Hi Folks, From Fort Sill, Ok And Good Morning This Sunday!

I just got my new AMT tractor kit yesterday evening. The USPS even works Sundays these days. I've been taking measurements of the cab, sleeper and hood parts with my steel ruler to draft images for decals and to make paper templates for precise location of decals on vehicle body. I will order custom decals from an online printer. I will also have to draw a custom license plate decal, maybe Oregon. Here is a picture of my Wilson trailer kit still yet to be delivered. The purple Kenny will "haul" this. I've decide to do a cool door graphic with PRESTON arched over the wolf head. I will leave the door handles stock chrome with this setup. The door on the passenger side has a "safety window" in the corner. My only beef with the tractor kit is the molded and chrome-painted KENWORTH badges which look sloppy. I will draft some neater-looking KENWORTH decals to put on the side of the nose instead. The Tractor kit gives the model builder the option of chrome hubs which I think I will do instead of red. This will be a long project to make neat with much patience. It takes a lot of planning and careful prep. There is still some more Testors paint to buy to do it right. The hood even lifts to view the detailed Cummins engine underneath and there's also a Spicer transmission. The 5h wheel even slides with the option to cement it in place.

They got basements at the Copper Ridge Apartments, Todd?

The USPS even works Sundays these days.

Actually many postal workers operate 24/7 facilities year round including Christmas. From a former postal worker of a decade and a half i can attest I get off more weekends and holidays as a trucker

Regarding your model; I like it better without the tricked out chrome 'frills' in your original. Yes, I'd still leave the hubs red. It's vintage. (And no, I'm not salty..nor a super trucker!)

Setup sounds nice; haven't heard about Spicer's in a lil' bit. Cool, though! Cummins cool. A LOT of detail going into that painting for sure. Testors' isn't cheap. My son builds aircraft...pricey hobby!

RE: Sunday delivery, yeppers .. here too, even in the country~!! Especially my Amazon. (<<< My BFF in this Covid crap~!)

Be well, y'all...~!!

~ Anne ~

Regarding your model; I like it better without the tricked out chrome 'frills' in your original. Yes, I'd still leave the hubs red. It's vintage. (And no, I'm not salty..nor a super trucker!)

Setup sounds nice; haven't heard about Spicer's in a lil' bit. Cool, though! Cummins cool. A LOT of detail going into that painting for sure. Testors' isn't cheap. My son builds aircraft...pricey hobby!

RE: Sunday delivery, yeppers .. here too, even in the country~!! Especially my Amazon. (<<< My BFF in this Covid crap~!)

Be well, y'all...~!!

~ Anne ~

Anne, the hubs in the kit are actually stock chrome. There is an option to paint them red for a certain paint scheme which is on the box, Watkins Motor Lines, Lakeland, FL if that means anything. The hub parts in the kit are chrome by default. If I'm using a one-off wild custom paint color, the chrome might go better with purple. I do plan to paint the air filter canisters body color with chrome trim. I have to decide whether to paint the chassis of the tractor semi-gloss black or flat black. I'll have to study the frames on real-world tractors to see how they are colored. I know most are black and they are never a high shine. The kit specifies to paint the truck chassis orange to match the Watkins livery. Testors spray paint is a rip-off indeed: about $6.00 for a measly 3 oz can. A 3 oz can of Model Masters Plymouth Plum Crazy paint, special order, special color, was $16 with over $8 of that total for "FedEx ground shipping". These shipping companies, UPS and others, are super rich, no doubt. It could also be that the online vendor is over-inflating "shipping and handling costs" and pocketing some of that money. What did it really cost Testors and others to produce these little paint cans, 50 cents? At Lowe's, a much larger rattle can of Krylon is usually about $3.50. I'm afraid that hardware-store paint will ruin model kit plastic so I must use hobby-specific paints. When I was a young boy, these plastic models were a fairly cheap hobby with most kits not going over $10. I think a spray can of Testors was under $2 then. The plastic model kits alone for my 1:25 scale tractor and trailer run over $30 each. They are cheap to mold the parts but it's costly to tool up a specific model for production. Plastic kit companies are trying to design molds for vehicle parts in miniature keeping scale correct and accounting for each and every rivet on the sheet metal. Computers might be able to aid in mold making for plastic. Gaming these days has stirred young boys away from model-kit building so I think kit production is way down these days. Young people don't have the patience or talent for this hobby. This hobby now is for the older adult set.

Speaking of your son's model aircraft, I have a Boeing 727 jet plane, 1:96 scale, and a Bell 205 helicopter, 1:48 scale in my future projects as well. They will be painted the same Plum Crazy purple as the Kenworth. The aircraft are going to resemble commercial plane and chopper models that are made private, general aviation, with custom paint. Hugh Hefner had a solid black private Douglas DC-9 with Playboy bunny tail logo. President Trump has both a Boeing 757 and a 727 with the same TRUMP paint scheme. My jet and heli are going to be badged with a personal name: American Original. They will be the same livery as my truck, plum purple with light purple lettering and the same wolf head logo. The plane will have the wolf head on the tail.

Regarding your model; I like it better without the tricked out chrome 'frills' in your original. Yes, I'd still leave the hubs red. It's vintage. (And no, I'm not salty..nor a super trucker!)

Setup sounds nice; haven't heard about Spicer's in a lil' bit. Cool, though! Cummins cool. A LOT of detail going into that painting for sure. Testors' isn't cheap. My son builds aircraft...pricey hobby!

RE: Sunday delivery, yeppers .. here too, even in the country~!! Especially my Amazon. (<<< My BFF in this Covid crap~!)

Be well, y'all...~!!

~ Anne ~

Anne, the hubs in the kit are actually stock chrome. There is an option to paint them red for a certain paint scheme which is on the box, Watkins Motor Lines, Lakeland, FL if that means anything. The hub parts in the kit are chrome by default. If I'm using a one-off wild custom paint color, the chrome might go better with purple. I do plan to paint the air filter canisters body color with chrome trim. I have to decide whether to paint the chassis of the tractor semi-gloss black or flat black. I'll have to study the frames on real-world tractors to see how they are colored. I know most are black and they are never a high shine. The kit specifies to paint the truck chassis orange to match the Watkins livery. Testors spray paint is a rip-off indeed: about $6.00 for a measly 3 oz can. A 3 oz can of Model Masters Plymouth Plum Crazy paint, special order, special color, was $16 with over $8 of that total for "FedEx ground shipping". These shipping companies, UPS and others, are super rich, no doubt. It could also be that the online vendor is over-inflating "shipping and handling costs" and pocketing some of that money. What did it really cost Testors and others to produce these little paint cans, 50 cents? At Lowe's, a much larger rattle can of Krylon is usually about $3.50. I'm afraid that hardware-store paint will ruin model kit plastic so I must use hobby-specific paints. When I was a young boy, these plastic models were a fairly cheap hobby with most kits not going over $10. I think a spray can of Testors was under $2 then. The plastic model kits alone for my 1:25 scale tractor and trailer run over $30 each. They are cheap to mold the parts but it's costly to tool up a specific model for production. Plastic kit companies are trying to design molds for vehicle parts in miniature keeping scale correct and accounting for each and every rivet on the sheet metal. Computers might be able to aid in mold making for plastic. Gaming these days has stirred young boys away from model-kit building so I think kit production is way down these days. Young people don't have the patience or talent for this hobby. This hobby now is for the older adult set.

Speaking of your son's model aircraft, I have a Boeing 727 jet plane, 1:96 scale, and a Bell 205 helicopter, 1:48 scale in my future projects as well. They will be painted the same Plum Crazy purple as the Kenworth. The aircraft are going to resemble commercial plane and chopper models that are made private, general aviation, with custom paint. Hugh Hefner had a solid black private Douglas DC-9 with Playboy bunny tail logo. President Trump has both a Boeing 757 and a 727 with the same TRUMP paint scheme. My jet and heli are going to be badged with a personal name: American Original. They will be the same livery as my truck, plum purple with light purple lettering and the same wolf head logo. The plane will have the wolf head on the tail.

Sorry for the late reply; his current build is a 757/300 .... and he's in the 'early' stages. On a side note, he uses the 'spray' Testors for the 'base' painting, and the glass bottled ones for the intricacies. I'm not real into it, but it's better than him playing Fortnite too often. He's home schooled due to Covid, and gets the good ole' eye strain going on after too long at the monitor(s.)

He LOVES avionics, AND trucking. (Well, sure ... it's all he's known his dad to DO .. in his measley 16 years of life, LoL!) He's been to more airshows w/his dad and big sister !

Here's one of his FIRST builds... covers both T/T's and Aviation :

Be safe, y'all~!!

~ Anne ~

ps: Hay Preston (Todd) ... when your military tour(s) are complete, are you ever EVEN going to get into this industry? Wouldn't hurt now, to spend some of your extra time, perusing the valuables on here, ya know!

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road CDL Training Program
• CDL Practice Tests

Anne, please just call me OT.

I will be sure to be reading up on a bunch of Brett's stuff here in between waiting fro paint and glue to dry on model projects. It looks very sensibly written. I have about a year to go in the army. Not quite what they call SHORT yet. 90 days and a wake-up is considered army short.

I suppose most truck drivers aren't aficionados of model trucks. That would be like a McDonalds' burger flipper's putting a scale-model of a McDonald's burger joint on his model train layout. Work is work and recreation is recreation. We don't want to be reminded of our jobs while on R n R UNLESS we really love our jobs and I've never had a job I could honestly say I loved. The smell of diesel fumes probably nauseates everybody here as well as the sound of a diesel engine. The mere sight of camo and olive drab and OG green trucks makes every soldier ill.

Anne, please just call me OT.

I will be sure to be reading up on a bunch of Brett's stuff here in between waiting fro paint and glue to dry on model projects. It looks very sensibly written. I have about a year to go in the army. Not quite what they call SHORT yet. 90 days and a wake-up is considered army short.

I suppose most truck drivers aren't aficionados of model trucks. That would be like a McDonalds' burger flipper's putting a scale-model of a McDonald's burger joint on his model train layout. Work is work and recreation is recreation. We don't want to be reminded of our jobs while on R n R UNLESS we really love our jobs and I've never had a job I could honestly say I loved. The smell of diesel fumes probably nauseates everybody here as well as the sound of a diesel engine. The mere sight of camo and olive drab and OG green trucks makes every soldier ill.

I had an hour long reply typed.. gone. Guess somebody saw it in the druthers...idk.

Well, it was from the heart, yet TL;DR . . .

I get it that you are not 'short' yet . . . . are you still active? Deploy(ed?)(able?) . . . why are you not moving forward with one career or the other?

OT .. we've all become fond of you with the various logins. Matters not. Some pick and poke.. I've gotten my jabs in.. and apologize. Ready to figure you out now, and see if you DO want help with the forays into and of, this industry.

Did you read the links I've sent you? I'm sure you know this website in and out. . . . so much to read, IF THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT! The guys at TTR sure LOVE to jibber jab with ya... yet none really care. Trust me; I know. Yes, experience. I've driven for SIX months .. under a permit.. and never tested out; life didn't 'have' that for me at the time. Will I go back for it? Sure hoping so. One last kid to send OFF to college (OR perhaps the Air Force . . . he's in ROTC via school. . . which is mostly ZOOM as of late, here in Ohio.)

I'm not being judgmental at all.. yet I've got a question. Are you just middling .. in all (many/most) facets of life? Trucking won't (can't shouldn't shan't) be equative with that mindset, good sir.

On a last note before I sign off. . . look in the 'photo' section (In the 'hamburger' 3tier search upper left) .. and I believe on the 1st page . . . our epic Turtle HAS A SCALE MODEL OF A PLUM COLORED PRIME FLATBED RIG~!!

Just thought you'd like that. I hear you about the McD's and the Diesel. I love trucks more than my husband and equal w/my son.. because I don't have to do it (yet) on a daily.

I hoped you'd like his lego build, from 11 years ago!!

Wish you well, OT

~ Anne ~

Anne, I would post a picture of myself here but even the most expensive camera in the world could never take a pretty picture of me. As my grandma used to say, I don't take a good picture.

Anne, I would post a picture of myself here but even the most expensive camera in the world could never take a pretty picture of me. As my grandma used to say, I don't take a good picture.

I think Brett has a photo of you.