Tyson

Pic's a bit washed out again. I'll try to get some better lit pics tomorrow. Scratch building front bumper and grill guard. Close to finished with this part.

Will the budds not fit in the second set of tires or is the second set one solid casting? Even if they were, I'd take a dremel to it, and pop them in there. I do like the second tires, but I much prefer the budds.

I have a tutorial ready. I'll post it up soon. Building the steps. It's just hanging there with blu tack for now, and the phone pic washed out most of the detail.

I prefer the second one.

Thanks guys. Yeah, For a time White owned both Diamond Reo and Autocar, and Western Star was the east coast portion of White. At that time they all used the same cab. Several AMT kits used this cab. because of that. It's found in the Autocar kits, Diamond Reo, Road Boss and White Western Star. Might be some others that I'm forgetting.

I use all acrylic paints aside from the metalizers. It's essentially just tons of layering. I'll try to write up a tutorial to my process soon. Figured I'd throw up some pictures so you guys could see what mischief I've gotten up to. Let this one sit for a while, and decided on a slightly different direction. Over on The Truckstop Gator suggested pit fenders to get around my "rusted fiberglass." I was resistant because I didn't have any pit fenders to put on it. After having it sit for a while I decided I'd do what any logger would do. Improvise. Built the fenders from scratch intentionally making it look like a patch job. You only barely make it out, since I just used my phone to take the pics, but I used putty to make weld lines. When it's done everything that's black will be the same red as the frame with rust throughs.

My mind was thinking "slats", but four or five people have said louvers, so that's what I'm going with. I actually tried to buy the original head. The one that the exploded in the final scene. When the guy first fixed it up I offered to buy it in a private sale, but he opted to put it on an auction site, and in doing so priced me out.

Working a bit on the... my brain won't let me think of the proper word for them... vents is the only word I can think of. Just a test fit. Gonna get some styrene rods to replace the brass rods, and everything will be straightened up and made a bit neater. The vents will be able to close as well, as you can see.

If I'm correct, (and there definitely is room for error on my part) it's an early 60s model. Not later than a 64 I'd believe. I was actually using reference photos from a 64 9000. I built the radiator shell by that reference, and then noticed that on Bertha the grill bezel is actually a bit wider on the sides, so I had to go back and add a bit more width to make it accurate. Not sure if the different bezel size signifies it as an earlier or later model than 64 or if the different bezel was just another customization option. I was expecting to spend tons of time on rust on this old girl. Ever since I first watched it as a kid I always thought the truck was completely brown because it was a huge rust bucket, but over the years I've come to realize that the "brown" is just a really faded, dirty maroon colour. I looked around and found that maroon was definitely offered as one of the colour options for this truck, so it'll be way less rust work. Still a fair bit on the frame and boom though.

I don't know if I have the time, money or sanity to do all of the trucks in the refueling scene or the ones that Curt and Connie passed on the highway, but I definitely will be tackling all the ones that had a fair amount of screen time.

I'm trying to save him for last. I don't think my skill is high enough to build the face from scratch yet.

Yup. Going to try to make it as accurate as possible. Nope. This one. Although, I will eventually be making that 4000 you posted as well. It's my goal in this hobby to make every truck from this movie.

Good. Means I'm on the right track, since that's exactly what it's gonna be.

Carved out the doors and piecing together the radiator housing. And here is the best I could do with the available reference for the frame brackets. Still some more to do, but most of it is guess work, and I'm certain it's not 100% accurate. Still not 100%. Sprayed some parts black to see any imperfections, and there are still plenty.

Thanks guy. Does anyone know what this kind of suspension is? I know it's Hendrickson, but it looks to be one solid piece in lieu of leaf springs.

Well, with a rudimentary bit of reference (me eyeing things) I decided to go ahead and get started. First thing was to shorten the frame. Dropped it down to 226". Here it is with a box stock Autocar rail. And here's where I'm at with the cab and bonnet. It still looks kind of off at the moment, but all the measurements are correct if the correct length from tip of the nose to back of the cab is 90", which I believe it is.

On the 62s I know there was a bit of an angle on the bonnet from the cab to the radiator. Sort of a V shape. Just trying to figure out how big a difference there is on the 64. The radiator housing itself looks wider which leads me to believe that I would have to widen the Autocar donor a bit, but another part of me says it's more of an illusion since the cab of the 9000 is closer to the radiator than on the Autocar.

Anyone have any reference info? Gonna be scratching parts, and I really need stuff like photos of the chassis and top of the bonnet. I've seen pictures of brochures on the net, but they're too small to actually make out any detail to be helpful. Here's what I mean. This chassis pic was in one of the 60s 9000 series brochures. I've seen this brochure scanned, but only the front and insides. This picture is on the back, unfortunately. I've come to the conclusion that those "bars" were what the fuel tanks and/or battery box/step were mounted on, but I have no idea how they were mounted to the frame rails. The pic is just too blurry to make out. Furthermore, does anyone know what kind of cab mount the truck used. I can't find any pics from the backside to find out. I assume it used the same mount as the later 9000 models (the mount type that comes with the AMT Autocar kit). Lastly, It would be helpful if I could get some kind of dimensions on the bonnet/radiator housing. I was going to just try to eye it, but not having any top down views of the bonnet are making it kinda tough.

Thanks, fellas.

Technically not done, since there's still some stuff I want to add, and now that I've got a good look at it in the sune I can see a few places that need touching up. But I can't keep you guys waiting any longer. I guess we can consider this one in the final phase of build-up. And I just had to put that hand print on the sleeper door. I don't think I've ever seen a dusty truck without at least part of a hand print somewhere on it.

Thanks. The pics really helped a lot. It's either. It's an optional build, since there are parts in the kit to make it left or right hand. Well, it's almost done. I decided to go ahead and make my own mirror mounts. The sprue was missing the top part of one mirror assembly and one other piece was broken. After putting together the one complete mirror mount and test fitting it it just looked like ######. It sat WAY too far forward for my liking and was touching the breather, so I tossed the whole lot and built my own. And what a pain in the butt that was. Not so much the building, since I can usually eye things close to spot on, but getting them to sit properly while the glue dried so they weren't all saggy. Got the job done though. Just a few minor touch ups, some weathering, a bit of clear coat and a final glue down and it'll be all finished with pics forthcoming.

Well, I'm nearing completion. Just tacking on the last few bits of trim. But how the blazes do these mirrors go on? Anyone got any tips or close up pics of how you got yours on?

I've seen a few, but they're not terribly common. Around here anyway.