At first glance this impressive model might be dismissed as any Athearn Ford C-8000 and Pines trailer model. However, once you really start looking closely, the amount of and attention to detail invested by Brandon Hintz is pretty remarkable. Details done to tractor: scratchbuilt the front bumper hand truck mount, added mud flaps to the cab behind the front wheels, added air and electrical lines behind the cab along with simulating the spring that helps hold them up off the chassis, added Plano windshield wipers and modified mirrors, scratchbuilt cab latch release lever mounted behind the cab, and the bellhousing that is nonexistent on the production model between the engine and transmission. Brandon also added and detailed the top of the transmission with the shift tower since that was a blank hole. He also added the fifth wheel  kingpin release and the exhaust pipe to the other side of the engine since these had 3208 CATs in them which is a V-8 style block. Also added were air brake detail (air cans, slack adjusters, S- cams). License plate decals are from J-Bot and added were all additional paint detail where appropriate.

Trailer details: Brandon retrofitted the trailer with A-line conspicuity tape decals and Microscale license plate. He hand lettered the "P&D USE ONLY" on the front of the trailer with Microscale lettering. He added roof patches and weathered the trailer with paints and chalks and added air brake detail (air cans, slack adjusters, S-cams, air line hoses) and added the glad hands at the back for doubles use. He removed the "metal hook" and scratchbuilt his own pintle hitch at the back and added the safety chain loop. He also added the corner clearance lights at the front of the trailer, weathered a few of the wheels with rust stains around the lugs to represent wheels that were once inside wheels that now have become outside use wheels which is very common in large fleets.

Posted November 19, 2012