How difficult is it to.............

[jerseejerry55]

...................Assemble the AMT White Freightliner Dual Drive cab? One of my 5 favorite semi's from my youth. The other 4 being the Mack R/U-600 series, the Ford LNT 9000, the International Transtar c/o and the Ford WT-9000. I am in the process of building a Chevy Titan 90 and I am torn between my next model from one of the following 3:

• AMT Kenworth K=123. Have heard horror stories about warped frame rails on this one. Although I suspect that could be isolated incidents.
• AMT/MPC Mack DM-600 Reissue due out around March 2015
• AMT White Freightliner Dual Drive

So if anyone can provide any advise tips suggestions it would be much appreciated. Thank you.
JerseeJerry55

[fat141]

Cabin of the White is a pain in the A to put together. Three piece and very difficult to make appear seamless
Rod

[jerseejerry55]

Rod,
Thank you for the reply. So in your opinion would it be better to go with the Kenworth K-123,the DM-600 or maybe even one of the other AMT White trucks (Road Boss, Western Star, or the Diamond Reo)? Would have loved to have built the Freightliner but it is what it is. Thanks Jersee Jerry 55

[fat141]

K123 wins hands down for a COE

[rnagle]

Agreed with the K-123 for cabover project, I used one of the reissues as starting point for an early 1980's K-100 and IIRC frame rails were OK. Any frame should be assembled on a flat surface and held flat/in alignment while plastic cement cures. I like to use a piece of steel flat bar or plate with magnets to do the actual clamping.

White-Freightliner headlights are located higher on cab than 1:1 truck, also cab steps are of a less commonly seen style although there are some 1:1 White-Freightliners with them. One option for the 3 piece cab is sanding all rivet detail off then replacing with rivet decals by Micro-Mark or Archer Transfers. That way you can fill and smooth seams without worring about preserving rivets.

DM-600 tooling was originally done by MPC and they are nice kits, better detailed than AMT's Mack's from that era as the MPC kits have separate door handles and other free standing details. They are a vocational type of truck (DM stands for Dumper Mixer) rather than a highway tractor.

[fat141]

Thanks for the Micro-Mark tip.