Warmer days

Looks like winter has let go of us here in northern New England. Days are ranging from the 50's to 70 degrees but nights are in the 30's. Still touching a fire off when the sun goes down. I took advantage of the sun today with a few photos of some recent and not so recent work. My favorite of this bunch is the 1934 Ford furniture van that I built using the Jordan school bus kit chassis and front clip.

The model was painted in Floquil coach green and flat clear coated. The rear flap is tissue paper with styrene dowels wrapped on the top and bottom. The small gas/electric locomotive in the background is also a Jordan kit of the Mack unit.

                                    

The next piece is a Freightliner Mountaineer. This was a four wheel drive tractor developed to haul 24 and 25 foot doubles over the western mountains. I have taken a major modelers license here in presenting the Mountaineer as a tow truck. Although I could easily see one of these resurrected as one. The basic truck is the Athearn Freightliner with the cab cut to a slab. The bed is also from Athearn cut down to a single screw unit and remounted the wrecker unit with new cabling. The fuel tank, air snorkel, and everything on the crossover deck is scratch built with the exception of the tool box on the curb side from Ralph Ratcliffe..

 I know, it's a strange little truck.


I decided to dust off an old favorite and give her some new wheels. Unfortunately I didn't cut the axle short enough. The Ulrich needlenose Kenworth is a diecast piece that I shaved the molded in the fender headlights and placed some new ones more appropriately. Fender mounted turn signals, horn, mirrors, diamond plate running boards, visor and different air cleaner are just some of the other changes/additions to the model. I'm hoping to find another one of these, I have some other things I would like to change as well on what could be a very nice model.

Looks like the warmer weather will be bringing on the outdoor chores now. Spent the day working on the tractor since the needle valve in the carb stuck open and the whole fuel tank emptied into the crankcase this winter. Broken mower deck repaired, front garden edged, damn.... I deserve some modeling time.

Don't tell me it's raining.....

Most of you know the rest of that saying. And it may be a bit harsh to use it to describe what I'm feeling about the social communicating media we all know as Facebook. However it is an accurate expression to use regarding the way many folks are beginning to treat the groups I have subscribed to. Each and every one that I decided to visit and contribute to begin with "1/87 scale". To me this means we are supposed to discuss scale models, specifically 1/87 scale and what most of us accept as a reasonable tolerance. Personally I would include that to mean between 1/85 and 1/90 since we can't be perfect all the time as hard as we (should) try. Arguments have become heated at times and I confess to being right in the middle of them in many instances. Perhaps I should keep my mouth shut because there are a lot of folks out there with very thin skin and can't recognize the difference between constructive criticism and an attack on their personage. My apologies to them but please, if you're going to contribute to these groups which are labeled as "scale" modeling groups, do one of two things to ease the tension that has been created on occasion. One, get it right. Get a scale ruler, learn how to do the math, and find out what the size of the real object you are trying to model is. Notice I said "object" since often it is not a whole model that is out of scale but just a sub assembly or detail. Or choose number two. Grow some thicker bark. Most folks aren't on these groups to take out their frustrations on others, they just want to help. I've tried to give an understanding of scale in every endeavor I communicate in be it magazine articles I've written to internet forum and email list discussions. I'm not interested in one-upmanship. This is NOT a competition. I'm simply trying to get to the true and accurate techniques to create more realistic looking models. And that's what this is all about, isn't it?

Well for some it isn't. Vehicles that look really cool (or 'kool'  written by most that wet themselves over them) and objects of a caricature nature are all well and good. I actually do get a kick out of them. But I'm not interested in waiting for my computer to load photos of them on a site where 1/87 is the reason I have decided to visit. There is a plethora (love that word) of places to go where Big Daddy Roth is worshiped and revered and folks model in a variety of scales.  More often where there is no discernible scale at all. And there's nothing wrong with that! But those places are where those things belong. Get it? Find the group where the folks there most appreciate what it is you want to contribute. Where it is most appropriate. But please leave the 1/87 scale groups to those that want 1/87 scale modeling.

OK, enough of that, I'm tired of beating my keyboard (a few years ago it would have been my gums) on a subject some will either refuse to or incapable of understanding and let's look at some recent modeling. I really like the repertoire of Don Mills Models. I've done his FCSW twice now and I'm going to show the Mack LTL here now for the second time. Form what information I can gather, The LTL (last 'L' for light) was a sort of experiment by Mack to lighten the weight of the truck by an extensive use of aluminum in it's parts. The only visual evidence of this is the use of 5 hole Alcoa wheels although many of the parts besides the wheels were aluminum including the chassis. The reason I point this out is because at the same time Mack was still producing the LT with steel parts which is what I've chosen to model here. I have substituted a steel wheel for the Alcoas that came with the kit and moved the air cleaner to the curb side of the hood to show what I am led to believe would be called an LTH ('H' for heavy).

I was standing in front of Don Mill's table at Springfield talking about what we both love, the trucks and the models, when I spotted an old EKO model Don had for sale. It was a Pegaso, a truck made in Spain, coupled with a mid 50's Fruehauf tanker trailer. It even says Fruehauf on the bottom of the casting. It had some rather bulbous, out of scale castings on it but for $5, I couldn't pass it up. Sorry I didn't take some before photos but suffice it to say the crappy details came off and I added a few of my own.

I had to build new fuel tanks for the LTH because what came with the kit had too many flaws and I added a heat shield to the exhaust stack that I think I will be doing over in the future but for now will pass. The trailer had a bunch of lights put on the rear and I built a tire/chain rack underneath with a wood deck and put some Lonestar landing gear also. Still needed as well is a Bulldog for the rad cap that Alloy Forms has in a lost wax brass casting that is pretty nice.

This next one was a real quickee since I didn't want to spend a whole lot of time on this particular Imex casting. It is of the 1948 Ford truck that I have placed on a Boley chassis and scratch built a bed and wrecker unit for. I replaced the grille and headlights as well as 'tuned up' the windshield area and cut in a rear window to try to give this diecast piece a little more prototypical look. The wheels are from a Miniaturmodelle Russian Gaz truck.

 

Well I know I stepped on a few toes here with this posting as usual. I'm sure however if you're the kind of modeler that takes the time to come here to read my blog, that I'm preaching to the choir. You obviously have good taste, love puppies and are an all around great person. Make sure to give your loved one's a hug today.

Apres Springfield

Having missed the big Amherst Railway Show in W. Springfield, Mass. last year, I had an even greater anticipation for the event here in 2013. Gathering up all the models I was taking there and hoping I would pack them safely I almost felt giddy. But the show came and went and I had a great time seeing all of my 1/87 scale vehicle buddies and meeting some new. A few things I did prior to the show will be shown here as well as one project I finished since.

Another model I built for the show was a Zis-5 that mysteriously showed up in a box here at Christmas time with another saying Merry Christmas from Santa. Many thanks to Santa!  One of the trucks came with a tanker body produced in the Czech Republic that I finished in acrylics.

 

One more to make the trip was a unique little piece in a Model T with trailer. I saw this configuration in an old photo and decided to give it a try. The T of course is the Jordan coupe and the trailer is the popcorn wagon also from Jordan. From all that I can gather many of the vehicle pulled trailers of the time started as horse drawn wagons and were modified. so this is what I came up with.

This piece was done since the show. In fact I picked it up from Ralph Ratcliffe at the show. This solid resin cab is of the Brockway 758. To it, I added photo etched muffler heat shield (thanks Bob Johnson), crossover deck marker lights, fuel tank steps and mud flaps. The trailer has been shown before here, the Fruehauf 28' wedge from Rail Power.

In kit form

If you're not familiar with the line of vehicles that Athearn is producing these days, you're missing some great models. I've already shown a few that I've altered and even one almost identical to the one shown here in the Ford F850 boom truck. But as good as they are, I find the paint job from the factory a bit heavy. I know this because we now have the opportunity to get some of these models in kit form. They are reminiscent of the large scale plastic kits we all built as kids (and maybe still do!). The castings on this Ford are crisp and clean and there is no lacking of detail for the scale. One of the reasons I like them in kit form besides the fact that I no longer need to strip the model, is that it enables the modeler to paint sub assemblies before putting the model all together. For this particular truck, I built handrails and racks out of .025" styrene rod to make the truck a reinforcing rod delivery truck. Aside from that the truck is built according to instructions. I should add that Trip Aiken of Truck Stop Models sent me this kit and a set of instructions that he wanted me to proof read, add to and/or alter to make it an easy build. So I had a slight hand in the creation of this piece to the public albeit a very small hand. Everything is assembled using plastic solvent glues. I painted it with Testors Acrylic with surprising results. Acrylics are very touchy to spray with an airbrush. I had no problems here and I believe the results speak for themselves. I should add that there is a very thin coat of clear flat lacquer over everything here before installing the glass. I really must find a more suitable cable material.

End of year completions

2012 could have very well been a better year for many. I know it could in my instance but that hasn't deterred me from working at the bench. As I've said before, this hobby has become great therapy in fact.

 
First one I'd like to talk about is a venture into kit bashing I never thought I'd be doing only a few years ago. My limited knowledge of the real truck here had me a bit confused as to what exactly I was building but after a lot of research and the picking of others brains, I came up with the Kenworth 848 in a western logger. The base model is the Athearn Kenworth that one can see in this photo below has been pretty extensively dissected. Gone are the fenders, steps and hood sides. In starting to reassemble a truck from this I used square tube styrene to create new fenders and covered them in the excellent Plano brass diamond plate. A new grille was created using styrene and aluminum corrugated roofing.

 

I chose to fit this rig on the Model Power Kenworth chassis because it had the correct wheelbase and an engine. The engine however was far too small for the scale and was replaced. You see the new Cat C12 in place with a new bumper and mirror standards added. This engine is a bit new for this truck but my discussion with others familiar with this truck tell me they were tremendously underpowered from the factory and many had engines swapped out for more powerful one's. The air cleaners here just don't work for me even though prototypical on several I've seen.

 

Loosely fitted here are the cab protector and log bunks that are from a resin kit by Dennis Aust Models. Dennis has suspended production for a while and a huge void exists in the scale right now. We hope he starts up again soon. Also seen are the new air cleaners, mirrors,  a few steps and grab bars and a coat of paint on the cab.  I always do a dark primer on everything these days that has a lot to do with my finishing/weathering techniques.

It's at this point that I do what is necessary for a finished model to appear. Headlamps are a styrene dowel drilled out painted chrome and filled with Sobo clear craft glue. The cab protector and log bunks are fastened and a finish coat of paint goes on. In this case Floquil UP armor yellow Rail color, a perfect match by the way for the old Cat yellow. Notice the fuel tank made of sheet brass is between the cab and it's protector as in the original.

 

Of course this kind of truck is useless without a trailer and Dennis' kit provides the makings of one. Tires and wheels on the truck are Roco off road on Promotex 6 spoke rims. A few washes  and a shot with some artists chalks ready this piece for photos. So here are a few.

  

Number two of this post was a fun, quick build as are most of these Sylvan pieces for me. So just a few quick shots of this 1960 White 4000 in an oil field boom truck.

 Everyone have a safe and Happy New Year please and let your loved ones know you care.