48-foot Fontaine spread-axle flatbed

[hot ford coupe]

Another phenomenal weathering job. The realism is first rate. You are the truckmeister.

[Dr Dave]

Mate, you are doing a top job on that trailer . Can't wait to see it in all its grubby glory. You blokes over there have some strange gear compared to what we run down here. Our spreads have to be load sharing axles, and spreads are not common any more. We don't have shockies on springs, only on air bags. Our straps are a little smaller and slide along rails. Oops, I'm waffling too much.
A few questions if that's ok. Would that be 1/14 scale? What on earth are Microballoons? And your Easter egg thing? You didn't spill chocolate on it did you? I can't begin to imagine...
Here's a couple of my reference photos of a strap (on my truck) to be made in 1/25 scale for a rebuild in the future.
Looking forward to seeing more of your great work.

[Old Busted Hotness]

G'dye Dave,

I may have cheated a little on the straps. Ours are rail-mounted, too, but I made mine fixed for a couple reasons. One, I didn't feel like making proper rails (recycled the box-trailer corners) and two, I knew as soon as I drove the thing they'd all slide together in a big strap orgy.

It is indeed 1/14 scale, or close to it. Tamiya tends to fudge some things, but that's okay because I do too. Microballoons are tiny glass beads that are used as filler in epoxy . RC airplane guys use it to make the epoxy lighter and easier to sand , but it has a great texture for rust.

The Easter-egg wheel mod uses plastic eggs to turn the "aluminum" wheels into "steel" ones. This will give you the general idea:




Spreads are more common up here lately. I'm seeing more and more spread-axle reefers on the roads. You're allowed more weight on a spread than a tandem.

We don't have road trains, either. The max allowed is three trailers, and then only on designated roads.

[Old Busted Hotness]

Painted (wrong color, I know, but it was here and handy) and secured: