Kitbashed Vehilcles

I was on a recent layout tour, and complimented the owner on their quantity of vehicles. They replied, "you can never have too many vehicles". I agree, and have started working on several vehicles for my HO scale model railroad. I have been working on several vehicle kitbashes, and here are a couple that I just completed.

When ever I come across a cheap out of scale vehicle, I always look to see if there are any parts or pieces I can use. Some years ago, Kellogg's offered some Matchbox cars as premiums, and I have been holding on to them for a decade or more. I finally took the time to really look them over, and found the width of the box was not too bad, but the fenders made the vehicle too wide for HO scale. The wheels scaled out at about 4' in diameter, so they would at least have to be turned down and new tires made. I kept the hood, box and radiator and head lights, but pretty much everything else came from the scrap bin. Although it really does not show in the pictures, the back bumper has a see through deck made from an electric razor screen. The wheels were made from metal flowers from the scrap booking section of Hobby Lobby, and the tires and wheel rims were made from styrene tubing. The OTASCO decal was photo shopped from a picture and printed using a photo printer on clear decal paper. I photographed the model on a Route 87 module I started.

This next HO model uses the wheels from the Kellogg truck above, but I cut the tires off and turned them down by chucking them in a drill and filing them down. I used styrene tubing for the wheel rims and tires. This truck started out as an Anheuser-Busch truck, probably about 1/64 scale. Judicious use of a metal cutting wheel on the a Dremel tool made fast work of cutting this to pieces. I think the only thing I used from the original truck was the deliver box. Everything else came from leftovers from various other trucks and cars I cut up for parts. The decal is based on an advertisement in the Frisco employee magazine from back in the 1920's. Fort Smith Rim and Bow, actually was still in business until this century, however they made stair parts, not vehicle parts. Yes, the Rim was the rim used for wheels on Conestoga wagons and the Bow was the bow that held up the canvas roof on the wagon. Since they were a company dealing in wood, I made the running boards and both the front and back bumpers out of wood. I also painted the wheels to look like they have wood spokes.

I am just about done with a Cook paint box van and a Junge Bakery delivery truck.