Pacific Northwest Yarder Truck

[muleskinner]

I haven't posted in a while becasue of other pressing issues and Model Shows so I, thought I would post my newest model in my Old Logging Theme. The model is a Yarder Truck which represents a lot of the rigs which was built by the Gypo units around the Pacific Northwest for the purpose of gathering logs to the landing for loading and tranport to the mill. The original From which this truck was modeled was sitting on a lowboy at the shop by my house and was salvaged from the woods up around Cottage Grove, Or. The rig was a Mack but of a different style so I used a Resin Mack L cab unit which my son gave me to recreate the model. At one time these kind of rigs could be found all over the Pacific Northwest and were built by a lot of small logging outfits for the purpose of yarding in logs from steep hillsides much as a modern day yarder today. This one used the winching unit from and older yarder unit which was most likely bartered for and the inclosure was made from an old railroad crane housing. They were used with either a spar tree rigged for high lead yarding on steep down hill slopes or they were used as is for level ground. The main winches were used for high lead logging and the small winch on the right side of the rig was also used for short skidding pulls to the landing. They could also be rigged if needed for the purpose of loading trucks on the landing by rigging to an overhead framing . When the Modern Yarder came on the scene, these trucks didn't really disappear all that fast from the woods and became recovery trucks, Maintenance cranes and so foth. The lived a very useful life. The one which I modeled this truck from was, for being in the woods about 30 yrs, in pretty good condition and after a few days in the shop the winch power unit and the truck itself was once more in running condition.

For this model I used a Mack Cruiseliner frame from AMT and as I mentioned before the Resin Mack cab hich my son Bill gave me. All of the winches and the compartment on the rear deck were scratch build from a series of photos which I took of the original truck. The Back deck is done completely in Evergreen plastic and has bass wood strips layed for the deck flooring. The winching hay wire was made from stained surveying cord. The whole rig was painted with Polly Scale Coat acrylic Japanese yellow and then washed over with various shade of Potters acrylic to give it a rusty and used look. The winches and inside of the deck were washed in black Calligraphy ink tho give it an oily greasy look. Flat black potters acrylic was used to simulate the black sooty areas of the exhaust. Gloss black acrylic was used where the oil flows and spills were on the various parts of the machinery and sides of the rig itself. I have about three month of building involved with this model and while I am writing this I just looked and discovered on the pictures of the original truck, there are a set of out riggers just barely visiable under the rear of the main deck which I will have to add. But over all the model and the original rig illustrates the enginuity of the American logger when it comes to building machinery on the job

[highway]

WOW, your weathering skills are great! Beautiful work!

[huffanpuff]

so nice! I like the oil leaks at the wheels, water leak, oil/grease the weathered look almost reminds me of some of the things I had to drive. to me it's a work of art!

Edited May 27, 2010 by huffanpuff

[bitner]

Nice truck dad, it looks like the actual one you showed me. I thought that resin LT cab looked familiar.

Bill

[Herc Tech]

A great looking model of a will used piece of equipment.

Darrell

[rronning84]

I love it. Its great to see someone bringing to life these old machines that most everyone else has forgotten about.

[mackinac359]

Great build! It would look perfect parked in a weed/field diorama.

Tim

[cam]

Looks very well used, great job

[Kostas Parchas]

WOW!!!

Love it.

Kostas

[Pete1980]

Amazing build, top notch!!!

[Tony Bryan]

The stories that go with your models is always a great history lesson,

and the detail you add, like the oil stains etc, really give it some history

Nice job William, good to see Bill helping his Dad out

[TUFF TIN]

Love those LT's. Great work William.

Mike

[falcongeorge]

Looks good. Really like to see all the logging stuff on here lately.

[Paul B]

Very cool build!

[codie27]

I haven't posted in a while becasue of other pressing issues and Model Shows so I, thought I would post my newest model in my Old Logging Theme. The model is a Yarder Truck which represents a lot of the rigs which was built by the Gypo units around the Pacific Northwest for the purpose of gathering logs to the landing for loading and tranport to the mill. The original From which this truck was modeled was sitting on a lowboy at the shop by my house and was salvaged from the woods up around Cottage Grove, Or. The rig was a Mack but of a different style so I used a Resin Mack L cab unit which my son gave me to recreate the model. At one time these kind of rigs could be found all over the Pacific Northwest and were built by a lot of small logging outfits for the purpose of yarding in logs from steep hillsides much as a modern day yarder today. This one used the winching unit from and older yarder unit which was most likely bartered for and the inclosure was made from an old railroad crane housing. They were used with either a spar tree rigged for high lead yarding on steep down hill slopes or they were used as is for level ground. The main winches were used for high lead logging and the small winch on the right side of the rig was also used for short skidding pulls to the landing. They could also be rigged if needed for the purpose of loading trucks on the landing by rigging to an overhead framing . When the Modern Yarder came on the scene, these trucks didn't really disappear all that fast from the woods and became recovery trucks, Maintenance cranes and so foth. The lived a very useful life. The one which I modeled this truck from was, for being in the woods about 30 yrs, in pretty good condition and after a few days in the shop the winch power unit and the truck itself was once more in running condition.

For this model I used a Mack Cruiseliner frame from AMT and as I mentioned before the Resin Mack cab hich my son Bill gave me. All of the winches and the compartment on the rear deck were scratch build from a series of photos which I took of the original truck. The Back deck is done completely in Evergreen plastic and has bass wood strips layed for the deck flooring. The winching hay wire was made from stained surveying cord. The whole rig was painted with Polly Scale Coat acrylic Japanese yellow and then washed over with various shade of Potters acrylic to give it a rusty and used look. The winches and inside of the deck were washed in black Calligraphy ink tho give it an oily greasy look. Flat black potters acrylic was used to simulate the black sooty areas of the exhaust. Gloss black acrylic was used where the oil flows and spills were on the various parts of the machinery and sides of the rig itself. I have about three month of building involved with this model and while I am writing this I just looked and discovered on the pictures of the original truck, there are a set of out riggers just barely visiable under the rear of the main deck which I will have to add. But over all the model and the original rig illustrates the enginuity of the American logger when it comes to building machinery on the job

What a beauty! You got some great skill with your weathering technique,if you were to photograph it outside it could quite easily be mistaken for the real thing!

[kingiguana]

Awesome build, great weathering. Although I noticed the tail lights are spotless, so either they were cleaned, by the truck driver/owner, or someone forgot to weather them. Still a great looking rig, looks like a good old workhorse.