Filling in the blanks

As I mentioned a few posts back, I've been on the disabled list for a while with my knee problems. And managed to do quite a few models sitting here with nothing better to do. I'm not a big TV watcher so in keeping my fingers and mind busy have these additions to my former posting on what I've been doing.


A project that sat half finished for some time is the Mack LJSW from Sheepscot Scale. Had no idea where to go with this until I decided to buy the stinger trailer for logging from Dennis Aust. Well they have been sold out for some time and I wasn't too familiar with back dating the trailer to the era of the truck so I decided to make this an eastern rig anyway. We see mostly straight trucks here in New England for logging and this model seems to fit the bill.


The truck was placed on an Athearn B model Mack chassis in order to get the correct Mack suspension. The frame was lengthened slightly and the bunks were scratch built from styrene. The cab steps are photo etched diamond plate on wire supports. The headlights were made from shaped styrene rod and have bent styrene strip mounting brackets. The exhaust is aluminum tubing used by R/C airplane modelers for fuel lines.




The next truck worth mentioning is the 1941,46,47 Chevy that I've made into a rural fire department pumper unit. The bed is entirely scratch built from styrene sheet. The process I use for scratch building most of my bodies starts with finding out the size of the prototype. I then calculate the size in scale and do a drawing on my computer using a vector based drafting program. I print two copies of this on Manila card stock. One I cut out and glue up as a mock up to see how the bed will fit my chassis. The second I cut out and use for templates for the styrene, brass, wood or whatever material I am building with. I then can replicate the body as many times as I want.


The Chevy cab and chassis are from Sylvan Scale. To it I have added a rotating beacon made from two different size styrene rod and a fender mounted siren from Ralph Ratcliffe models. Also from Ralph is the nifty Indian pack on the driver side running board. The wheels are from Jordan that can be purchased separately from them. The running boards on the pumper body are photo etched diamond plate and the hose reel is scratch built as well.



Staying with 1946 a moment brings us to the year the Colecto-Pak refuse body by Heil was first introduced. This was the first actual compaction refuse body ever produced. After seeing an advertisement from Heil of that year featuring the 46 Chevy cab over, I knew where I was going with this one. The cab and chassis are again from Sylvan with the Jordan wheels. The packer unit was taken from measured drawings I found and completely scratch built from sheet styrene using the method I describe above. Below is the drawn profile of the packer unit.




Another model I want to show this post is also a 1946 Chevy cab over, it also from Sylvan and having the Jordan wheels. This time in a wrecker. The bed was scratch built as was the tow unit winch and boom.





One last quickie here since I showed it in the Jordan posting earlier but it's the first one I did after surgery and one of my personal favorites. In July of 1917 the U.S. government contracted Ford to produce a field ambulance for the war. By September, there were 2400 already built with a wooden body on the Ford touring car chassis. So this 1/87 scale model utilizes the Jordan Model T touring car chassis and front clip. The rest of the ambulance is scratch built from styrene sheet. The cab canopy and rear flap are tissue paper.











It is time again to sign off and see what's on Oprah. Yeah right.