Rockford

I had a little Matchbox version of this truck when I was little. Looks great!

Fantastic scratchwork here. The finish is top notch!

Absolute work of art! Bodywork is my nemesis, hate it. Fully respect what you've achieved here.

Excellent stuff, hit the ground running as ever!

Wow! What a systematic analysis of the issues with this kit. I've never built this kit, only the later 359 with the newer cab but I remember the wheels felt small on that too. Indeed on a KW900 I built I used the ERTL wheels and tyres from the IH Transtar for a better stance. Yes the engine should be white, something I balk at with my Paccar builds. It could always have had a service replacement at some time.... 🤔 The older AMT kits are definitely an experience. You'll make a great job of it though.

Cleaned up the chassis rails, removing all the remnants of the casting of the inset oil pan etc... Fabbed up a set of engine mounts from plastic card and did a fitting - plopped into place nicely. Had to just do a little bit of an adjustment to the cab floor to clear the turbo. Shortened the driveshaft front section up to the centre bearing. Looking good, just another 30-40 things to do to make it look right: inlet and exhaust pipework, shift lever island, linkage, brake chambers, steering linkage, etc etc etc... All because I wanted something to see through hole at the back of the doghouse!!!!

Whether it appears black or green it looks spot on! Well done, nearly there.

Made a bell housing out of a inner wheel from the Revell Pontiac Firebird. Shaped it in the drill and added the top mounting lugs (not used on this truck), the inspection cover on the bottom and the clutch release fork shaft bosses. Engine and transmission mated together. I have started cleaning the chassis to accept the engine.

Brave call on the doors. It looks just as good, and you could have been drawn down a wormhole of what goes in the lockers!

James Pretty on YT has two K100s with that stripe layout. Looks great.

Love it!

Coming together nicely, this would have taken me years to get this far! Going to look very tidy when it's done.

This truck aint going nowhere without no gearbox. After successfully casting the rear causing that houses the range change and the splitter, I needed to formulate a plan to build the main casing. Looking at the Ford unit I deduced that the main casing could be sliced into three main cross sections each with their own profile. I built the rearmost sort out of shrapnel on an end plate, then made a thin middle slice out of a piece of green offcut from a KW T600. The forward section was the trickiest, I copied the layout of the real thing and placed two pieces of tube where the countershafts would be because they form dictate the shape of the casing, then built the rest of the casing around them, adding the various bulges with dtrips of card where necessary. A good session with my files, finessing the contours and I don't think it looks bad at all for an afternoon's work and a first try. Need to leave it to set properly and then finish it off and add a bell housing.

Interior looks great, just the right colour. The wrecker looks excellent, I prefer the old Holmes twin boom jobs even though the modern kit is much more capable.

Like the job you made of the fuel tanks!

Cleverly done, nice work.

Really nice bread-and-butter truck. Backbone of the industry that type of machine.

That's a little stunner! Like the old Cat engine.

Today was just a case of adding the engine mounts. My mind was on something else today. I want to do a transmission this time, the kit pieces is not even a starting point it's that bad. I took the Ford LTL9000 engine and transmission to use as a pattern, this is a fantastic little piece! I was looking at the rear casing detail thinking about how to model it and I just thought I'd jump into a new world. I balled up some Blu-tack, sprayed the rear transmission casing with olive oil and pressed it in. Then I mixed some epoxy resin and filled the mould. It turned out pretty good. It looked really rough at first but as I cleaned it up it really started to look good. I coloured it with a blue Sharpie so I could see it properly - I'm amazed! The caps on the countershafts are clear as are the fillets on the output flange. First try at casting and it's a real thing! Trimmed it down and it's great. I've just got to make a transmission housing now.

Thanks No, I never thoughts about that! I might sit and do that tomorrow. Good thought.

Thanks mate, we're ok. Friends out in the sticks had a power outage but we're ok.

Confined to barracks today by this storm that's battered Scotland and Ireland, +100 mph winds they've suffered. We've just had 60mph so not so bad. Took the opportunity to add more to the Caterpillar, PAS pump in front of the compressor, PAS reservoir on the back of the head, starter motor, alternator, front pulley on the crank, fan belts from elastic cotton and a flywheel housing. Still need to do a fan and engine mounts.

A good demonstration of lateral thinking yielding excellent results, as usual!

Very tidy work mate, really impressive.

Utterly brilliant work going on here, looks fantastic, the pipework is fantastic!