Freightliner Follies

[crackerboxkid]

Hi guys... I know there has been much written and discussed about AMT's White Freightliner kit(s), but I just wanted to add some fuel to the fire... Everyone has had an issue with those two-piece roofs, and trying to blend in that unavoidable gap without destroying all the over-done rivet detail, but there's another area of those kits that folks have struggled with. It's the front of the cabs, and how they've always looked just a bit "off" somehow... Yes, the kit engineers did position the headlights too high, but I FINALLY figured out the other reason why things have never looked quite right: There are a pair of very obvious rivet lines on each side of the grill, running horizontaly along the seam where the upper/front panels attach to the lower headlight panels. Recently I was able to take some measurments off of a full size Freightliner, and compared them to the kit cab. Guess what: Those rivet lines along those seams are a scale FOUR INCHES too high! They SHOULD run about five scale inches above the bottom/front corners of the doors... While it's still true that the headlights are molded too high, it's the mistake they made with the dimensions of those front panels that have plagued the looks of those kit cabs all these years! The bummer is that there's no easy fix for the problem.... Another mistake they made was in the doors. There are supposed to be three horizontal strengthening beads in the "skin" of those doors, but they only have two! One more interesting quirk of AMT's "quirkiest" truck kit: Has anyone noticed that in some of those kits the air vents on the driver's door and on the sleeper walls are indented... as if AMT had considered making each vent available as a separate part on the chrome tree... but then in other kits those vents are molded flush with the cab skin? Weird man.... I've been pluggging away on mine now for a few weeks. The plan is to build a typical western-based, mid-60's Freightliner with a stretched wheelbase, etc, etc, etc... Just fixing all the kit's mistakes is gonna take more time than the rest of the build! (LOL)

[Deleted]

I have three of these kits (1 DD & 2 SD), and the cabs have really prevented me from trying my had at them. There are a lot of corrections tio be made to make the cab correct, and I'm just not that good a modeler.

I know that the headlights are molded too high, but I don't know how to fix this. How much should they be lowered?

[gatormarcstaug]

While I am not going to comment on the accuracy of the Freightliner kits. I think it was a good idea that just did not quite measure up. byt making the cab in three pieces, the made room for more than one model kit.Thus the dual and single drive versions. Not to mention the idea of kit bashing the two kits .For more variations.
So if you have four or five of these kits you can make several different trucks ex Short cab long dual drive chassis with a flatbed or box body, or even a dump box. Or the single drive with the sleeper cab w/extended chassis and a box or flatbed on it.
Years ago I did a short cab on the dual drive chassis with the IMC tanker on the back. Making it a fuel truck, or water truck.
So imho the possibilities are endless, regardless of whether or not you correct the inaccuracies in the cabs>

Be Well
Gator

[crackerboxkid]

I agree with you that having both a sleeper and non-sleeper version of those Freightliner kits has provided a variety of building options. My disappointment lies in the fact that I waited a looooooong time for someone to offer a kit of my all-time favorite cabover tractor. When it finally happened, it almost appeared as if they rushed through the process of engineering it, because they got so many things wrong, DIMENSIONALLY speaking. The infamous two-piece roofs and separate rear cab sections are an unavoidable downside to offering two different versions of a single kit. That's not my concern... I was disappointed with the innacurate dimensions of some of the cab panels, as well as the mistakes in areas like the headlight location and door details, which affect the overall appearance of the finished model. Despite it's faults, it's still the only Freightliner kit we have, and I'm VERY glad it's been re-issued! I'll try'n attach some pics of mine once I've made enough progress on it to make it worthwhile!

[gatormarcstaug]

Well inaccurate kit or not. Would you rather have no kits at all? The model truck market is no where as big or popular as say the aircraft or armor segments of the hobby. So ,Me I take what I can get and build for fum. I don't search out the inaccuracies.

And the people who might see my models have a hard time with the fact that I build the models.Much less knowing what the hell they are looking at!

Be Well
Gator

[dfmcmahon]

Check out the model train places for rivets, also military sites. Dave McMahon

[78KW]

Jim, for lowering the headlights, see Tim Albohrn's site. He has a pic there where he writes the explanation of what he did. That is how I got mine lowered.

[crackerboxkid]

Question for you guys: have any of you bought the reissued White Freighliner single axle/day cab kit? I'm wondering if the new version of that kit still has the two small windows on the back of the cab. 'Seems I've seen a few pics that showed the back of the new cabs with NO windows... THANKS!

[amcdude]

Not sure about the current issue?, but the 2004 Stevens International issue has them, don't know why they would eliminate them?

[crackerboxkid]

I've just seen a few pictures of what appear to be recent builds, and some of them had window-less cabs. Maybe they just used the rear cab wall from the dual-drive, sleeper version. 'Be nice if I could find a kit review someplace, that showed all the parts trees laid out for all to see!

[amcdude]

Picked up the current issues of the single drive today, it has the small windows in the back of the cab.