popeye the sailor

don't listen to that guy...........you did one hell of a good job on it! very nicely done!

such an interesting model Yves............your making me want to pull out my B&M snowplow ! so nice to see some train builds so much detail...........superb!

very nice work Jav.......the choice of wood you used eye catching {especially the second one} nice selections of planes too........how many are in there?

nice to see these rare kits....they look so cool! great job with the detail........Awesome!

hello to all! nice to see a few new folks looking in....don't be afraid giving insight....that's what MSW is all about it's you new folk that come to the table with different ways of doing stuff unfortunately, I don't have anything new to report, but I've still been busy. you ought to post a picture of one of your flat cars with trailers on it Ken. going out on a limb here, but this trailer might be suited with G scale.......perhaps a bit larger, if there is such a scale I don't believe there were 53 foot trailers back then........I think the largest would have been a 48'. when I started at Wally, we had 48' and 53' trailers. they used the 48' trailer for locations that were tight on space.........53' for everything else. Marcy, New York had the 48' trailers that had air hook ups and electrical in the buck plate {rear}..........I forget the term, but two trailers could be hooked together. browsing through web sites, I've found that many back in the day, used the 48' as a subject.......I believe AMT had a kit featuring two pup trailers {I think they were only 27'}. tankers, flatbeds, dry van, reefers.......maybe a couple others. quite a few of them are old kits...........I've seen very few 53' trailer kits though......odd?!? the 'Smokey and the Bandit' trailer being a prime example thanks again for the good vibes.......sorry about not looking in sooner. I should have something soon

hey there folks! finally, I get to pop in to report an update on the project, as well as what I've been up to. in short, my health is still good......made a major improvement on the leg issues, but one 'small' issue is yet to be tested {I'll leave that one up to the imagination }. the Murano is inspected and no reappearance of the check engine light..........I am soooooooo stoked! now to take care of a couple more things I want to do, before 'ole man winter shows up. another birthday came and went...... it's all hype folks..............67 isn't so bad! I hope I feel the same when these numbers are reversed! had a very good day. so, this brings us to the update.............it's not super huge, but time allowed me to tinker, so I'm not complaining. I'm not really liking windows 10..........I can't seem to do thing I used to do with windows 8. the update begins with painting around the front edges of the underside, and installing the approach plate. I will wait to add the kingpin until later, for fear of knocking it off. then I took a look at the tandem dolly and what I would need to do, to install the stop bars. there is one for the back too, that I will need to drill holes for. the approach plate and the front apron were masked off and painted in the under carriage gray. to add the front wall, I had to double up on the posts {ribs}, in order to cover the abnormalities. I had to allow for how the part was molded. the inner radius on both sides and along the top were painted aluminum, since these areas would be visible. the bottom wood panel was added, along with the scuff liner. molding was added to separate the panel to create a top and bottom. the use of this molding is optional.........some manufacturers don't use it. for those who do, when repairs are made and plywood is replaced, if it is damaged, some techs will cut out the bad part and put the replacement panel up without it. the nice thing about adding this interior detail, is I don't have to be concerned with how it looks. heck, I might even add in some graffiti, but leave out some of the colorful stuff I've seen. EG/example: 'for a good time call.....................' I'm debating whether to hit this with a flat lacquer. it's really flat and natural as it is, but I will need to add some color to the floor {blend in some grime, drybrush}. the landing gear was the next aspect to look at. I'm going to show the model with the legs lowered.........the other one I will do with them raised and attached to the tractor. I will do the interior differently too. the wheels that are seen on these legs is an early version. it was thought to be a smart idea, in the event that the trailer was moved without hooking up to a tractor, or it was jostled while being back under by one. I'm sure there were many scenarios where the use of wheels would be a plus. modern trailers utilize a simple plate, or a saucer {or square} dish called a sand shoe. wheels would often sink into bare ground and would need to either be set on pavement or cement surfaces {square or otherwise}. the sand shoe changed all that and made the trailer more 'all terrain'. to arrest the wheels in place so they wouldn't fall off, they either used a bolt pin, or a large pin was driven through the axle. since trying to emulate a bolt type fastening was impossible for me to do, I went for the pin idea. holes were drilled through the axles and brass rod was inserted through them after the wheel was put in place. with this done..........it's time for paint. I hope to have more for you soon. I want to get some paint on the body, and get the roof on.

love it! the beauty of this is the dust issue..............I think you solved it! great job!

awesome looking model!..............so clean and well detailed! sweet! 🤩

thanks for look'in in gents. I've made a little more progress and should have more for you soon here it is..........August. it's my birth month..........another year older I have a doctor's appointment next week. I wonder what the topics will be this time. so far............no check engine light, so I must have done something right. inspection should be easy peasy

hey there. I know it's been a while, but life continues to get in the way. I guess it's become my way of life one thing I can tell you...........if someone asks you to replace a catalytic converter {bank 1} on a Nissan Murano, politely refuse and walk away! preferably as fast as you can! I replace the bank 1 cat on our Murano, and it was not fun. I did hear that there is a product out there that will revitalize cats in the event your check engine light comes on but remember that it's only a quick fix and replacement is inevitable. besides, I already bought one, a price tag of $500.00.............the cheapest one I found. one can pay up to a grand! I had a dealer check out the check engine light and give me an estimate on what they find. for them to replace it is around #3,300.00. another code they checked out was for the EVAP, and they found it was a leaking Purge Valve. that had a price tag of $440.00 to replace. I did it myself for less than a hundred bucks. work continues on the model. I added the light boxes and the license plate bracket. I to modify the bracket because it didn't fit right. the tires and hub are assembled. the wood inserts are completely done on both sides. the scuff liners weren't cemented in place. they were removed and grubbied up with paint to simulate scuffs. cemented in place, they now look like this. I was going to wait till I sprayed them with a flat lacquer, but I decided to partially assemble the box. the glad hand detail has been removed from the front wall. ...........and then added to the box. I figured it would be easier to detail the front wall with it in place. I had to make minor adjustments to the side walls to get them to fit. I was pretty much spot on with the tolerances. the front wall looks worse than the picture. it didn't fit as well. this will be covered up with the inner wall panels, so the gap will not be s. there is the approach plate that will be cemented to the underside of the nose, and that will cover it from the bottom as well. there is still much more to go. hope you are all well

hey folks minor progress thus far.........nothing to brag about yet. I thought I'd pop in and say hello. the trailer is about 20 inches long, but the truck is a little longer. the frame alone is just over 12 inches long. I should start the log on it too, so you can see where I'm at on it. pertaining to the glad hands..........the kit is not designed to be joined together. there are no hoses that connect the trailer to the truck, nor is there a way to connect it electrically. further back, there are no hoses to the brake chambers, but they do supply enough hose for the tandem hoses. they can be joined as a display, since the kit has parts to show the landing legs to be in the raised or lowered positions. I will do my best to add in some of these short comings and make it look a bit more interesting. I need to add a registration box {bill box}........and since our trailer are fitted with GPS, I might try and do something for it as well. good to see you look'in in Craig........enjoy!

I've always wanted to buy one of these kits..........but the closest I can come are two of the Monogram kits {1:16}. nice to see another log of these great models

such a beautiful looking plane the stenciling is a really good process. it works well around covers and hatches.........hard to do with decals. super nice job with all the extras you put into this bird.

see........I wasn't gone too long although I have a couple more steps to do with sizing down the pictures. I'll get used to it I added the outer tires to the wheel assemblies. the hub part needs a bit more paint. the hubs on this trailer are oil hubs. they require 5W90 oil. we used to have quite a few, but most, if not all the trailer that have them, have been taken off the road. we switched over to bearing grease {I forget what type it is}, which is really runny stuff. the caps are threaded and screw on, rather than the bolt on hub caps for grease. the caps are mostly clear........our Stemco hub caps were metal with a see-through face. a red rubber plug in the center is the fill port. I wondered how I was going to emulate that, since they are kinda shiny, if not dirty. I got an idea to use the Testor's window maker........I painted it on them, and it looks the part. add the red plug and they are ready to add to the wheel assemblies. the tandem dolly and the landing legs got a coat of paint. I added the cross bar to the landing legs. another area that I want to expand on is the service plate. the service plate is the plate on the front of the trailer that has the glad hands and light receptacle. on this type of trailer, it is built into the front outer wall. I need to remove the detail and find something that will bring out the parts better. I'm sure I have something. each side of the trailer interior, is made up of 19 spaces between the wall posts. I still have that Mahogany stripping that I have been trying to find a use for. I think I found it here. I cut up a bunch of pieces, 3 1/2 inches long. one bad thing is that the spaces are different widths........tooling isn't that exact. not that I thought it would each space was measured, and the strip was cut to fit. one side down...........and one to go the scuff liner is the guide. hopefully, I have it figured out so that the floor will fit. so far, everything is just set in place. I may have to trim where the door hinges are, but that can be done later. more soon!

that an old trick........not without it's dangers either. the same danger lies in the use of 'fix a flat' on passenger tires. we had a guy working with us at one time, that would dismount the outer tires {if they had a problem} without taking the wheel assembly off the trailer. the GM didn't like it though and told him not to do it anymore. we plug and patch our tire repairs. thanks OC..........I have been trying to catch up on your Battle of Waterloo diorama. now that my ordeal is pretty much over, I can get back to it yes friends........leaving your internet provider and changing how we watch TV and go online, can be a real pain. we dropped Comcast and went to Fidium, and now we stream TV. Comcast halted my home page, but allowed me to use my e-mail.......or, at least they did I can't log in now and their reason for it, is that it is expired. today, I went back to MSN and started a Hotmail account. there really is no reason why I need to go back to the Comcast account, since all my bookmarks came with me. I was using windows 8.1, until someone hacked me from Russia {or so they said}, and I found that I was able to download Windows 10.........so that's what I did as well. so, other than having to change all my profiles with places I normally visit, things are getting back to normal . I do have a small update, and I should have it for you very soon. thanks for look'in in.

good you were able to sort out the tanks. you a great job with stenciling........it looks so much better than with decals

it's a wonder why I didn't recall this.........we had trailers with single slider pins. modern trailers have four, two in front and two in back. Wally phased out these trailers...not sure if there was a requirement for the newer system. I looked at the back page of the instructions, 'cuz I knew that the slider actuator handle was included in the kit. the G rails still need stop bars though....so I will add them. ....a funny story...... a trailer was brought to the shop {drive up, as we call it} because the driver couldn't move the slider. the common way to do this, is to chock a wheel position with a 4 x 4 block of Oak. wood is the best form of chock, guaranteed not to allow a trailer to 'drag'......ever this was unsuccessful. so Jim and Little John {these two were inseparable } decided to get one of the trucks and free it by using the Jake brake. our supervisor Paul was a little hesitant, but Jim convinced him it would work....and so the 'go ahead' was given. so, here they are..........out in the yard, hooked up to the trailer, and driving it around the shop, applying the Jake a few times. I was talking to Paul, being funny..............I started to mention a worst case scenario, where the tandem gets ripped out.........when all of a sudden, they applied the jake right in front of us! what a noise it made!.....Paul was quite addled at this point....they were going probably around 30 MPH when they did it. they stopped..........of course the dolly moved....it had slid back. when they backed the trailer up, the rear stop bar fell out on the ground! I saw Paul's face drop, and the two backed the trailer up to the shop door. by this time.......Paul didn't say anything.........he just turned and went back over to the truck side. these two get out of the truck laughing. it wasn't too long before the bar was welded back in place and the driver was hooked back up to the trailer. you may be curious why they just didn't use the driver's truck to do this...........his truck was logged in assigned to the trailer. if they would have used it, Logistics would have been ALL over them....and the driver as well {for thinking that HE did it}. another funny story would be the day I showed these two how to make an Air Cannon...........but that's another day

some were like that, and some went all the way to the top. Pine, Trailmobile {AMT has the 'double header' kit out there}, they built them like that as well. Great Dane and Hyundai got away from that and started lining them straight up to the roof in 14 1/2 strips, either in wood or fiberglass / plastic. the posts are so thin, that they only give a wall depth of around 1/4 of an inches! I've never seen one with a sky light, but we have some that have round clear discs along the tops of the side walls. they don't fair very well though...........many times I see one with one or two missing. Wally is adamant about the inside wood lining........holes no bigger than your fist must be patched or the panel replaced, they view it as a form of asset protection.....and rightly so. I replaced a inner wall panel one day and found several CD cases of a popular game at the time.......the cases and instructions were there, but the CD's were gone. I turned them in to the boss and he took it from there. I did find out about the slider mechanism........I'll tell yaz in a bit....Gibbs needs to go out

sage advice Jack........I'll definitely keep that in mind {in the event that I lose mine } some trailers do have them........most are older trailers though. I've been seeing more companies leaning towards the container trailer. the box is separate from the rail frame underneath.......mainly use in shipping to and from other countries by ship. dry vans are good, but they damage quite easily....means a lot of repairs.........a container is thick steel and hard to damage. they are also stackable on the ship and at the yard. since this trailer doesn't have one, it's a safe bet they weren't equipped with one. as for the cargo........it probably wouldn't be hard to do.......haven't given it much thought. I have the Budweiser wagon.......it has the cases of Bud, but the decals are pretty bad.......after all, it is an old kit. not only that, they are stick ons .....YECH!!!!!!! so I got a bit further with what I've done so far......the assembly should start picking up now. the tandem dolly fits snug on the G rails, as I mentioned earlier. the G rails have holes for locking pins on the dolly to fit in, so it won't move. the dolly is moveable, so the weight of the load can be adjusted, to even out the weight across the axles {truck and trailer}. on most trailers, there are holes along the entire G rail.......on the model, there is not. seeing that I already have G rails in place, it might be hard to drill them........but I do want to add the missing parts of the slider assembly. usually there are four....two in the front and two in the back........but in this case, since it's a short trailer, I probably can get away with the two in the front. I'll also need to add stop bars at the front and rear of the G rails. more research needed....I'll see if I can find anything on this. I made a goof already.........good thing it was an easy fix. to keep the trailer in alignment, you have the torque arms and radius rods. they are attacked to the leaf saddles and the brackets on the axle tubes. torque arms are always roadside, and the radius rods curbside. the old method for aligning a trailer {we have a portable alignment outfit} is to align the rear axle and 'tram' the front axle to the rear. adjustments are made at the torque arms. to tram the front, measure the distance from hub cap centers of the right side wheels and match them to the left side....adjusting the same way....at the torque arm. my goof was that I didn't pay attention.....I just glues them in place. thankfully, they came off with little effort. I cleaned up the mess and glued them on correctly. I then turned to the interior. the inner walls on these older trailer were mostly covered in plywood, with scuff liners along the floor. some have plastic dividers....some.....metal.........usually in 4' x 8' sheets. now, on 53 foot trailers, there are thirteen a side {the last being a half sheet top and bottom}. I' going to do this one another way, seen on newer trailers. I bought some 1/16 x 1/16 evergreen strip for the dividers, also simulated wall posts. the riveted detail on the inner walls will be the guide to place them. I cut a bunch of 3 1/2" strips, and began gluing them on the inner wall. I left room for the scuff liner at the bottom.......first one done. once the other side was done, I painted them with silver paint. I'll let this dry over night cutting the wood fillers is the next big task. the front wall will also have a scuff liner and plywood. the roof already has the roof bow detail molded onto it, so I won't need to do anything with it. hope to have more to show tomorrow

some really cool pieces there.........must have been fun being there super planes Greg......a very nice dio!

great looking plane Greg! nicely done

she coming along really good Chris.........you've got such a knack for these models!

the bike rims look really good......gonna add to the detail for sure

sweet little boat Greg! the early amphibians look really cool

thank you gentlemen.......gee Jack, perhaps you can give me a head's up on what to expect for the next 20 years ! I have never seen such an extensive line of 'Coca Cola' models...from what I've seen, AMT had the exclusive As mentioned, I did see a 53 foot kit at Hobby Lobby, but I was hesitant in pulling the trigger. it wasn't a long box, which indicates that the top, bottom, and sides were in multiple pieces {filler, here we come!}. for this trailer, I may go with the Coca Cola motif, seeing the the truck has the same logo. I do want to do something different for the second one........and hopefully another truck to go with it. a mural sound like fun too the decal sheet is large and the kit even supplies a sort of gauge to help in aligning the logo the one aspect that is missing here, is the conspicuity markings along the sides of the trailer. according to the FMCSA {Federal Motor Carrier safety administration}, any trailer manufactured after 1993, has to have conspicuity tape markings this enables motorists to see trailers better at night. the reflective tape can span the entire length of the trailer, but regulations state that the amount of reflective tape must be half of the total length. so, for a 53 foot trailer, there must be 26 1/2 feet of tape on the sides, as well as along the bumper and bottom of the door {s}. in 1989, the NHTSA {National Highway Traffic safety Administration} published a rule that all light and reflective devices {reflectors}, be made of a reflective material, which means that tail lights and the use of reflectors was mandatory. I started working at Wal Mart in 2004.........we were still dealing with reflectors back then....if some of our trailer had them, they had to be on there. we use the 6 x 6...6 inches of red and 6 inches of white reflective. there are other types of reflective tape, like the 7/11 tape........7 inches of white and 11 inches of red reflective {we use this one too, but it depends what DC the trailer comes from}. as far as colors go, red and white is the main combo.........as for the round or oval reflectors {mainly made of plastic, but can be found as a placard decal} yellow is used which follows the lighting rules along the sides of the trailer body.....yellow at the front, red at the rear. the white tape seen at the top of the buck plate door opening is a requirement mandated a few years later. the truck doesn't have a lot of reflective tape requirements, but there must be some on the mud flap brackets, and some form {whether it be the lights or round reflective material} of reflectives on the back of the cab. I was having a devil of a time trying to locate some, but Egilman was kind enough to direct me in the right direction.....thank you although it is not reflective, it fits the bill perfectly! whenever I replace any at the shop........I try to miss the rivets.....I hate that. I came up with a way around this, but recently, the higher ups changed the policy that all side wall patches be buck riveted, so that put a stop to my idea. inside the box there is printed detail.......there is rivet detail on both sides. to put my interior mod in the first steps to reality, the floor must be painted. it has wood grain detail....more modern high end trailers have metal floors........either of light steel or aluminum. the little tabs you see along the sides pose some of the problems in fitting the sides.........some are a tad off, while others are too big. at this point, I had finished with one side. this wood strip will serve as the scuff liner, wall bumper. scuff liner are always a constant repair item...........some folks just don't know how to drive a fork lift. you ought to see what it look like when the forks go completely through the side wall! I've operated fork lifts and single power jacks. I've also started to assemble the wheels..........really wish there was more detail here, but it is what it is