Saturday, May 11, 2013

Dodge Ram 3500 Service Truck



My family and I have worked in the the construction field for years in one form or another. I started working on heavy equipment when I worked for Genstar Stone Products Company back in the mid eighties. I have always wanted to build a model of a mechanic's service truck. I decided to start with an AMT Dodge Ram 3500 Dually Snapfast Plus kit. I added a laptop to the cab's interior and I modified the seat so that the center storage section was in the lowered position for additional workspace.

Here's the first mock-up of the utility body.


A resin utility body from Modelhaus was added and then I started adding other accesories including an air compressor with gas engine, a hose reel made from a sewing machine bobbin, impact gun, a water cooler, fire extinguisher, a vise on the rear bumper, chain, tool box, gas can and a hydraulic cylinder from the AMT Cat D8 Bulldozer.



Duplicolor saddle tan paint was used. The utility body interior was painted with flat black to simulate a spray on bedliner. The decals came from AMT's Autocar dump truck kit. The chrome wheels were stripped and painted gray black center caps with and I weathered the tires with real mud! This is one of my favorite models because it was so much fun to build. I was very happy with the results. I have also won a couple trophies with it at different model shows. That's what it all about, having fun!




2 comments:

  1. I have been searching everywhere for a utility bed so I can build a scale replica of my service truck. Modelhaus has been down since mid february. Any ideas?

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  2. I'm not the builder, BUT you can build a utility bed from old Fire truck parts! The American LeFrance "Ladder truck" kit from AMT has some NICE "utility" door details in it!

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