Last Project of 2022

I'm posting this today, on December 31st, having just finished this project last week. After seeing all the articles on what folks have built this past year, I wanted to get the article finished so I can get "credit" for a completion this year. 🙂

I actually built the Mack DM600 way back in 2010 - it's the only truck I have, don't know what possessed my to buy it back then. AMT puts out this kit, but I'm pretty sure mine was the Ertl Blueprint Series version. Anyway, I had a new airbrush at the time, so decided to experiment with dirtying up the truck. This was the first time I had the idea to mask the windshield to show the wiper paths. Time passed, and the truck got put away with other models that I didn't have space to display.

Years later, in early 2021, I built the AMT Caterpillar kit (the article is here in iModeler) and of course, I just had to dirty it up as well. And since I have room now, I built a plexiglass case for it to keep the dust off, and displayed it along with my tractor collection.

Fast-forward to late 2022, and I was looking through my boxes of built models that are not on display. When I ran across the DM600, a light came on, and I was inspired to build the AMT Lowboy Kit so that I could combine my DM600 and my bulldozer into one combined display.

The AMT Lowboy kit went together fairly easily, and I built it pretty much OOB. I primed the whole thing flat black, then finished with royal blue from a rattle can. The wood portions were also primed flat black, then dry brushed with a couple of brown craft paint colors. The "mud" is filler putty painted brown. The only additions/substitutions to the kit are the red flags made from tissue paper (instead of the plastic ones provided with the kit), and the tool boxes. The small red tool box came from the spares box, and the big one is scratch-built from sheet styrene. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add a Knaack job box to my little vignette. 🙂 I also added the air hoses to the tractor using fine wire coiled and then painted red, blue and green.

The base is just 2x8 lumber section with air-dried clay for the surface. The clay was a first-time experiment which came out OK, but I discovered clay shrinks quite a lot! The gravel is just salt and pepper sprinkled and painted with the rest of the surface. Drying mudholes were painted progressively darker grays.

I hope you all had a great year, and look forward to a new year of interesting model projects!

8 additional images. Click to enlarge.