Another Truck In HO Scale

The next scratch building kit bash project are a couple of oilfield trucks. They were extremely specialized and I will not go into all of the details.

After asking a couple of friends who are good modelers and not getting may ideas, thought I would throw a question out here. Feel free to chime in, Steve.

The two trucks I will be making are a roustabout truck and a gin pole truck. Most of the components, especially for early 1950s trucks, are simply not available.

Alloy Forms has a few things including a winch, but not anywhere near all of what I need. There are several different styles of heavy duty bumpers, but the two pictured are my favorites. I need about three of them.

Anyone have an idea how to scratch build a heavy duty bumper like the ones pictured?

Small brass rod of tubing will be more durable, but I do not solder that well. They would have to be super glued together. Cutting and shaping the parts also presents a challenge.

Unfortunately, there are no Autocar HO trucks that I can find. There are plenty of Mack and GMC, so that is the route I will most likely take for the actual vehicle. The rest will have to be scratch built.

Thanks in advance,

Paul Moore

 

Paul, I will certainly help if I can.

I have a good sized stash of trucks as you would guess. Ha. I do not recall an Autocar like that off the top of my head. But there are plenty of needle nosed stand in vehicles. I will dig stuff out and see what may be close. I have lots of long gone model company vehicles.

Have you checked Sylvan Scale Models?

As far as the bumper, I would suggest styrene. Easy to work with and sturdy enough for the amount it will get handled. It will be so light that I would think it will work.

With all that said, it may be worth your while to do some online hunting for 3D printed trucks, service bodies and bumpers. You may find a Shapeways guy that offers something close to what you want.

I will let you know what I can dig up too.

Steve

 

Great suggestions Steve.

Yes, I looked at Shapeways. If I used the stuff on Shapeways I would have $60 in the truck, without the truck and chassis! And, All of their stuff is too modern. For example, just the gin pole flatbed is $41.95. Plus bumpers, winch, and the truck itself.

Sylvan makes a ton of stuff, but no Autocar. There are several versions of Mack and a couple of GMC that would work. With the Sylvan I will have to lengthen the chassis. The oilfield trucks had super long wheel bases. They measure them in inches, but it usually works out to 25'-30' for the wheelbase.

Have you built any of the Sylvan resin kits?

This will be my first if I go that route.

Alloy Forms makes a long wheelbase Mack, but the only one I have found sold. It was on Modeltruckstop's site. I had e-mailed the owner a question and then called. He has not gotten back to me yet, and it sold in the interim.

There are a couple of fairly long wheelbase dual rear axle trucks in the Classic Metal Works line, but they are not that heavy duty. They are the 1941-1946 Chevrolet trucks. Since it is just a model, just a representation, I may go that route.

The truck from Classic Metal Works is a little cheaper than a kit from Sylvan. All I would have to do is repaint it, build the bed and build the bumper. The bed and bumper would have to be built for the Sylvan kits, plus building the model.

If I go that route, the new trucks will match the service truck I already built. Photographs of that truck is attached.

Thanks for your ideas on styrene. That may be the way to go.

Talk to you soon,

Paul Moore

 

By the way, I was not asking for a truck, just ideas on how to build mine.

You have done lots more truck stuff than I and you will probably have some good ideas.

 

Oh yeah, I understood.

If nothing else, some of my stash can serve as a catalog.

Some is old resin trucks that could be recast too.

I am not too worried about a copyright infringement from a resin guy in the 1980s.

 

Great, if you find something that might fit, let me know.

Sylvan has several Mack tractors, as I said. Unfortunately, it turns out that most are the long haul variety. Mack made a specific truck, LH or something like that, that was designed for off road use including construction, pulling a flatbed or lowboy, oilfield work, etc..

The other thing that is hard to find right now is flatbed trailers. Especially 1940s -1950s stuff. Nearly everything is sold out.

 

Sorry about the thread drift, but since we are talking about trucks, this was our delivery vehicle for our printing company.

It is a 1953 Ford F250. It had the original 216 cubic inch straight six, 4:56 rear end and granny gear 4 speed. It would only do 47 mph. It also had a dump bed. We had two sets of stake sides for it. The nice one is for delivery and another set for hauling gravel, etc..

It was a fun truck!!

Paul Moore

 

The Ford is awesome Paul.

Do you still have that?

 

Here is a Kenworth I have that gives the general look at least.

Sylvan may have something close to this.

You can also see how bad old resin can be.

But easy to copy with a one piece mold.

 

Here is another that has a sleeper.

But on a resin truck that at would be easy to sand or Dremel off.

It is close era wise for what you need.

It is a primitive kit though.

 

Hi Steve,

No, when we shut down the print shop in 2010 I kept the truck for awhile, but we did not really have a place to store it, so we sold it.

Sylvan has some trucks sort of like that, but not quite that heavy duty.

They have a bunch of Mack trucks, some of which would work.

Do you have any of these trucks that you could sell?

Paul Moore

 

This is probably a little new for you.

It is the Walthers pulp wood truck. My guess is early 1970s International or maybe a Marmon. But it is pretty generic.

The upside is the trailer and truck body might be a starting point for what you need.

They also offer a Mack R model that is about the same era.

I am not sure on what years you model.

 

My general era, like so many others, is late steam, early diesel.

However, I am not a rivet counter. Most oilfield trucks were Autocars. But I would settle for something close to the period in Mack, Autocar, Kenworth, GMC, etc..

With a little filing and some putty, you could make that International or Marmon look older. Round the headlights, sand a little more curved fenders, doctor the grill, etc.. The long chassis is what I need.

The trailer would also be useful.

 

Thanks Mark.

I have looked at Alloy Forms and only found a long chassis Mack.

While waiting for the owner of Modeltruckstop to get back with me, it sold. The SS, Ltd. line is new to me.

I will check all of those.

Paul Moore

 

In my neck of the woods growing up, front wheel drives were popular in the very large category of oilfield trucks.

Another large user of front wheel drive vehicles was Halliburton!

 

Most of the oilfield trucks I am finding photographs of are what they call 6 x 4 or, I guess, all wheel drive.

Many of the photos of Autocars I found were Texas oil and service companies.

It is funny, the research can be as much fun as the model building.

I will look up front wheel drive vehicles.

Thanks,

Paul Moore

 

Any of you familiar with Stoney Mountain Classic Castings?

The layout needs a few vehicles in addition to the oilfield trucks that I posted about.

This is a company that is new to me and it would be nice to know if they are decent kits before I buy a few.

 

Not one I have built Paul.

Looks pretty typical.

With a little work they can all look decent.

 

Big dollars but nice stuff here.

http://yourscalemodels.com/1-87-scale