truckabilly

Well, took me a time again. But here´s how I went on with this ole COE. I painted and weathered the major assemlies. I wanted some simple paint scheme on the cab. The notbook in the background shows my inspiration for the build. I even have the AMT´s low boy. My favourite feature on the notebook picture is the sanders. I had to include them in my build. They are ready for instalation. To be continued...

A time ago a friend of mine Pavel Behensky aka Strato Models produced a limited series of Kenworth Bullnose transkit. The kit is no longer available but I started to build it just now. Also of the Strato Models production is the set of wheels, the steer and drive axles, the torsion bar suspension, the main and aux transmission, the 5th wheel and a pair of sanders. I borrowed the Cummins engine from AMT´s K123 kit and modified the transmissions to create a married box. I added a few items in the cab like the bunk, partition walls, the dog house insulation and curtain. The chassis consists of the scratch built rails, air tanks and Peterbilt kit cross members. I have no particular knowledge of the real truck so the frame is not correct, it is only generic. Stay tuned, more to come soon Jarda

I have a dumb question for you guys. If there is a married box in a COE truck, is it shifted by one stick or two? I can´t see a spot where the linkage to the AUX would enter.

Awesome job on the CAT

Very nice! I like the realistic look.

Thanks a lot guys for your words. I sorted out all the tiny parts and assigned them to the model they belong to. Everything is the boxes and plastic bags. And out of sight for the time being. The museum personnel have done tremendous job saving all the tiny pieces from the glass debris. I must really give them credit here. But some parts are missing anyway. Two windows of the London doubledecker bus are gone as well as some light lenses. The Peterbilt 377 lost its bumper and PE grill by CTM. Also some mud flaps are gone. All the mirror brackets are broken into such tiny pieces that it´s out of question to try to put them back together. London bus and Kenworth T600 can be fixed relatively easy in a reasonable amount of time. The Can Do wrecker which is hard to find a new, will be fixed no matter what. The Clydes II aka Bill Signs is in such a bad shape that it never pays off to restore it. Unfortunately, the same can be stated about the Peterbilt 351 logger. This model had so many heavy resin parts and everything fell off. Both Peterbilts by Italeri are also… dead. I mean, everything can be repaired this way or another. But it takes so much time. Time of which I don´t have plenty and other projects are waiting. On the other hand, I am a stubborn kind of guy and I´ll have the idea of repairing the models in my mind settled, till it´s done. So, we´ll see. As for the bastard, they have him captured on the video but they didn´t find him yet. And to be honest, I don´t really care. Hopefully, the insurance company will provide some compensation and let´s roll on. Life is too short for letting those bastards occupy my mind till I get my little revenge. No. Thanks again to all of you, guys. You´ll find me at my workbench.

Thanks!!!

Hi, guys. This is a tough one. I had some of my best builds on a permanent display in the local technical museum. Unfortunatelly, a burglar broke in and the glass case with my truck models stood in his way. He destroyed the glass gate and tried to push the display case off his way. But it fell on the ground and in the heap of glass fragments were the rermains of my spilled models. The museum has an insurance and I will get some compensation. But most likely it won´t cover the time and work spent on them. At first glance they look repairable. But it´s gonna take a lot of time again.

This looks great!

I am bringing a bad news, I´m afraid. Pavel Behensky aka Stratomodels has announced his withdrawal from the big rig transkit "business" on his FB site. He says that it brings too many problems, it´s time and money consuming and he is tired of it all. Some projects won´t be finished, including the GMC Crackerbox and local Tatra 815. With Pavel you never know, but for the time being he concentrates on Czechoslovakian aircraft models.

Just a question. I was told that the AMT kit headlights are too small and that they should be slightly bigger. True or false? What do you guys think?

I finally found the pics of my version. It´s not accurate but at least a bit closer to reality. You can see the comparison between the kit part and mine.

I have never built the 352 but I have built the 359 which shares the chassis parts with the 352. 1) The part is very simplified and doesn´t look realistic at all. I have scratchbuilt my own part. If I can suggest, take a look at a picture of a real height control valve set up in a truck and either scratchbuild the thing on your own or don´t use it at all. Just my opinion. 2) If a pin of any part makes the part fit wrong I just cut it off. If you think that the pin position is OK, then insert a piece of plastic in the gap.

Very nice rig. Awesome!

Nice work! Can´t wait to see it done.

Stunning!

This is a very interesting subject. And nice work so far. The engine modification looks geat.

Nice work!

Very realistic! Awesome.

Nice old piece of iron. Mack looks always good. A worn off work horse or bright shiny show truck, it´s always great.

D Good old Seddon Atkinson. I like that. Never seen one though. Yours looks just fine.

A very nice thing from down under. The truck, the trailers, the cargo… beatiful. KW SAR is one of the most attractive trucks to me. Nice!

Well, it is a bit confusing. While the sticker in the cab says K125, the final chassis bill of material says K123. The suspension photographed on the truck is factory delivered. The only item replaced is the airbags due to the aged rubber. Another replaced thing is the bumper and tail lights. Here is the pics of type designation and the truck condition before restoration, taken yet on American soil.

I´ve never seen this kind of a trailer. Looks like a cool thing to build. I´ll be watching.

Last week I had a close encounter with this beauty. A fellow countryman of mine and modeller has bought the real US truck - the 1974 Kenworth K100. OK, the label says K125, to be exact. He bought it in the USA and brought it over here to Europe. Its business days have long been gone. It was just sitting in a yard for some years. Now it is going to be one of the highlights of local truckshows. The truck condition was fairly good. The Cummins engine ran OK even after being off duty for a long time. The cab and frame showed some history through the different color layers and popping out ghost signs. Some repairs were ineviteble but all the major parts remained original. The engine, transmission and frame were repainted while the plan for the cab is to leave it as it is. The major part of restoration took a year but the small repairs continue on the go. The owner took his K125 with him to our regular model building meeting. Not only have I taken a lot of photos, but I also took a ride in it. Surprisingly, there was not as much noise in the cab as I would have expected. We could talk with no effort to do so. I remember the shouting conversations when riding with my father in his old Tatra truck. With no trailer coupled to the rig the ride was anything but smooth and comfortable. But the beating and shaking is what makes it so cool. Sometimes it was quite hard to make a turn as this truck was not designed for the cramped European streets. We had a lot of fun riding this old piece of iron but we also have the highest respect for the old generations of truckers who turned mile after mile after mile in trucks like this. I took a lot of photos, especially the model builder friendly details. Presented here are only some of them. Enjoy.