truckabilly

The Peerless trailer kit includes a tray to be placed on the truck frame. But I made a simple wooden stepboard instead. Since I had no real wood at home I painted a piece of plastic sheet to imitate the wooden look. The catwalk on top of headache rack is also a wood-like plastic. The headlight buckets and brackets are kit parts. The lenses are CTM set for Volvo F10. The rims are made of sliced Evergreen tube. The air filter and exhaust pipe are finally glued to the engine and fender. The bracket is not yet in the picture as the color was still wet when I was taking the photos. I added chain hangers to the side of the frame. The silver jewelery chain is being painted. A single air horn is above the driver´s door. I will attach the door as the last item. Sorry, the horn is out of focus. Not much to be done on the truck, a little bit more work on the trailer though.

As a model builder (not kit collector) I want either a cat or a dog. Not a catdog. Marmon would be cool model. If it was Marmon. This is just another Peterbilt 359 with different decals and wrong grille. It´s a shame that the truck model sector is being so overlooked. Compare it with the other sectors of plastic kits modeling. How many new kits there is each year of armoured vehicles, battle tanks and such in 1/35 scale. The level of accuracy and details is just awesome. No problem in new tooling at all. I know, it´s about a trade share and competetion and maybe more important these days - licensing. But I still think that the kit manufacturers could do a lot more in our benefit than they do. While the war birds, tanks and subs are treated as models, the trucks are handled just like toys for kids who don´t care that much. Thank god for the few exceptions like Italeri´s Petes, Moebius´ Lonestars and Prostars and such. The idea of mainstream transkits doesn´t sound that bad to me. Provide me with a set of correct wheels, generic axles, a few kinds of suspension, a choice of engines and I am a happy man. I can make a frame of my own.

Well, the recovery goes well, I think. The new front axle is in its place. I just left the original brake chambers because it was impossible to rip them off the line and I didn´t want to cut the line. It was short already. I also changed the drag link because the new axle has differently shaped steering arm. For the first time I tried my luck with mud. I have never done that before so, it probably doesn´t look realistic very much. This is the hood with side panel attached. The problem is that I lost the other one and I am lazy to make it again. I hope I´ll find it some day. There is few more details to be added and I am working on them. Till then...

That looks nice. I have not seen too many of these built. I ve got one myslef, just cant decide if I should build it out of box (the real truck exists) or give up decals and make a version of my own.

Nice work on the cab and hood parts. The engine color looks okay to me but... Just a stupid question, but why grey color on Cummins?

Nice modification of the frame. Can´t wait to see more.

I am not so much into customs but this is something special. Both rigs are awesome and this double nose KW is the wildest thing Ive seen. Brilliant ideas and top class execution. Wonderful!!!

Cool. Nice looking truck. I´ll be watching the progress gladly.

I cant compare with the AMT version because I ve never built one. This German issue had some fitting problems with the exhaust system as far as I can remember. The hood shape is not much accurate and neither the cab steps are. The location of fuel tanks is wrong... they should be under the cab. At least all the pictures of old T600 I could find showed the fuel tanks under the cab. The tires... I dont know where they came from but i ve never seen anything like this on a real truck.

Accidents do happen on the workbench sometimes. I ve read a lot of stories about crashed models that hit the floor. My was hit by my indoor TV antenna located temporarily just above my workbench. It got loose somehow and fell down hitting point blank my logger Pete that I was working on again. This is the mess I ended up with. Furtunatelly, even though the model fell apart, nothing broke really seriously. It was just the glue joints that did not withstand the hit. There is only one part that needs to be replaced and it is the front axle. The only part that really broke. There is some minor damage to the cab but this can be fixed quite easy. One windshield is gone and so is the hand wheel off the water tubing. I was deperate for a while but now I am back repairing the model. Here is the original hand made axle and the metalic replacement. First I had to cut off the broken axle. The springs are undamaged. From this moment on I am back on building track again. A few steps back but what else is left there to do but carry on?

Sergey, I am a big fan of your builds. But this tops them all. I´ve been watching this from the very beginning. You have done tremendous job on Big Pen´s Love Machine. Most people is after Rubber Dock´s Mack but there is more trucks in the movie to choose from. You picked a good one. Thanks for the wonderful presentation of how this model came into being. My hat off to you.

Awesome modification of the wrecker body. I like the outriggers on the bumper in your inspiring photo. Never seen that before. Cool.

A little correction on the Kenworth.... It is not SAR. Not yet. The S 900 models were designed and manufactured in the USA and they were the first KWs exported to Australia. Australians wanted K100 models but they were not sufficient for their road conditions. The SAR model is Australia´s own design and manufactured in Australia.

Hello Phantom1, I tried to get to get you a link to a German web site full of CAN DO wrecker pictures but I cannot find it anymore. I think it was trucking24.de but it does not work for me anymore. So, there is just a few pics for you. The Stepp´s CAN DO Peterbilt 379 is a short hood. Watch out for that before you buy a conversion hood. It is not extended. The engine is CAT 3406B ATA aftercooler and it can be easily converted from the Peterbilt 359 and Kenworth W900 snap kits by Revell / Monogram. The lift axle is all wrong. The cross section should be round but it is square. And there are no brakes for that axle either. The suspension is the same as for the drives but that would not work. The sleeper should not have the full size door on the passenger side, just the luggage door. The kit is pretty heavy. Maybe you want to reinforce the frame rails with a stripe of brass or at least a plastic sheet. The frame bends considerably on my CAN DO model. I hope it helps a little.

Actually, it is a 379 short hood. There is a seam on side of the hood which is a feature of aluminum hood and those were fitted to 379s. The 378´s hood is made of fiberglass and there is no seam on the side. And it is always a short hood. Both hoods are slightly sloped. The top of the 379´s is flat while the top of the 378´s is a bit rounded. If the 379 conversion hood is extended it would not be correct to use it for the Can-Do model. Still good decision not to buy one.

Isn´t there always a seam on a real tank too? Probably facing the frame rail but anyway... Just wondering.

Impressive collection of engines. Very nice.

I believe the rear suspension is Monkey Motion, not Page & Page.

Cool! Congratulations Tim.

Epic build! Congratulation to crossing the finish line. Very well done.

Can somebody estimate the wheel base of this 1967 Peterbilt 351 STL? The hood is extended, BBC 127, that´s all I know. My eye is not experienced enough for telling these figures. I would also like to know the length of the trailer. Can somebody help me on that, please? Thanks in advance

Nice looking tanker.

Yeah, but if you are going to build a logger, you need to extend the frame behind drives. Or add a stinger. Otherwise the trailer won´t steer properly. Or do I miss something? I like the wide span of the drives though.

Judging by the color, the truck and trailer never split apart. So, the weathering should be more balanced. A little bit of dust filter on the cab would do I think. This way it´s shining too much compared to the rest of the vehicle. Other than that it´s cool. I like it.

Nice and clean.