Central Concrete, Joplin

Yes, I will get back to my favorites, freight cars, I just got on a kick of modeling vehicles for industries along the line. This is the Central Concrete (completely fictitious) fleet for the Joplin location.

#1Number 1 is a stock, or at least mostly stock Mini-Lindy kit. Out of production for a couple decades anyway, but a reasonably close model of a White WA-22. I added the tail light, mud flaps, mirror, ladder, controls, hose and shovel. The decals I printed myself. For the cement dust weathering, I used the real thing.

#2 This unit got its inspiration from this Hot Wheel model. It was obviously out of scale, as are most Hot Wheels and Matchbox pieces. The cab need shortened and the fenders had to be narrowed. The cement barrel and back section are from a Mini-Lindy kit. Besides the same added details as #1, I scratch built the tires using styrene tube and used some pearl stick-on pieces from the scrap booking section at Hobby Lobby for the headlights.

#3
Unit #3 started out as a Life-Like cement mixer, but really the only usable part was the back half. The cab was too new for the 1949 era I am modeling and the wheels and tires are way

under size for most uses (more on that next time). I married the Life-Like rear portion to the Mini-Lindy cab left over from #2. I used the Mini-Lindy wheels and tires and added the same details as #'s 1 and 2, although with these low angle pictures you cannot see the shovel and hose. You will also note that I have added era appropriate license plates on all my vehicles. There are several web sites that have real license plates that can be edited to work for any scale. In HO scale, they are really to small to read, at least they are when printed on my printer.

Next time, more concrete trucks, #'s 4, 5, & 6 lettered for their Springdale, AR location.