Finished Build: 1953 Ford F-100 Pickup

 

Somebody's Humble but Faithful Old Truck

There's something noble and respectable about a beaten-up, unassuming old vehicle which has served for decades with minimal care and very few 'Thank Yous' along the way. Commercial vehicles often survive further into old age than their passenger car cousins, simply because as long as they can continue to do a job and earn money, somebody will think it worthwhile to carry on running them. I think that's what happened with this truck.

 

 

I bought this kit, a Round2 reissue of the old AMT 1953 Ford F-100 Pickup, from Rochester Games & Models back in January during a spot of new year retail therapy. The kit is great fun - it is an old kit going back decades, but the general parts fit is OK (if you ignore the easily-removed flash) and the build options are just brilliant. The kit advertises that it can be built one of three ways (3-in-1 as the US kit manufacturers always used to say) but honestly, I think 30 ways is quite possible. 

 

 

I won't try to list every option, but overall the kit provides three sets of wheels, optional white wall tyres, two V8 engines, three exhaust setups, three grills, three types of bumper, plus all sort of optional items such as custom rear wings/fenders, marker lights, air horns, speakers and much more. The instructions stick to three specific builds - stock (factory original), service (like a modified working truck) or custom. Personally I can imagine mixing and matching all the parts to create some great builds, like a rat rod parts delivery truck, a retro custom truck or a hard-worked old beater, which is what I settled on for this build. I am planning to build at least a couple more versions though.

 

 

 

I built the truck with the hood/bonnet closed, saving the engines for use in a future project. I tried a new technique with this build in order to create the appearance of peeling and bubbling paint with rust or primer coats emerging. To do this, the majority of the parts were sprayed with red oxide primer straight from a Halfords aerosol can. Then, small bits of sea salt mixed with a little water were daubed onto the panels wherever I thought the paint would be flaking off. Given time to dry, this was then sprayed over with the pale blue top coat: again after drying time, the salted areas were rubbed to allow the salt lumps to break away, leaving the red oxide primer coat visible, together with some surface paint bubbling. Overall the effect is something similar to an old respray beginning to rust through and flake away from its primer coat, as might be the case with an old work truck which might have been crudely resprayed in somebody's barn. This technique is widely used and there are tutorials on YouTube if you fancy trying it yourself.

 

 

 

After getting the bodywork to look suitably worn, I added some of the included kit parts to the pickup bed to give the look of an old garage truck which is still used sometimes to go and weld new mufflers or silencers onto somebody's car, hence the oxy acetylene bottles and rusty exhaust parts lying in the back. The model spanners and wrenches were also included with the kit. I also put the spare wheel in there to add some character. The items in the bed, along with the road wheels and much of the chassis, were given either a oil paint wash, a brush with weathering powder or both.

 

 

Overall I strongly recommend this kit. It is old and the fit and finish are not up to the latest standards, but you will end up with a great fun model and lots of plans to build more!