Rockford

That's looking really good! You've made rapid progress with this one, there's no holding you back now. Your surface finish looks much better now too. Well done.

What a brilliant job you've made of this! There's so much detail been added. The weathering is so realistic too. Love it.

Using 1.5mm aluminium tube I made some palm couplings and the electric plug. I crush 2mm of the tube as much as possible, then shape the flattened part into the round head of a palm coupling. On the electric plug I cut a groove down the back and bent the sides out to form the pull tabs, looks acceptable. Bit of elastic thread and draped them over the pogo stick.

Fantastic stuff!

Couldn't leave the rear wheels looking so dark so found myself repainting them with Humbrol No11 at 11pm last night, appropriately. I wouldn't have slept. Results are much much better.

It's done nothing but rain here recently, but got a decent day Friday and had a few hours spare so decided to get the chassis and tanks painted. I had bought a vibrant Orange from Hycote but sadly it didn't come out as vibrant as I'd hoped. Finish is ok. Put everything back together and looking good. Tried another way to deal with the hollow Monogram "tyres", I sliced the sidewalls off some of the hundreds of spare SMT tyres and put them into the Monogram "tyres". Not fantastic but fills the void that is usually there. I'm sure someone will think that the tyre sidewalls shouldn't touch in real life as it causes heat related tyre failure but this will do. I can't understand why the aluminium paint turned out so dark on the rear wheels. Maybe the shape caused me to put it on too thick, the fronts turned out fine. Not sure what to do.

Looking good mate, keep up the good work.

Absolutely amazing stuff, so clean and tidy.

Great progress, well done. Unfortunate about the struts snapping but at least you didn't throw it out the window, which I'd be tempted to do after all that time designing and printing. Cummins looks good, great job.

Fantastic stuff, looks perfect. Some say it was better under the ICC, instead of today's race to the bottom.

Excellent building, that's one beefy truck.

Frighteningly good! You build so cleanly mate, really impressive.

Time waits for no truck. Now that the W900 is finished I turned my attention back to the Bison. I did the procedure for deepening the wheel dishes on the tandems. I'm getting a good little system together on this now. Improves the look no end. Many thanks to Force for encouraging me to do it on the Sundance job. I've wanted to try making some half fenders out of ali sheet for some time now and this truck seems a good candidate. Shaped the fenders around a mop handle. Used some 2.3mm ali tube as brackets because I'd already drilled the chassis for the kit ones. Wired them together and installed a rear support using 1.5mm brass tube. Before assembly I polished the fenders with Solvol Autosol metal polish and the felt wheel on my rotary tool. (Evidence that I can't drill a hole in the right place!) Couldn't resist a mock-up.

Really Pruitty! ?

Thanks for the support and advice lads. I'm going to be naughty and say Håkan, your turn!

Well, I think I'm at the point where any more fiddling around with it will just cause me to damage something and I won't be able to live with myself! It looks good to me. So I'm leaving it here now and posting it in Under Glass. Still can't quite believe that I've done it after 50 years.

Well, I'm calling it done. There are little details I could add and some things I could improve, but I'm not risking ruining it. I've loved this truck since 1974 when I first saw it on the TV in my childhood home in Liverpool GB. The fact that one of my dad's heroes, Merle Haggard, sang the theme tune just made it perfect! I've wanted to have a proper model of it ever since. I've made a few poor efforts many years ago and I've looked at some of the "replicas" you can buy but they all fall short of the mark. So here in 1/32 scale is my Sonny Pruitt's Sundance. Starting with an assembled AMT Snap-Fit kit from eBay and a Monogram Fruehauf dry van I hand built the torsion bar rear suspension, quarter fenders and sleeper roof then did all the mods I made to my other AMT W900. On the trailer, functional landing gear, F2 lightweight suspension and fitted a side door. The AMT kit is terrible but it has good bones. All my boring details are in the WIP. Drew up my own licence plates but couldn't bear to cut the step hole in the front bumper so might use a black square decal in the future. I am thinking of making a W.Chandler truck in the future. "Big wheels rollin' Movin' On"

I found some KW emblems for the mudflaps. They were from the green T600 version from Revell AG. However, the mudflaps I'd made would curl up if I applied them so an alternative was required. I salvaged some clear acetate from a box . It was only 0.25mm thick. I wrapped it in electrical tape with the bracket included at the top. The final width was only 0.5mm so looks nice and thin still. Then I could add the KW decals. Look good. Also added the trailer mudflap lettering and license plates. I printed two "FLEET FLYER" insignia but they just shriveled up when I soaked them. I'll try again on my next print.

It was really like the old wandering cowboy series of the sixties, only instead of horses they got around in a Kenworth.

Good thinking on the rig switch! I suppose a good place to hide a production rig is in a truckstop! Thanks lads.

Long shot here. Does anyone know what this "drom" is in the background of this shot? It appears to have valances that drop over the chassis. Looks like a Marmon too.

Explain this. In one season Sundance went from one plate to many plates, then a different set of many plates. Only the bingo plate and Idaho stayed.

Jürgen, all you need is rear view of the engine so I wouldn't worry too much. What you've done so far seems way too much in terms of detail. The transmission is more visible, probably a Roadranger of some sort. The rear end of the block appears to be about level with the rear wall of the cab so I'd just work to that. Modelling is like art, my old art teacher used to say 'you paint what the eye sees, not what you know to be there'. Sometimes we can destroy ourselves on details that will never be seen.

Jürgen, I've found the page you got those pictures from and that truck actually has a 290 Cummins in it. I can imagine it is a tight fit and I wouldn't want to do an in-frame on one! https://barnfinds.com/1975-international-cabover-conco-transtar-4100/

And I've just realised that I've got my trucks mixed up! Apologies.