Some Rubber Duck questions

[Stuntman Mike]

Hi truckers,

I'm looking forward to build a Rubber Duck Mack and have some questions before starting to spend money. I know there's a complete resin kit available from AITM, but I'd like to go the styrene route. That leads me to the modification of AMT's R700 kit, correct? I'd like a detail upgrade and have the idea to buy a DM600 aswell to swap parts. Since I'm not a truck guy by any means...would it make sense to combine the two kits and have the right parts as a benefit or is this idea just a waste of money? 

[towman1271]

    I actually have attempted the combination of the two kits.. It is gonna be costly to go your route. The ertl kit that has the rubber duck items you need is gonna go for nearly 100 to 150 if your lucky.. AMT's kit is gonna be 75 to 100 and its an R600, which has a shorter hood. The sleeper is gonna have to be scratch built, plus order 2 hole wheels from someone!  I ended up selling what I had on ebay & bought the AITM kit for 169. It went together nice & had everything you need! 

[72 Charger]

You would be better of getting the R-600 not the DM-600 . The DM is a off set cab. I did the R-700 from the R-600 but I still had to get the R-700 hood from AITM . But I still had to narrow the hood by 2mm to fit the R-600 cab . I also had to remove a lot of resin from the inside of the hood  . To be honest you would be better off getting the resin kit

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Spaulding Trading and Shipping sells an R700 hood from time to time. I don't know the quality or how it fits the AMT cab. I hope to get the A.I.T.M. kit myself one day. It looks nice!

[Stuntman Mike]

After messing around for ages with the resin cab on my build of the Blue Mule, the resin kit of the Rubber Duck is not really an option to be honest. I'm just not a friend of working with resin. I know the kits are pretty expensive, but I build slow and the investment would keep me busy for at least two years. The parts that remain from the Rubber Duck project would be used for a car transporter that I'd like to build. 

A set of two-hole rims is already in my stash. Modifying the hood and scratchbuilding a sleeper is also right in the middle of my comfort zone. 

[Old Buckaroo]

I always am amazed at how many of us want to build the - RD Mack, Snowman truck, Blue Mule Ford, BJ & the Bear and Convoy truck.  I bet when they made these movies and shows they never once thought how these trucks would be remembered and replicated for decades.

[scottie]

ive always wanted to build a duck mack , after reading most of the threads on here i contacted dave at AITM about shipping a resin kit to the UK, a week later it was here , now stashed away untill i gather the bits togethe rto make the tanker

[Stuntman Mike]

  On 12/1/2015 at 8:19 PM, Old Buckaroo said:

I always am amazed at how many of us want to build the - RD Mack, Snowman truck, Blue Mule Ford, BJ & the Bear and Convoy truck.  I bet when they made these movies and shows they never once thought how these trucks would be remembered and replicated for decades.

It's because back in the day they made movies with trucks that are worth to be turned into a scale replica. In addition, those were actually functional workhorses and not some crazy cgi generated freakshows like Optimus Prime. The old trucks are just a lot more interesting than the stuff that you see in modern movies. 

[towman1271]

  I understand your thoughts on resin, but honestly the AITM kit is really nice. There is hardly any body work to be done. Dave did a fantastic job with it!

[440 6BBL]

  On 12/1/2015 at 9:58 PM, towman1271 said:

  I understand your thoughts on resin, but honestly the AITM kit is really nice. There is hardly any body work to be done. Dave did a fantastic job with it!

Yes, it´s very nice. I have it in my stash aswell

Edited December 1, 2015 by 440 6BBL

[Stuntman Mike]

  On 12/1/2015 at 9:58 PM, towman1271 said:

  I understand your thoughts on resin, but honestly the AITM kit is really nice. There is hardly any body work to be done. Dave did a fantastic job with it!

Of course. It´s a very well done resin kit as far as I can tell from the pictures that I´ve seen. But it still is resin, it is curbside and it is less detailed in comparison to the mentioned styrene kits. In my opinion, the resin kit has a right to exist for collectors and stuff. But from my peronal scale modeler´s point of view, it is a lot more satisfying to tackle this by myself. The journey is the destination. I´m not looking for the quick result.

[towman1271]

  Then you do what you feel comfortable with..After seeing your Blue Mule, you definititly have the talent & skills to do this!  Just be sure to share it with us

[Force]

  On 12/1/2015 at 11:26 PM, Stuntman Mike said:

Of course. It´s a very well done resin kit as far as I can tell from the pictures that I´ve seen. But it still is resin, it is curbside and it is less detailed in comparison to the mentioned styrene kits. In my opinion, the resin kit has a right to exist for collectors and stuff. But from my peronal scale modeler´s point of view, it is a lot more satisfying to tackle this by myself. The journey is the destination. I´m not looking for the quick result.

Don't even consider buying the ERTL Rubber Duck truck, I bought one back in the day and was gravely disappointed as it's a DM 600 wich is totally wrong, the movie truck is a RS 700L and the only usable parts from the ERTL kit is  some of the  the decals, the Rubber Duck hood ornament, possibly the grille, the bull bar and air foil for the roof, the rest is unusable so it's definately not worth the money, the AMT R 600 is a much better starting point if you want to go the styrene way.
But I can only agree with the others on the AITM kit, I bought one a while ago and it's very nice...it's a bit pricey but you get everything you need with the kit and it's not cheap to round up all the bits and pieces needed for the project in styrene either, and It's not that hard to separate the hood from the cab and put in an engine in the AITM kit if you want to.
You could of course email Dave and ask if you can get the pieces you need to convert the AMT R600 kit, he is not impossible to deal with and may possibly sell the parts individually.
One thing about the hood, the AMT R 600 hood isn't only too short, it's also the wrong style as the fenders looks different from the movie truck, the grille is also wrong.
Other things needed are different fuel tanks and air tanks under the battery boxes (2 for each side), the bull bar, the Rubber Duck ornament for the hood and the air foil for the roof...and of course the Able Body 60 Inch sleeper with exhaust cutout on the passenger side.
If you go by the sound the engine for the Rubber Duck movie truck was a Detroit Diesel, but that was just layed on on the sound track together with the sound of the air horns (horns as long as the ones on the movie truck does not sound like they do in the movie, they have a much deeper tone) at least one of the trucks used in the movie had a Mack ENDT 676 "Tip Turbine" engine due to the dual intake hose air cleaner seen on the movie truck in several scenes, that engine can be found in the AMT Mack Cruiseliner and the air cleaner has to be modified to resemble a Tip Turbine air cleaner with two intake hoses above eachother.

Edited December 3, 2015 by Force