So, I had been thinking about adding a backdated KW W100 to the fleet. KJ Humphries set the bar to an impossibly high standard with his '65 K100 build, but when I contacted him he was very generous with his help and advice, so I thought I'd go for it.

I'm doing this in several posts due to the Forum's max attachment size limit- stay tuned!

Frame

Engine

Cab

Initial mock up

I hope it makes it to "under glass". 🤞

Scrapped my old printer, got a new one! Better, faster, ....

So I'm back in business and beginning with a KW Aerodyne cabover.

I had this aerodyne sleeper left from a conventional kit. I had used the cab to build a Diamond Reo back then. So for about three years this sleeper has been slumbering in my drawer.

Since I had designed a KW cabover cab back when I built the Convoy truck 'Lizard Tongue' I just cut off (virtually, in the file) what I didn't need and adapted it to the sleeper.

I used tape to figure out what to cut off the sleeper.

These are the 3D designs of how it's supposed to be later:

I designed an aerodyne sleeper as a dummy to make it easier to design / adapt the interior and Set the cab rest correctly!

Hope this turns out acceptable. So much to do in this!

  First time in this section of the forum.   This project is to build a floater truck. These rigs are everywhere in the fields out here in the great plains during the growing season.  The "floater" name comes from the huge tires used.  The idea being that the tires help distribute the weight of the truck when out in fields that have just been cultivated to loosen up the soil.  They can be "wet" or "dry" applicators'....... 

couple dry trucks ...

I am going to doing a wet truck.  These are used to dispense seed, fertilizer and pesticides. Now these come in all shapes an sizes.  Small tank trucks ,  500 gallon to 1500 gallon,  are typically short wheelbase medium duty rigs.....

When the fields start to be measured in sections instead of acres the big boys come out to play....

more post to follow...

Back to business. I've been curious about the origins of this rig that was in Movin' On. Was it an old dromedary chassis that had the box removed and the company bought for the episode or something else? As poor as the pictures are I couldn't really see any evidence of it carrying a body or platform of any sort and they certainly hadn't spent money on painting the thing! The fifth wheel was also in the normal position over the drives, not set back as in most droms, and it had a normal pogo stick. 

Then I saw another picture of a very similar length tractor on interwebs which took me to a Curbside Classics article that shed new light on the subject. These were insanely long chassis used to exploit the bridge laws in California. Although the federal bridge laws applied by then, each state was free to employ it's own existing bridge laws within state boundaries if that gave a weight advantage to trucks within the state. In California, if the front axle was a certain distance away from the drives, more weight was permitted. 

That IH is so ugly it's beautiful! 

I don't know what either of those two figures were but if you look at the photos they're all a very similar length, which shows that they were each building to a specific number. Some companies have elected to use the extra space for a dromedary setup (which changed the category of the truck and permitted even more weight) but not all. (Question still unanswered: why not just build a conventional? I can only think of unladen weight but not certain.)

All that suggests strongly to me that the K100 in Movin' On is one of these "California specials". To add weight to that the episode was filmed around San Francisco apparently so that puts it in its home state. 

These things are just so American I've got to do my own. I've got a K100 Aerodyne that I got for £10 a while ago and a spare T600 chassis with the Reyco spring suspension which would be more fitting than the KW 8 bag on the Aerodyne. That will also help with the stretch. 

I'm trying to establish a frame length. Looking at the photo of the blue KW it appears to be 4 cab lengths and, judging on the cab being an 82 inch sleeper, that gives me 328 inches. In scale that's 10 and a quarter. I'm not far off but I think a bit more is needed. 

So far I've decapped the cab, cut it down to a single sleeper. Adjusted the rear wheel rims, built a Holland fifth wheel and made the slider functional. It's going to be a 'no front brakes ' rig because I think these would have been. It was thought to reduce the likelihood of a jack-knife. 

I gotta say up front..Ive heard it called a tender, but all the photos Ive looked at say tanker..so Im sticking with it. Anyway, tender is how a steak should be cooked..or my step dad w false teeth called a 10 dollar bill..wait that was a tenner..anyways

The kit is a Ford LTL 9000, but I'll be scratchbuilding the pump panel, and tank body. I have a 3d printed one coming, but wanted to see if I could pull this off. The OTR car drive tires wont cut the mustard for this, we're asking to get mired if things get dicey. Proper drives are coming via snail post from Paul at st supply, along w a resin day cab panel.The tank started life as a forgotten 1/32 new ray toy.

The tank after removing enough hardware to start a store...

The multi piece cab and hood went together without much drama

Before long I had this parked on the bench...now we toss the cheat sheets and have some fun!

More to come...hope ya follow along

So this will be my winter build….

A few on here might have seen it before, but lot’s on here will not have seen it at all.

Oh, this was built over 30 yrs ago and still today, not one person has even come close to matching this lot, if YOU reckon somebody has done a better job and added more stuff than what is on this model, then please let me know about it.

It started life as a 1/16th scale Kenworth W900 series yankee prime mover with airbag suspension, chopped that rubbish off the chassis rails and it has been fully converted to an Aussie Kenworth W 924 S.A.R and now has a “6 rod rear end” fitted to the model.

So much extra detail has been added to the kit bits, that it’s far easier to say what wasn’t touched from the kit.

It was no simple 3 or 4 week chuck it together that you mostly see now-a-days, nope, this lot took 4 and a half years to eventually finish.

A lot of forethought and planning went into the build, as I tried to make it a miniature version of a truck that was running around the roads here in Australia.

Had to draw to scale numerous drawings of bit’s and piece’s and then make the bits from the drawings I had done.

Now I shall clarify a point here, the Prime Mover is only a HIGHLY MODIFIED model, nowhere do I claim that bit’s on the Prime mover are Scratchbuilt AT ALL, not like a lot of fools do today, make a very simple piece and shove it onto the model and ‘hey’ the model now is classified as a Scratchbuilt, yeh, righto go play with the other one, as your only fooling yourself.

The dolly and Low Loader are ‘Scratchbuilt Built’, I had to draw everything to scale and make them from the drawings.

Anyway have a real good look at each and every photo, as you never know if you can learn something from seeing what has been done to this model and don’t be ashamed to say what you think either, the only way to learn is ask to questions and get a discussion going.

First photo is of the truck I used for inspiration, followed by a series of photos showing just what was done to it.

The black bits are the chassis that came out of the box, all other clooured bits are what I had to make and fit tothe chassis. -----------------

If anybody has ANY question, then please ask --------------------

Most photos are self explanitary, if anybody needs anything explained about ANY of the photos, then please ask ---------

And, as usual, step one is getting reference materials. I obtained a parts manual and operator’s and maintenance manual to start. I plan on starting with a frame from an American LaFrance ladder truck, which will undergo a lot of alteration to accept the dual drive and dual steer arrangement and get super reinforcement done to it. My plan is to make this with approximately 100’ of boom which will be plenty! This thing is going to be huge! The length of the truck will be 33’ 4” in scale alone, and 10’ 6” wide. 
 

Attached are some  photos of the crane we had. The red cab photos are of it’s first, and original paint job. The white cab is an updated Link-Belt color scheme that I painted it in just before I left there.  In the wintertime I ran the paint and weld shop and this old girl got done up by me 3 times. That is why I tend to favor paint shop fresh jobs!!!
 

I hope you enjoy the journey through this  one, its gonna be a heck of a ride!! Hang on!

Then I took a saw to the cab and reduced it to a day cab. Not my tidiest cut but it'll do. Cut the interior down too. 

I don't really know where I'm going with this. Should I just do a day cab tractor or something else? Part of me has wanted to do a Navajo Freightlines drom, and this would fit the bill except that it's not a Freightliner. I'm torn. 

I’ve done this since I was a very young Truck Modeler I would paint and sometimes decal a cab and put it away. We have had some unusual warm weather here so I’ve been taking advantage of it.

I decided to go with the LoneStar instead and it arrived today. Its CTM set isn't far behind. The LoneStar's styling is a love/hate thing, I'm aware, but, and I forget who said it on one of these threads, the LoneStar just has a more O/O feel to it that would lend itself well not only to a hot rod vibe but also to an independent race team. I've got some Super Singles on the wish list over in the trade section but regardless if I receive them that way or have to buy em outright the LoneStar will be wearing them. Their "meatier" look just fits the theme better. The chrome trees are about to go take a swim in the purple pond. I'm not a huge fan of chrome and this truck has a ton of it. I'm still up in the air whether I want the majority of the brightwork to be gloss black to match the paint scheme or a darker metal color like a titanium or gunmetal. And that front bumper.... The vent opening just irks me for some reason. It doesn't fit in visually. I'm tempted to just fill it but I don't know if it actually serves a purpose in the cooling on the 1:1. If it does then I need to figure out some better way to tie it in with the design of the truck because International's designers sure treated it like an afterthought. Possibly reworking the grille as well if it helps bring it all together. Some bigger driving lights down there may also be in order. I think I have a nice set of buckets and lenses from the Revell Tomb Raider Wrangler Rubicon that would look better.

I toyed with the idea of a toterhome/race hauler, Scott Bloomquist's LoneStar rig will still be a huge influence, but I believe I'll still end up going with a more traditional tractor and Featherlite style race hauler combo. The Moebius 53' Smooth Side will serve as a base kit for that endeavor.

Anyhow, if you're still with me, this is where I'd perform the ceremonial "Gluing of the Engine Halves" that's the kick start to all projects but research tells me this motor shouldn't even be in the LoneStar. The Maxxforce 15 was never an option in them and the Cummins ISX-15 should be under the hood 😅. I believe that Auslowe's Cummins Signature is the correct motor but as unfamiliar as I am with big rigs I'm not sure if I can pull off a convincing engine swap. I may just have to paint the Maxxforce red 🤣.

Anyways, Im using the trumpeter ALF Eagle kit for chassis, cab, and doo-dad's. The ladder came from the ladder chief kit a friend offered up. That leaves the rear body, turntable, and updates to fab. The chassis was stretched, then a torque box framed up to support the ladder base. Switching phone providers wiped out a ton of build pics..so here's my progress

Closing up the ladder bed w plastruct HO scale diamond plate sheet, and hacking up a turntable thats pinned w .100 rod underneath to rotate.

Sticking everything together

More to come..

The vision is a slammed Pete 359, just a really nice one color paint scheme, sitting on the ground as if it were at a truck show with the front bumper almost touching the ground. illustrated by the fender/tire mockup. It will have a hotrod flavor, so looking at a later motor with intercooler and straight pipes. Have no idea where this is going but I am cutting everything away from behind the cab and building a new frame rather than a middle cut, stretch. I have lowered suspension but in order to get the truck on the ground, I may lower all cab mounts, similar to what 1:1 truck builders do. I have cab skirts and sleeper skirts as well. So let the fun begin.

I digress....

So, that means in most cases, either because of that engine swap or the scratch building, I find myself unable to use the kit's exhaust pieces. 6 gauge, or 6AWG if you prefer, electrical wiring solves that problem for me.

It can be bent and formed into shape with relative ease and once painted it fills my needs quite well. Once formed it will maintain that shape because it doesn't want to bend at all...if you get my meaning. M current winter project has arrived at the point in the assembly where the exhaust is next. Quite frankly I can't wait to get this project (GGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRR) done because it's fought me all winter long!!!

More on that at the reveal coming up soon...