TrucksMT Posted January 2 Posted January 2 Hello, I'm pretty new to this site and this is my first project post. It's a very ambitious project, and we'll see how far i get on this. The short of it is that it will be comprised of 2 Mack trucks, a bulldozer, Payhauler, 2 lowboy trailers and a booster dolly. The idea started with my personal acquisition of a commercial driver’s license. This experience gave me much exposure to heavy trucks and I found myself a little fascinated by them. To foster my interest i purchased an AMT bulldozer kit and a Mack R685ST. The intent was to buy or scratchbuild a trailer and create an interesting and expansive display. The idea grew recently when I finally got a longtime wishlist kit, the AMT IHC Payhauler 350 model. It occurred to me that the dozer and Payhauler could both be displayed being towed for an even more impressive display. This required a second truck model for which i chose another Mack, this time a DM800. The trailers are rather obvious. One will be a box stock AMT Lowboy, the other (for the Payhauler) will likely be a kitbash of 2 AMT Lowboy kits and a healthy dose of scratchbuilding. I started on the first kit to arrive, the R685ST but have also started on the bulldozer. To keep my life a little simpler I'm going to post all my work for the entire massive project in this topic. Trying to maintain a separate topic for each model is just too much to keep track of. Consequently there will be some jumping around and back and forth here, but please bear with me. My first round of photos in this post are of the kits I'm using and early work on the R685ST and dozer. I've been kind of out of my modeling game for awhile so I'm finding my footing again in a new work space. I don't get much time to build, maybe 6 hours a week so this will take a long time to finish it all, assuming I'm able to. I could go heavier on detailing but I'm keeping it on a moderate level mostly due to time constraints and the need to finish something. Thanks to all for looking and any questions or comments. 3
yh70 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 Dan, you sure got it going your way. detail looking great. will be keeping up with your builds. 2
Biggu Posted January 2 Posted January 2 Lookin good so far, Dan. And I thought I was ambitious, what a very cool long term project. I will quietly sit in the front row watching with great interest and hope to pick up a tip or two. This will be a top drawer build and display ……. I’m looking forward to your updates ….. 1
BK9300 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 I agree with the others - lots done so far and a great work area to do it in - will be fun to follow! 2
Bren Posted January 2 Posted January 2 Thanks for sharing your work with us Dan. It is much appreciated. I have found the bunch here to be most supportive and helpful. There are 2 other Payhauler builds going on at the moment - so I’m sure you will have lots of ‘back-and-forth’ with them. I’m printing some 3D parts for one of them - if there’s something you need don’t hesitate to ask and we’ll see what we can do to help out. 3
Pete68 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 (edited) Nice details but I thought I would tell you before you get the wet stuff on your rear crossmember is in upside down. That groove in it goes on top for King Pin Clarence. Outside that looks good. I’ve built several of these over the years and I know their dirty little secrets they have so if you need help like Bren said lots of it is here just ask. Edited January 2 by Pete68 3
Biggu Posted January 2 Posted January 2 32 minutes ago, Pete68 said: Nice details but I thought I would tell you before you get the wet stuff on your rear crossmember is in upside down. That groove in it goes on top for King Pin Clarence. Outside that looks good. I’ve built several of these over the years and I know their dirty little secrets they have so if you need help like Bren said lots of it is here just ask. Good catch Lee. !! I would have missed that detail ! 1
TrucksMT Posted January 2 Author Posted January 2 Thanks for the kind words! I feel it's going well. I had hoped to get out and get some work done today but I'm a bit under the weather. I'll keep the 3D parts in mind Bren thank you. I've opened the Payhauler kit but I haven't started it yet. It's as much model as all the other elements of this project combined! I tend to get over-ambitious with my modeling projects...part of the reason I rarely finish anything. But be patient and I'll try to keep plugging on this. 1
TrucksMT Posted January 2 Author Posted January 2 (edited) 5 hours ago, Pete68 said: Nice details but I thought I would tell you before you get the wet stuff on your rear crossmember is in upside down. That groove in it goes on top for King Pin Clarence. Outside that looks good. I’ve built several of these over the years and I know their dirty little secrets they have so if you need help like Bren said lots of it is here just ask. Well darn...so it is! Thank you for the catch. I'll have to saw it out and flip it over. This frame and the kit instructions have given me some fits. Thank you! Edited January 3 by TrucksMT Admin edit was not acceptable 2
Scott Eriksen Posted January 2 Posted January 2 2 hours ago, Pete68 said: Nice details but I thought I would tell you before you get the wet stuff on your rear crossmember is in upside down. That groove in it goes on top for King Pin Clarence. Outside that looks good. I’ve built several of these over the years and I know their dirty little secrets they have so if you need help like Bren said lots of it is here just ask. .....................that was probably a Monday build at Macungie Assembly 🙂 3
Scott Eriksen Posted January 2 Posted January 2 Your build is on a roll Dan! Maybe just try and soften the glue joint on the crossmember with Tamiya Thin cement and slowly work it free 3
Pete68 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 11 minutes ago, Scott Eriksen said: Macungie Assembly You are so right 😂 😂. 2
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 3 Posted January 3 (edited) Okay, I'm in. Hey Dan see if you can get a set of 3D printed tracks for your AMT Cat D8H dozer. They will make a HUGE difference. And your doing great for not modeling in awhile. Ron G Edited January 3 by ShakyCraftsman 2
TrucksMT Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 5 hours ago, Scott Eriksen said: .....................that was probably a Monday build at Macungie Assembly 🙂 Quite possibly 🤪 1
TrucksMT Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 3 hours ago, ShakyCraftsman said: Okay, I'm in. Hey Dan see if you can get a set of 3D printed tracks for your AMT Cat D8H dozer. They will make a HUGE difference. And your doing great for not modeling in awhile. Ron G Thanks Ron! Yes I might look into an upgrade for those tracks. Do you know where some are available? 1
TrucksMT Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 5 hours ago, Pete68 said: You are so right 😂 😂. I need history here...was Macungie a notorious assembly plant? 1
Scott Eriksen Posted January 3 Posted January 3 7 hours ago, TrucksMT said: I need history here...was Macungie a notorious assembly plant? lol......just some old trucker humor from the peanut gallery Dan 2
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 3 Posted January 3 10 hours ago, TrucksMT said: Thanks Ron! Yes I might look into an upgrade for those tracks. Do you know where some are available? You can get some from Pappyhobbys in Canada. I think they are around $70.00 bucks. Ron G 2
TrucksMT Posted January 3 Author Posted January 3 3 hours ago, ShakyCraftsman said: You can get some from Pappyhobbys in Canada. I think they are around $70.00 bucks. Ron G 3 hours ago, ShakyCraftsman said: You can get some from Pappyhobbys in Canada. I think they are around $70.00 bucks. Ron G Wow those look fantastic! Unfortunately at that price it's probably not going to happen. It's one of those things that just because I can afford them I will probably choose not too. Not to take anything away from the artisan that manufacturers them, but I can't justify it. I can almost buy 2 more Payhauler kits (for what I paid for mine...I got a pretty good deal) for the price of the track link kit ($80 on their website). I can make improvements to the kit pieces and, no, they'll never look as good as the Pappy Hobby parts, but to most untrained eyes they'll look ok. I'll keep looking for alternatives but I'll probably stay with the kit parts. Thanks for the information though! 1
ShakyCraftsman Posted January 3 Posted January 3 40 minutes ago, TrucksMT said: Wow those look fantastic! Unfortunately at that price it's probably not going to happen. It's one of those things that just because I can afford them I will probably choose not too. Not to take anything away from the artisan that manufacturers them, but I can't justify it. I can almost buy 2 more Payhauler kits (for what I paid for mine...I got a pretty good deal) for the price of the track link kit ($80 on their website). I can make improvements to the kit pieces and, no, they'll never look as good as the Pappy Hobby parts, but to most untrained eyes they'll look ok. I'll keep looking for alternatives but I'll probably stay with the kit parts. Thanks for the information though! No problem, what ever you need just ask. Ron G 2
Gary Chastain Posted January 4 Posted January 4 Wow, this is a big project, good luck and will be watching. 2
TrucksMT Posted January 9 Author Posted January 9 Small post today as I've had some other projects going too. Plumbing on the Mack, fixed the rear crossmember, and a preview of another project , as if I need more! 3
TrucksMT Posted January 10 Author Posted January 10 7 hours ago, Pete68 said: Your rear crossmember is in backwards now 😂. Hurry up and turn it around before the glue sets. The bow goes to the front of the truck. Now I wonder if I’m going to get a Smart A$$ remark like you gave me last time I tried to help you before you edit it and blamed our good Mods for the comment that you made. PS. Don’t PM me anymore trying to cover up your RUDE comments we don’t do that here. My comment wasn't rude, had the admins not changed it to what they did. It amounted to something like, "well shoot, i messed up" but when they added the 'BLAH BLAH BLAH ' it completely spun it around into something rude. I had to edit it to fix their screw up that completely changed my tone and demeanor. They (or the system automatically? ) did it again in my PM to you with the "BLAH BLAH BLAH ". Those were never my words. I can't really blame you for thinking me rude since you never got to see my original comment, only what they butchered it into. You need to remove your bias in thinking the mods are great and recognize that my PM was clearly a sincere apology for the misunderstanding and I was making every attempt to not offend you and only to thank you for making a constructive comment on my mistake. If you can't concede that then maybe it's best if you just unfollow my threads.
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