Chuck Most

First off... my apologies for the poor quality of these pics! I took them shortly after I finished the model in 2005- the only camera I had back then was a cheap little Vivitar point-and-shoot digital. I stumbled onto these images today while clearing some old memory cards. The model has been in my grandfather's possession ever since it was finished, and he's owned the 1:1 for over four decades. My skills weren't what they are now, so I just did what I could to convert the AMT kit to '59 specs, at least visually. I seem to remember robbing the quad headlight bezels from an AMT '53 F-100 custom grille, and I made the '58-'60 style side spear trim from scraps of plastic. The 1:1 has a square fuel tank on the driver's side, but I used the kit-supplied round one, and left off the passenger' side tank. The white cab/black chassis/red bed are faithful to the 1:1, it is missing the "Maple Wood Farms" lettering in red on the doors- I just couldn't pull that off at the time. His truck is a Custom Cab, so it has a white steering wheel, as all the early Custom Cab C-Series trucks did early on. I left the 534 engine and Allison trans intact, though the real truck has a 292 Y-block and a manual transmission. The 1:1 usually had solid sides on the stake bed- it was used to haul grain to the elevator, but after they stopped lifting trucks he got another truck with a hoist and this was promoted to "stock boy" duty... hauling seed and fertilizer to the field. It was sometimes used to transport old tractors- back when his health was better my grandfather almost always had an old Fordson in the shop being restored. Like my grandfather, the '58 is semi-retired now, it spends its days in a shed with some of the other trucks and tractors he's used/restored over the years.

Saw one of each at the truckstop today-

At the truck stop today...

^That one?^

EJ Potter, in addition to building Chevy V8 powered exhibition drag bikes, was also known to stuff Allison V-12s into a wide array of vehicles.

I remember about fifteen years ago there was one of these running around in my area, and it had an '87-'97 style bed. Might go that route...

I guess you could call this part of that "Throwback Thursday" nonsense, as I actually built this back in 2006 or 2007, shortly after the Model King reissue. While rearranging stuff on the shelves recently, I decided to take some decent photos of it. Much of it is the base kit, with a comically tall body lift made from Plastruct strip, and some So Real Weld wheels/Irok tires that I bought specifically for this project. I built this in my typical style, just diving into it with all the subtlety of a bull rampaging through a china shop. This was before I really knew what I was doing, and it shows in a few places! Just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many things on this that I just would not let fly on anything I built today. One of these days I want to do a new and improved version.

Could be, but there are still fresh SSP Black Widows on the shelves at most of the shops I frequent.

The beltline trim looks correct for a '76 or earlier truck, but I've seen quite a few 1:1 '76 and earlier models with the thicker beltline trim... (this one was retrofitted with a '78/9 grille). It may have had something to do with trim level in the early years. The rocker trim changed for '77- a thin strip that ran above the fluted rockers and wheel openings- The AMT beltline trim is closer to this-

Discontinuation after a fairly short run.... still a selection in hobby shops....prices haven't jumped yet... ....I'm thinking maybe this kit isn't the hot seller they'd initially thought it would be?

Such things do happen-

Also... I wouldn't have to wait months on end for my Tesla to arrive, for lack of flat black hoods.

Best way to use it is to avoid it in the first place. Doesn't stick, easily scratched, and just looks like gloss black paint once applied.

The plastic parts have been approved for production- instruction sheet, decals, and box design are currently in development. If it's as good as the last test shot, it should be pretty good. Not that I'd know, or anything... ^Those are AMT parts pack tires, but other than that it's out of the box.

I don't recall exactly, but I think I used three- one continuous strip from the tops of the grille openings upward, another continuous strip along the bottom, and three horizontal strips- one on each end and one on the divider bar in the center.

Could be Brockway's revenge, with regards to Mack itself. There will come a day when a Mack is nothing more than a Volvo with a Bulldog ornament. Count on that.

If given a choice between the two... I'd still rather have the Tesla. Just gonna put that out there.

Joe Whitman (owner of TL Model Trucks) suggests one of the 1:24 Italeri kits, like the Freightliner or Western Star.

Wheelbase is now 133", and the glass and interior are back in.

A little Sunny...ha... I see what you did there. Can't wait to see more.