Wagoneer81

Very Nice!!! These kits are good slumpbusters... Except for the occasional tire fit issue, they seem to almost fall together. That is a nice, clean build! A sweet looking tractor! This^ is exactly why I love these particular kits! I'm getting ready to stretch another W900 frame 2 1/2" so I can mount a cargo box from the Louisville kit... These frames stretch very easily because you can ADD the frames flanges as one long piece thereby staggering you splices making it very strong. By adding a filler sideplate of .040 sheet and full length flanges out of .040x.125 stock, this makes the frames almost bulletproof. Brian, I saved these pics to my model truck folder. This is too cool a truck to not be in my screensaver!

A pin stripe usually makes the color transition look more... gentle, I guess that's the word I want... It's an attention getter that adds to the effect. I'd say try a red stripe like in the second picture... that's pretty pleasing to the eye. I do like that color combo!

Excellent! I added the pics to my file. This'll be a pretty easy build for those of us who will have your pictures to guide us... Way to be the Pathfinder!

A little background: "This disease may be caused by an undiagnosed malignancy." "Your new level of 'normal' will not be as good as your old level."(AKA, you'll never be as strong as you were before you got sick) "Untreated, your life expectancy will be 4-5 years...and the last 2 won't be pretty" My Doctor told me these things on Feb. 3, 2009. I remember the date because that was the same day that two friends were killed in a crash at the Southbound 7 mile marker on I-69 just north of Indy. It was a 32-car pileup caused by a freak white-out. They were co-workers at the little utility contracting company I worked for and I would have been in the same crash had I not taken off for the appointment with the specialist who diagnosed me... Fate? Destiny? Anyone? I spent two plus years of; Days spent to weak to walk... Sick to the point of passing out from side-effects of medicines (did that behind the wheel of the Jeep one night... NOT fun! Came to sitting in a ditch, front bumper nudged up against an 18" maple.) Not being able to model or do much of anything because dexterity is shot to Heck because of the damage done to muscle tissue... Having to have a wheelchair to do anything where standing more than 5 minutes was required... Fearing I would just keep declining and finally die... My immune system was attacking and destroying my muscles connective tissues on a cellular level... Found out it WASN"T caused by my body reacting to a tumor so the Medical Professionals still don't know what caused it in me... Now, fast foward to today; It's official, I'm off the immunosuppresants, my bloodtests came back normal,... I AM IN REMISSION! Through the use of meds whose nasty side effects were sometimes WORSE than the disease they were treating, my immune system has finally been beaten back into compliance! There is no sign of Dermatomyositis right now. I still carry it, it is NOT contageous, it may be gone for good, it may come back in a year, we don't know... we're taking it one day at a time. I want to thank everone, from the bottom of my heart, who supported me with words of encouragement, understanding and humor and those who prayed for me and with me in these past three, difficult years. This means worlds to me... Some of you helped me through my darkness without even knowing it... with a post of a particularly funny thread when I needed a laugh the most... an encouraging PM... with pictures of an extraordinary project, when I needed that boost of encouragement... There are way to many names to mention... You ALL helped me in some shape and form. THANK YOU!!! Gregg, thank you for doing your thing here and allowing us to do ours. Yes, this will sound very strange to some but, many times, this site was my sanity saver... I'm still weak from the damage done by the disease and the idleness brought on by fighting said disease but, I'm slowly on my way UP. My physical therapist says it will be a long, uphill road but it will be up! I still need the cane and the wheelchair for I have several disks in my back and neck that refuse to play nice. I suffered a nasty and permanent back injury in Feb. of 2010, add that joy and fun to the muscle disease, and 3 disks in my neck started showing their stuff back in October but... I am past one big hurdle and can handle them when I don't have to jump them all at the same time... Thanks for letting me vent, I now return you to our regularly scheduled madness!

When this urge hits you, do what I do... Hit the bench, build with a vengance and see how much farther you can take your skills! Very inspiring! I'd love to have a couple of these engines sitting around waiting for a a new build to call home!

I was wondering the same thing, just now... I'm thinking the proper answer would be "Well, I never learned to play the piano."... This is really inspiring, John! Excellent work! Please, excuse me now while I get my sorry butt off the 'Net and in front of the workbench!

Thanks, Harry! I believe the plastic railings are still in the updated kit but they look pretty cheesy when compared to the PE offerings. This was the first ship that I used PE detail on and I built her box stock so everything you see in the pics came from the updated kit.

Ok, fair enough... I do see where you're going with this. Still, you did a fine job on the conversion. There's enough Freightliner there to do it justice!

Ths only redeeming qualities of the third movie were a select few scenes at the campground ... Still not near enough to redeem an entire movie. I only own it because It was a package deal... I had to get all three to get the first one...

I'm glad my ramblings were found useful... I've got a lot of them! I'd be very interested in seeing more drawings for this... I like how it's coming together.

Very good save! Is it me or is that old gold paint close to impossible to strip correctly? The finished product looks great, I love the markings.

That conversion is a prime example of 'just because you can, doesn't mean you should'...

An old B model Mack... It's amazing what one can find just sitting in the weeds. This one too needs rescued...

Yep, that's an old GMC 2 1/2 ton... What a shame, it needs rescued...

In my best Evil Emperor voice; "Impressive, most impressive!" Seriously, that is a fine looking combo!

Looking great! You do exceptionally good work!

Very nice! I like how you modified the wheels, I'll have to remember that.

I'm sure the twin turbos did a number on that beast! I've been thinking about adding a turbo to this engine. As it comes in the kit, it's naturally aspirated and I just don't think that's going to cut it for what I'm wanting to build... a late '70's/ early '80's owner operator truck with roof mounted AC, add-on sleeper and headache rack, pulling a flatbed. I think it needs a bit more oomph than the 290-300 ponys that the NA version puts out.

Good job on modifying the hood and headlight openings. A good repair or modification should never be seen and you certainly did it right. Looks good so far, just keep going!

Jim B, that's a fine looking rig you have assembled there... I have the same combo in the works, though mine will be considerably more weatherbeaten than this shiny looking hookup.... There's something about the Titan and the Wilson trailer that just look right together... I put my trailer behind several cabs before deciding on the Chevy. The others just didn't 'do it' for me. Top shelf stuff here!

$32.00 is a pretty good deal for a truck kit. Thanks for the heads up!

I didn't even remember that there WAS a truck in the third movie... It was black with a double stripe of silver over argent silver with red pinstripe between the colors. A basic silver metallic and an argent silver metallic should give you the two-tone stripe you need. Contact me if you need anymore info as I have the 'Pursuit Pack' of all three movies in my DVD collection.

Ohh, YEAH!!! I'll be following this one, closely! Aaron, I truly appreciate you posting your drawings. You have quite a bit of work in them and I can appreciate the time and calulations that you put into them. (I was formally trained as a draftsman but haven't used those skills in several years.) I saved your pics for personal reference, that is, if you don't mind me pirating them... I will, someday, add one of these trailers to my ever-expanding truck fleet and I have no qualms about following in the footsteps of more talented builders... You have gotten off to a really good start. I love seeing raw plastic shapes come together into something complex and functional. That is exactly the function of an oscillating 5th wheel plate. These trailers will see a lot of offroad time, depending on their use, being pulled in and out of farm fields, construction sites, over unprepared or underprepared field or jobsite entrances, through ditches and over VERY uneven ground. I used to drive OTR and can tell you, the pucker factor goes WAY up when you get your tractor on one uneven plane and the trailer on another and you start hearing metals creak, groan and pop as the trailer is trying to bend in a direction it's not meant to. I have actually made a 53' van 'scream' in protest (Or maybe it was my fully retracted landing gears bottoming out on the concrete...)to the angle it was trying to keep while being almost jackknifed into a tight, steep loading dock pit. (It had been built when COE's and 40footers were the norm and here I am with a 9400 International Eagle and a 53 footer...) I thought I was going to bust a kingpin on that one and wished outloud that I had had an oscillating 5th... When I got it parked, with the tractor at close to a right angle to the trailer, I had air under the outboard tires on my right side drive axles and sitting still, things were still making protesting noises... As you left the street the road surface came up close to a foot and then dropped steeply down, this was to keep rain runoff from flooding the dock pit. I apologize for the ramblings but thought a little color might help you understand and appreciate what you're building even more...Now, back on topic, I look forward to seeing you make progress on this one! Chris

What he said^^^. I did a couple of online searches and while finding a lot of pictures of old Macks, I could not find one of a 5th wheel...If it were me, I would just have to assume that 5th wheel technology has not changed in eons and go with maybe a slightly smaller one than you would find on a modern truck. It'll mostly be hidden by the kingpin plate, won't it? I'm sorry we couldn't be of more help...

Phil, this looks pretty good. I can't tell, is this the 1/48 or 1/72 kit? You don't have to do this but, If you want one piece of advice... mask off the canopy so that it stays shiny and hit the entire model with a coat or two of Testors Dullcoat (rattlecan). I brushpaint most of my planes (I build in 1/72) and I do this as a final step. This will knock down the decal shine and even everything out, hiding brushmarks and shiny areas quite nicely. It will also add a layer of protection to your decal markings, sealing them in place for years to come and make them look like they were painted on, just like on the prototype. I've brush painted several 'Yellow-wing' interwar US fighters and you can't tell they were done that way. Even had one guy ask me what type of airbrush I used...