Rockford

Shaped the brackets for the luberfiner today. If I make them body colour then colour the edges chrome they will mimic the original setup. By doing them this way they're good and sturdy.

Turned my attention to the double sleeper Bison I'm doing in parallel with the daycab. I'm down to small stuff now, coming up to paint. Added fuel filler caps from 3.2mm plastic tube with sprue caps. I used a pair of pliers to press the ribbing in them. Sanded the cab down a bit to get rid of some parting lines and finish the filling, re-scored the sleeper doors and added drip rails from 1mm square stock. Rejigged the luberfiner mounts again. Cut halfway through the luberfiner itself and inserted flat sections of plastic. Once they've set I'll shape them into brackets that hug the front of the cab. Added headrests from a Kenworth T600 interior, added an ashtray cut from plastic sheet and ground out a cigarette lighter with my motor tool. I'm not going to go overboard on the dashboard with this one because you can't really see it once it's assembled. On the daycab you can see through the rear window.

So, after reading the above conversation, I have an AMT with opening doors in my stash, and was intending to build it stock one day. Am I making a rod for my own back?

I spent a while looking at them on auction sites. If you're in the USA you could go and look at the real thing. I worked out the construction method of a real unit, noted some measurements and started looking for the closest profiles in stock plastic. It was actually quite straightforward. All a flat trailer is is steel or ali profiles welded together. You can do it mate.

Very wet today in Liverpool, so no chance of spraying anything. Turned my attention to the interior. Covered the seat inserts with masking tape just to present a different texture to the outer skin. Gave a basic coat of Tamiya XF93 Light Brown, then painted the guage cluster Humbrol Matt62. Black carpet and seat bases with aluminium pedals finish it off. I used Sharpie markers and a black liner to add detail and the end result is acceptable. Far better than the bland moulding that comes in the kit. The dashboard and seats now appear to stand separately, even though they're still all one piece.

And here's the dry van WIP

this is the WIP for the trailer you can see it with earlier on.

I have a few trailers I can use, a reefer, dry van, 20ft skeletal container, flat and tank. I've acquired a few more AMT vans too. I tend not to have dedicated truck and trailer sets because of space, but also because the fleets I worked for would constantly swap. You'd come back into the yard with an empty tipper and could go out the next day on a tank or stay with that tipper, then again you could be on flatbed work. It all depended on the work mix for the day. Also, my childhood heroes were the owner operators you'd see in Overdrive magazine who just had a nice tractor and a plain box. I am thinking of doing a liveried truck soon though. Thanks for your comments gents.

The bumper looks like some of my old girlfriends, quite hefty and something I wouldn't want to wrestle with because I'd incur more damage than them! Perfectly practical qualities I would say.

Looks good to me. What's wrong with it in your opinion?

Fabbed up my usual pogostick and placed it on a piece of 90 degree angle, then glued that to a piece of diamond plate from another chassis. Used some braided line hose fittings for the airlines, they're not palm couplings but they look better than nothing. I'm using elastic thread for airlines this time, might drape more naturally. Made some rear hubs from cheap pen tops. Closed the end of the chassis rails. Prized the glued windshield out and broke the centre pillar so made a new one out of 1mm square rod rounded off on one side. Carved the grooves in the hood for the chrome strips. Rubbed the cab down with 800 wet and dry and am now at the worst part for me... paint. Can't decide on a colour combo. White chassis with orange cab graphics? Brown and gold? Silver and red? Blue and white.

Great looking combo, and you're right about the trailer, much better as a tandem rather than a tri-axle. Looks more "of the period".

Well done Gary, tanks look great. I've always thought the positioning of the battery box(es) was odd. I wonder how much it cost them to tool up for the extra steps? Later versions had a more sensible setup. On the engine colour, weren't old Detroits the colour of old engine oil because of all the leaks? Naughty old me! Over here in UK our "oil leaks with an engine attached" were Gardner Diesels.

That looks amazing. Great build mate. Curbside kits can be so enjoyable because you're not detailing stuff no one will ever see, rapid results. A Europa used to park at the top of our street when I was a kid. If you weren't watching you could trip over the thing it was that low. I believe they were expensive toys to play with. I think you have the best version, very cheap to run.

Well there you are. Maybe do some newer issue car kits that actually work and get your mojo back. Glad your Europa turned out well. I'll go and have a look.

I'm sorry to see that. I suppose we have all got to that point at some time. I nearly threw one across the room a few months ago after spending nearly a year on the thing. The only thing that stopped me was that I couldn't afford to buy it again. A change is as good as a rest, maybe move onto something totally different?

Great work so far, like the tanks, is it me or are the front fenders on these kits a little soft in shape?

As with all your builds, I'm speechless. Absolute craftsmanship!

Thanks gents. I still can't stop looking at it now.

Not much to report this week because I sliced the top of my right index finger open on a tuna fish tin. Very disabling, just trying to handle a knife and fork is murder. I drew a pair of eyes on and I've got a new friend! So I piped up the brake chambers and built a set of steps for the chassis out of stock angle. I think it's looking just right this truck.

Ben thanks for that, I'm quite pleased with my tank method. No I can't settle fully with either of the 1/32 wheels, though the Monogram look better from a distance due to their bigger size. Such a shame about the AMT pieces, if only they'd used their calculator properly. I have seen the Aoshima pieces on eBay but I can't justify the prices they're commanding. I've managed to make what I'm stuck with look acceptable to myself so I'll just carry on with them. I'll use the AMT ones on trailers I think. I suppose if you're doing your flagship kit then they might be worth it though. Look forward to seeing your Superliner finished.

Not a lot achieved today, but pleased with what I've done. I reduced the air filter, cutting it below the lower band and shortening the bottom piece. Modified the luberfiner brackets because the way I had them they would have been bolted through the hood and the cab, wouldn't work, and I don't know why I didn't notice when I first did it. I'm most pleased with the exhaust piping now. I moved the battery box forwards as well as the fuel tank which allowed me to put simple pipes in that go below the chassis rail to some imaginary Y-pipe. Looks so much better. Piping is sprue bent up over a candle. Looks good. Tried forming a new visor out of aluminium, NIGHTMARE!!!!!! Still filing and fillting the pig after an hour. Such a complex shape its almost impossible to get something that will fit.

Thanks Rick. I still can't believe I built a trailer that looks like a trailer and not a stick with some wheels on it. The wheels and tyres are AMT 1/32 pieces. The tyres are excellent the wheels are dire, 10 hole featureless rubbish. They took a lot of work to look credible. The sad part is that the tyres are too small and can ruin the look of a kit if you don't reposition the axles for the correct spacing. I used them here because at the far end of the trailer your eye doesn't notice the difference between the two sizes, Monogram to AMT. I considered using them on a tractor but they look ridiculous in the wheel arches etc... on a trailer there's little for the eye to use for proportion. Such a shame because I love the tyres.

I looked at the photo of the exhaust pipes I bent up and I wasn't happy. They're all over the place, mainly because of the fuel tank, it's too far rearward and that's because I left the kit brackets in place because I'm lazy and it was just in the wrong place. So I made myself a shorter one of my electric conduit tanks and brackets. Added steps and made a fuel cap out my old friend chubby sprue. I ribbed the edge of the cap by squeezing it gently in a pair of pliers so the teeth marked it. Looks ok. So after a week's worth of work I'm further behind than was when I started. But now I can route the exhaust straight under the cab with a simple elbow.

Gents, I've got to make a bit of an apology here, I never thanked you for your kind comments about my trailer. My brain's a bid scrambled nowadays since I got COVID in Feb of this year and I keep forgetting to do things. It's getting better but I'm still missing stuff. So thanks very much for your observations on my flatbed. I'm very proud of it, l look back at my work and I really don't know how I did it!