Mini Duel Semi Truck

And here is whats going on in this picture...

The Idea is to glue two pipes together and fill in the top, bottom and insides.  I will cut it to length and round the front and back.  I will then add the skirting around the wheels.

VI.  Both pipes glued together

VII.  Pipes next to the truck

VIII.  Chassis part attached to the bottom

XI.  Hooked up to the Semi

X.  Filling in the top.

For ease of use I will probably fill the insides of the pipes w/ resin.  Putty would take too long to cure.

Really nice work !  I'm putting in a request for a diorama of the semi trying to push Dennis Weaver;s car into the train at the level crossing......

Have you seen this one  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuU-YWXxIk0

AHHH!  Wirraway that's a PERFECT idea!!!  I love it!!!

Les.61-  That's pretty cool.  I am surprised he didn't make the headlights round though.  The trailer looks excellent!

That truck was in one of the very early FSM's. Lookin' forward to seeing it done.

Thanks.  I did one along time ago in 1/25 but it sitting a few pieces.  It was broken during a move.  Someday I'll repair it.  

So here is a bit more progress....

XI.  Top has been puttied and sanded smooth.  Ends have been cut to length and rounded.

XII.  Top view of rounded ends

XIII.  See how small it is! LOL

XIV.  Thin styrene has been welded around the ends with solvent glue (Bondene basically).

Here is the skirting being added.  I added two stabilizers.  Getting the skirting to be identical and all symmetrical was very difficult due to the ridiculous small size!

XV. Skirting being added

XVI.  Upper view of untrimmed skirting

XVII.  Skirting trimmed up.

XVIII.  Upper view of trimmed skirting

Here some progress on the cab of the truck.  I had to change the grill because the lines are going the wrong way for what I want the truck to represent (Old Peterbilt 281/351).  They need to be going sideways.

 I removed the grill, took the lights off, and sanded down the front of the grill.  I then lined up strip styrene and fused them together with solvent glue.  Next I placed and glued the series of lines on the grill and trimmed around the existing grill base.  While doing this I trimmed out a tiny block for the AC unit on the rear of the cab.  That will be placed on later.

XIX.  Tiny strips that will make up the grill.  

XX. AC unit and the finished grill.

XXI.  Grill and lights back on the cab.  Notice I had to lower the top of the frame in the rear.  The trailer was riding too high in the front so this fixed the issue.

XXII.  Filled in the bottom of the trailer.  Caused sink holes on the sides of the skirting.  Will fill those in when the center is dry.

A bit more here...   The AC unit I mentioned earlier is to be put on.  Funny fact about that unit in the movie...  They did use units like this but very rarely.  It was nicknamed by truckers "Swap Coolers" and they used a block of ice placed in the unit.  Air would flow around it and back into the cab.  The reason it was used on this truck was to hide a camera for rear shots. 

XXIII.  Swamp Cooler on the rear truck

XXIV.  Cooler on the cab

XXV.  Current stance.  

XXVI. Rear current stance.  Will fill the sink holes on the side soon (putty inside is still drying).

Unreal! In such a small scale! This is gonna be cool. I wonder if there is a HO Valiant too?

Haven't found a Valiant in N or HO scale.  Did find a few sedans that look fairly close though so that will have to work.  

Hi again!  More progress.  I added the smoke stack.  I also have worked on the trailer some more.  The trailer progress cant really be seen right now.  I filled the bottom voids with super glue so it can be casted without undercuts.  Its drying currently but I'll show a pic of that too later.  After priming I can see the sides of the trailer skirting will need a bit more smoothing and that will happen after a little more drying time.  Oh and not sure I mentioned it earlier but the cab lights have been sanded off (the movie truck has none).   Thanks for looking!

XXVII.  Trailer after priming (will need a tad bit more filling and smoothing)

XXVIII.  Semi next to a N-scale car I found.  Its not a valiant but very close to the shape.  Plus at N-scale its hard to tell anyway.