathered the truck just as the real truck looked.. I added bug splatters to the front along with paint chips. Another thing a Mack must have A Lund-style visor. Mine is made from Evergreen plastic. Not visable but on the roof are bird-poo splats that cover a couple of dust specks in the paint. Flaps The Mack red white and blue logos are from a truck stripe decal sheet from JBOT. The background should look familiar, the Ultraliner is parked in the same spot as the ModelKing Ford F150 and DM800 photos were taken.. the difference being no snow in the background! (that will be coming soon enough). I enjoyed building the Mack, a nice change of pace from factory fresh Peterbilts (no, I'm not giving up on my beloved Red Oval!). Oh, the title of my post, "Ultraliner with no Bull(dog)"? Look at the front of the cab.. no Mack Bulldog. Why? I lost mine.. and suspect it was eaten by the vacuum. This must be why dogs are afraid of vacuums! Thanks for looking. Tim www.timstrucks.com

Indeed! The Mack looks great! Tim PS: Did you send me photos at photos@plasticcowboy.com ?

Casey I had to fix a few things on the site.. go back and check.. Tim

The Fall '06 update has been posted. 2 pages stuffed with trucks! http://www.truckmodeler.com Here's a pic of my latest... more later. Tim

Bob. The waterslide decal will always show on the chrome. If you clear coat over it, it might show more. If the graphics are simple lettering, maybe a vinyl sign shop could custom cut the letters/graphics for you, and you could apply them to the tanker? There would be no decal film showing. Just a thought. Tim

VERY nice! Tim

Wayne Post away! If the pics are large enough, we can scan the area for big rig parts. I see lots of car parts in one of the photos, items that look like funny car structural pieces. Tim

Jarius Some of the Star Wars props were filled with model truck parts.. Alcoa 10-hole aluminum wheels, Kenworth K123 chassis frame rails.. etc.. Tim

Thanks Ken! This just goes to show you what you can do with a Italeri or Revell 377 kit.. just about anything. Tim

I finished up early this morning, just in time for the sun to make an appearance for photographs. Here it is ready to leave the assembly line. Rear view of the flatbed. The bed is made from sheet plastic. The finished 357. The air cleaners are polished aluminum units made by Jamie at Mo'Luminum. I added the support straps, made from chrome vinyl tape. The fuel tanks are from a Revell of Germany Peterbilt 359. I removed the chrome plating, sanded the ugly seam and painted the tanks with Duplicolor Bumper Chrome paint for an aluminum finish. View of the right fuel tank. The step on the real truck would have a strap and bracket extending from the frame rail. Thanks to Gary at MAG decals in Hawaii for making the door signs for me. The door sill/jamb is Bare Metal Foil. To tone down the brightness, I coated the BMF for the door and hinges only with Testors Dullcoat giving the more realistic dull natural aluminum look. More pics at www.timstrucks.com Thanks for looking. Tim

COOL! This will be most impressive. Tim

Thanks John! Tim

Here comes a(yeah, another) Peterbilt. This one started as the Revell of Germany Peterbilt 377 A/E kit. Here is my idea.. a doodle. A work truck owned by a steel fabricator or a specialty equipment builder. Here are the cab, hood and fenders. I cut the top off the 377 hood, made new side panels from Evergreen plastic, scribed in the panel seams, added a piano hinge to the center of the hood. I cut off the cowl/cab side panels replacing them with flat plastic. Dual aircleaners will grace the cab. The fenders are scratchbuilt. The daycab panel replaced the kit sleeper opening. I used an AMT 359 cab for rearwindow opening, tracing the opening and cutting larger than the trace. Here I've mocked up the pieces. The frame was stretched 1-3/4 inches. At this point I became stumped on the final direction to take. Then a friend who used to work on the real 357s came to the rescue with this photo from Texas I really like the blue cab, black fender with red chassis scheme on these (above) units. So I went with that concept. Now the hard part.. waiting for the paint to cure. I noticed that after clearing the blue that the clear softened the blue pulling it away from some detail exposing the primer. I will have to do some careful touch up on the piano hinge and the hood panel seams. I have to fabricate the under-the-cab exhaust piping, make mounts for the air cleaners other components. Thanks for looking! Tim

Casey This is a build that I have always wanted to do.. and do it right. I first saw the original MPC issue of the DM800-Rex Mixer back when I was 10 years old, and my Dad didn't want to spend $7.99 (a lot back in 1971!). Build on ! Tim

Great job! Tim

Casey Wow! Great progress. Tim