Rockford

SQUIRREL!!!! 🐿️ Look what I fell over on eBay! Got it for 12.50 Euros from France. It's as complete as I need, trailer is all there and the essentials of the tractor except someone has done a number on the front bumper, the stacks, headlight units and quarter fenders. They're actually bent and snapped, odd. Nothing that can't be sorted. Someone was asking £99 just for the Pete on its own so I didn't do bad getting both. Just shows you, they're still around.

Unbelievable! Your speed puts me to shame. Fantastic looking trailer, so professionally presented. Excellent stuff.

Very realistic and very credible. Excellent job.

Very hard to tell on the extra bolts scenario, but the ones that you can see appear to be captive T heads in the top plate, so I suppose a similar arrangement in the middle would be nigh-on invisible with the dried mud that's on there. There would have to be something between the springs otherwise they'd start wandering around and ultimately collapse. There's no binding straps towards the ends either, which would make the need for something in the middle of the leaf pack all the more necessary. You can see one of the rear leaves has started wandering out of alignment. On the detail front, although each one isn't immediately obvious, the overall effect gives a sharper, more complex impression and adds to reality. You also have extra hours of quiet escape from the pressures of life, which helps your blood pressure. Great work you're doing. Keep it up.

What a big job this is! You're making serious progress now though. Those brake shoes are a nice feature.

That engine builds up beautifully, will look great in the frame rails.

Just amazing stuff. You couldn't get me to be part of the crew of that thing though.

Excellent scratch building, as ever, very clean work.

Clever stuff. Going look great.

The detail is off the scale. Unbelievable.

Wow that's nice.

Great work mate. Looking good. You're recreating one of the unsung heroes. Really looking forward to seeing how this comes out. The tractor you used as a mule looks great too, great colour combination. That kit is just so right, I understand why you like it so much.

First time I've seen woodscrews used on this forum and it would have to be you Jürgen! Hats off to you for resourcefulness. Looks bonzer too.

That's really good work there, you'd never know how it started out. Great job on the front axle too, just hope it's strong enough. That would take me months!

Your usual "outside the box" thinking on the trailer mate, very clever and resourceful. Chassis looks excellent! Well done.

The rears were glued on and I decided against cutting them off. I retrieved the time warp 352 I bought that had been built and put straight back in the box 40 years ago. I unsnapped the rears from that and built the diffs using the offcuts from the cab when I shortened it. I started by using masking tape to generate a template. Has to be careful not to glue them into the axles by mistake. Once built up I shaped them, added a strip of 2.5mm across the top to replicate the axle tube and coated it all with liquid cement. I also built little fillets to drop into the gap in the trailing arms. Dropped them into place on this truck. They look ok for me. Thanks for your very kind comments lads, I'm really flattered when I look at the work being done by others in this forum. I'm stuck with 1/32 for some reason but remember that it's me being odd that does this, others have a totally different and more sensible approach to these than me.

Very nice, clever paint scheme too.

Who's cutting and pasting the other one's build? Good stuff.

Oop north eh? 🤔

You're right, it is just the right amount of 'long'. Love it. Hard to believe that design hit the road in 1969. Great looking truck. Must have had an unconscious image of this truck in my mind's eye when I set the 352 up. Just wish it was an Astro in 1/32

Saw this in a back issue if Overdrive, December 1969 I think, on the release of the Astro 95, they were quite complementary about it, especially in comparison to the Crackerbox it replaced. It just caught my eye as being the right chassis length.

The chrome vinyl emblems look impeccable! Never heard of the process though. Is this the kind of system they'd use for signs and things, controlled by a computer? Stripe scheme looks great.

Should have told your wife to go and build it herself! 😁

I can't take credit for the Freightliner, that's Bill showing me how he used his chassis space. Wrong scale for me sadly. My Pete looks much better with the Holland type fifth wheel. The shape is so distinctive and stood out to me when I first bought AMT kits because it was so different to the couplings used over here. We had York, Davies Magnet, Fruehauf as I recall but they were all pressed steel and pretty oblong shaped. The American ones were cast iron with that elliptical shape. I'm getting quite adept at knocking these up now, just two layers of card stock, some 1mm square rod and 3mm hollow tube for the gudgeons. I'll add a pull lever later. Elephant in the room... hollow diffs. I know, I have a plan.

Snatched some time on the bench this afternoon. Fabbed some air tanks from plastic tube with the ends filled and shaped. Added brackets and located them behind the fuel tanks to keep the clean look of the chassis. Added a 2mm strip to the bottom of the chassis to make it a genuine C section rail. Really couldn't abide the fifth wheel so took a pattern of one of my Hollands and started making a new one. Much better than the kit pieces.