Rockford

The grille looks great with the real mesh in there. What colour did you use for the dump body? It looks really bright silver, I might use that on my ali wheels. Got to say, this is looking great.

I tried using oven cleaner to strip the chrome from the wheels, grille, stack and tanks but after two days it didn't work any better than household bleach. It stripped the chrome in seconds but not the lacquer beneath. Never mind. I'll only be fitting one tank and I'll be ribbing it down anyway to remove the seam. I'll do the grille in aluminium and then foil the outer edge and the middle bar. I added top and bottom rails to make the side rails C-Sections, added some fillets to the crossmembers and filled the diffs with sprue and offcuts from the kit. When it's all solid I'll start shaping the diffs roughly then use filler to finalize the shape. I filed the plastic representation of the flap off the top of the quarter fenders and replaced them with electrical tape, as I do with the mudflaps.

Thanks gents, sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference. I'm pleased with them, which is a rarity!

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Thanks for the kind comments gents, JIm you're right that is GREEN! Don't know whether it's worse to look at than the old red version. At least I shouldn't have any bleed through problems with the paint. Here's Kermit next to his full length stable mate.

I've never seen this build, it looks grand! Good to see 1/32 being built. These kits can really look good with a bit of work, and that one does! I love Aerodynes, even the name is great. I know, I'm wierd.

Just looks utterly real! Fantastic model. Well done. Hope you're safe from the fires over there.

You're right about the shorter frame, does look better. Good looking build, even with one contact lens hanging out!

That's one cool truck! Well done.

I can't stop myself. The T600 is about the only 1/32 kit you can get at a decent price now. I picked this up for £20. I didn't know whether to do a single drive tractor, a short frame double drive or a straight truck. I settled on the shortened day cab double drive. I've done most of the following on my first T600 day cab but quickly:- I cut the sleeper off, used the sleeper rear wall for the rear wall of the cab. Marked and cut a large rear window this time. I took all the deck plating off the chassis and will detail things accordingly. I filed the slider detail off for the 5th wheel and it left it looking too high. So, I cut the mounting off the chassis. Drilled some sprue down the middle and then cut four pieces off, two for the 5th wheel and two on the chassis. They act as gudgeons through which I threaded a piece of wire to act as a hinge pin. Still pivots and looks a lot better!

Great to see another 1/32 going together! Lovely work.

Thanks again for all your comments gents, you're very kind. I know my stuff doesn't bear comparison with some of the fabrication that gets done on some models but I'm just happy to come out with a credible looking rig. If I had to state a preference, I think I'd go with the Trailmobile, maybe because it took more work.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. I do think about liverying them up sometimes but I do like plain white or silver boxes, I think of the owner operator who would just lease a box, couple it up and go hauling freight. They're the guys that really caught me when I started reading about the American truck industry as a kid. There were no owner operators over here in GB, or very few. I think I was mesmerised by the thought of sitting in a Peterbilt or a KW that was yours from front to back, not part of a fleet. Sorry, you kicked me off on a mental stroll there!

I finally feel I can say that I've finished these two trailers. The AMT 1/32 Trailmobile and the Monogram 1/32 Fruehauf. They took a bit of fettling to get them looking respectable, ride height, modifying the landing gear, adding airlines, reducing the track on the Trailmobile and removing the paving slab sized mudflaps. I made new ones out of electrical tape. Made my own decals for the Trailmobile too, for the mudflaps and four little Trailmobile badges. They'd sat in boxes unseen for decades. These trailers are on eBay for £60 unopened. I got these as opened kits for a fraction of that. It's good to see them built and doing what they were made for. I like the look of them, how they sit etc... They're not the most accurate and detailed kits but they don't take up as much room as 1/25 and I think they capture the late 70s look very well.

Here they are together. Two very different kits of classic van trailers, released from the clutches of the eBay box traders and doing what they were designed for, making tractors look complete!

The Trailmobile looked good but there were no decals with it so after searching the web I drew up some decals for the mudflaps using Paint on my laptop. I did some white on a black background for the black mudflaps and red ones too in case I want to change the mudflaps to white. I also downloaded a Trailmobile insignia from the web, reduced it and printed four off on decal paper. They look ok and put the finishing touches on the trailer. I really like the weathered effect of the mudflaps on the Trailmobile, I discovered the electrician's tape for mudflaps far too late in my recent spate of model building. I tried weathering the Fruehauf flaps but it didn't go well. On the Trailmobile, when I refitted the tandems the fresh paint welded them to the sliding rails and I can't break them free! So all the work of retaining the function whilst dropping the ride height was wasted. Never mind, I prefer them right back anyway. You may also notice that I've added the pipes to the Luberfiner and some rear hubs on the axles on the General. Gradually improving the fleet!

Finally finished the trailers. Added the air lines for the sliding tandems on the Fruehauf and just detail painted the locks and seals on the rear doors.

I agree, everyone thinks they are entitled to a fortune for a piece of junk. If you look at an item Ebay start sending you emails hyping it up, trying to get you to jump and buy it. It's no longer the place where you can find a like minded individual who would appreciate your unwanted niche item and put it to use for reasonable fee, but a system for extracting the maximum amount of cash from people for what is a lot of the time, junk. I'm sorry to hear the troubles sellers have had and it's a shame a useful tool has over developed its model [no pun intended]

Amazing stuff sir, not like Lego I had when I was a kid.

I look forward to following this, it's amazing how many little differences there are between a US and a European skeletal trailer. Mind you, I haven't seen a spread axle set up like that kit for decades, everything inn the UK is triaxles now with super single tyres and adjustable frame lengths. I Americanised the 1/32 scale ESCI 20ft container trailer a while ago, which was interesting. Look forward to seeing your progress!

I built this truck years ago and wouldn't have thought to narrow the body, but now that you mention it, it makes tremendous sense. The truck will look much more muscular.

That just looks so real! Congratulations on a great truck.

Impressive work on the cab, what a great looking old truck!

The level of detail is fantastic! You could spend forever on this one truck. Looks brilliant.

I think I was a 20 year absentee and am still trying to get back into things. Looks like you're doing a great job on this project anyway! You'd never dream you'd been away!