Found a guy who had some model trucks for sale. Some are Sheepscot kits and some are already built who knows what. I am tearing into the built ones, literally, and converting them to something other than what they are currently. Does anyone have an idea if this might be a 1950s Peterbilt grill? There was a much more modern grill on the truck this is going on and I am replacing it with this, hopefully. Steve or anyone else, please chime in if you know trucks! Thanks, Paul Moore
Okay, the Peterbilt project is underway. Since nobody responded to the contrary, and I cannot find anything definitive on the internet web regarding the grill, it is going to be a Peterbilt oilfield truck. The skirts on the bed are just pieces of styrene that were cut out with a Dremel for wheel wells. The passenger side step is also a piece of styrene. The driver's side tank is an Alloy Forms fuel tank that was scavenged from something else. The hood area had to be reshaped a little to make the grill fit. Still have to scratch build the exhaust stacks, no big deal there. Needless to say, it had to be stripped of terrible paint before doing anything else. The winch on the bed is just laying there. It will be detailed, attached just behind the headache rack, some cable, a hook and some other stuff added. A step will be added to the driver's side, along with mirrors, etc. Lots of junk will be on the bed including chain, cable, some oilfield stuff. A toolbox will be attached under the bed on the passenger side close to the front of the bed. The patch on the cab roof where there was an air conditioning unit is too modern for me. So I attempted to remove it. It was molded into the roof. I broke the roof and left a hole. After gluing a piece of styrene to the underside of the cab roof, I patched it with good old Testors putty. After reading the thread here on putty, I will buy something different after finishing the tube of Testors. I took a chance buying this stuff, it sort of panned out and sort of did not. The photographs were awful, but the guy seemed honest. He just did not tell me the whole story, or did not really know that much. The used trucks I bought were the worst examples of modeling I have ever seen. All are being disassembled as much as possible, stripped of their horrible paint, rebuilt and detailed. Some will be sources of parts. It has been fun building a little oilfield fleet. That is about it for now.
Those look really good Paul. It certainly does look the part. That Autocar truck in the image looks like a tuff cookie. You could put weight on it till the tires blew out and not hurt it. Those tractors with the really long wheel base look good to me as well.
Thanks Tom. Lately I have been paying close attention to the oilfield and agriculture trucks in the area and coming up with ideas for detailing trucks. Just across the Brazos River, about four miles west of us, they are drilling on a small ranch. That should offer good truck viewing opportunities.
Looks good Paul. You were correct about the Peterbilt shaped cab. The prototypes windshield is smaller in height than the side glass. Odd feature that lead to the nickname little window Pete for those. The chrome grille looks like something the model department just dreamed up. But once it is painted, with maybe a brush guard added, it will be just fine I think. Your winch will look the part. Bed looks good too. I have seen a lot of those that had rounded ends or a full width roller across the back too. Keep it up. They look good.
Thanks Steve. The grill has been painted, will be weathered, and as you see in the attached photograph, there will be a brush guard on it to hide some of the shine. It may even be painted something darker, maybe even body colored. Nearly finished the scratch built winch. I added an under bed tool box on the driver's side and a step on the passenger side. The exhaust stack is done and will be attached after the model is painted. After looking at many photographs, they did not all have mufflers on the vertical stack. Maybe the muffler was underneath. The hard part is still ahead, painting. Painting is not my strong suit and it still scares me a little. You do not want to put all this time in a tiny model and then mess it up with bad paint. Question for anyone who knows trucks better than me, which is about all of you. All the photographs are black and white. Would the underframe and undercarriage have been black or the same color as the body?
Black is a safe bet for the chassis. Default color is black. But it could be anything really. An oil field truck will be dirty underneath anyway. Grille looks much better like that. Keep it up, it is looking good.
Okay, black chassis, grille even more toned down. Would a Tulsa Winch have been black? Looking at photographs on the internet I have found just about everything, but black seems to be the most common.
I am sure any color is fine. I would think matching cab color or something lighter just to show off the weathering and grime. I think your grille looks good now.
For some reason, airbrushing has always been a struggle for me. And it continues with this model. The paint will not dry! It has been 7 or 8 hours since I painted it and it is still tacky. Oh well. It still needs exhaust stacks, windows, chains, cables, hooks, a fire extinguisher, etc.. And weathering, but it is getting there.
Truck is nearly done. Needs a little more weathering and front windows. I still have to figure out how to make them. But that is about it. Added chains, mirrors, tail lights, a bar on the back for the cable and hook to attach to, fire extinguisher, etc. Paul Moore
Patrick, My skills do not include working with glass that fragile! As an option to microscope slide covers perhaps consider looking at thicker acetate? That style of truck had slab panels of safety glass in it. No compound curves. So that is a huge help. Good luck! Andre
Keith and Andre, Thanks for the recommendations. The issue is not the material, it is my ability or lack thereof, to cut a shape like that of the windshield. The cab will not come off, so the windshield halves have to be the exact size, shape and be installed from the exterior. For some reason, it is just difficult for me to do that. Slide covers work great for inside steam locomotives. They look better, too. It is like the plastic verses brass model thing. Brass models do not have thick walls like plastic models tend to, and look better. Slide glass covers look great as windows, but there is no way I could cut out the shape. If you have any suggestions on how to create a template from the truck windows, I am all ears! Thanks again.
