Rockford

This truck is a tribute to my dad Bernie McNally, who loved Macks. [I was always a West Coast thoroughbred man myself, KW, Peterbilts and Freighliners]. It's based on the Revell 1/32 R Series that comes with the Fruehauf tank trailer. I modified the mudflaps to look less intrusive and more realistic, foiled a few parts and added a driver's sunvisor out of painted paper, so easy but really adds a bit of realism I think. The main thing was painting it in the colours of their vehicles, yellow and black, and printing a set of decals on clear decal paper with the company my dad drove cranes for for so long, Roadcraft in Bootle, Liverpool. Put his name on the hood and the back of the sleeper. I'll have to stop there because I could tell stories about my dad all day, even though he fell asleep in death about 28 years ago.

Just love these old barges! Added a vinyl roof to this using masking tape but had to make drip rails around the side glass first as they were so poorly moulded, otherwise this kit is spot on dimensionally, even if not the most technically advanced. I always look at this car and imagine its graceful stance being cast aside for sheer brutality as the throttle blades crack open and make the big block roar and the tyres screech in protest.

Hello all, my name is Steve I'm now 56 and have built models for most of my life. When I was a kid in the 70s there were only really Airfix kits, though we used to see adverts for Aurora and Revell stuff in DC comics, they were so exotic! We were happy building the bombers, fighter planes and battleships that were Airfix's staples then but my brother sent away an order coupon from a magazine with a postal order and got a model of Star Trek's USS Enterpise from somewhere in the USA; it was fantastic! I envied him that kit for years. As the 70s wore on I got heavily into American trucks, mainly because of Will and Sonny's Kenworth in Movin' On and eventually found a shop that stocked AMT kits. I was so desperate for some of these I sold my model railway layout to buy some. My first was the 1:43 Peterbilt conventional which I built using the box art only. There was no internet or anything then and I'd never seen one in the flesh. Next came the classic 1/25 KW W925 which I built box stock. Then I discovered ERTL and the International Transtar 2 cabover which remains one of my all time favourite kits, so well done! I left school as early as I could to become a HGV mechanic [Class 8 in USA terminology] and loved it but poor health led me to come off the shop floor and into back office work. Ended up working for a Mercedes Benz dealer for 28 years. I've always loved American machinery. I had a 1970 Mercury Cougar as my first American car. Then a break after marriage until I bought a 1979 Chevy Caprice, which I sold to buy a 1976 Chevy Nova, which I have now owned for 20 years. My modelling went on hold after marriage; different priorities, but once established soon started building car kits because they were small and easy to display. Still had a yen for trucks though so when I saw some re-release of the 1/32 Snaptite trucks that I'd owned in the 80s I had to have them. That was about three years ago and the Coronavirus lockdown has given me the time to get them started.

The enforced idleness of Covid19 gave me the opportunity to delve into some kits I've had for 3-4 years. I saw some 1/32 Revell Monogram Snap Tite kits in a model shop in England and I couldn't resist them. I'd built quite a few in the early 80s and ended up giving them away when I moved into my own home. You can see the original version of this kit on a shelf in the photo of my bedroom taken in the 80s. Sadly, this is the release with the vinyl stickers rather than decals so I didn't use them. Just sprayed the cab white using a rattle can. I also adjusted the mudflaps because the look rather like sails in all these kits, also I relocated the quarter fenders a little closer to the axle. Made a visor out of aluminium sheet too! They're not bad little kits, take up less room than 1/25 kits and look fairly good with a little work. They're commanding unbelievable prices on Ebay! Trying to figure out a fix for the 5th wheel with its pin instead of the jaws. Spoils the whole look. I think I've put this in the wrong topic, don't know how to move it. My apologies.