Alan Douglas’s Mack
While this is not a Sci-Fi subject it is certainly ‘fantasy’. Hope you like it.
I am a big Pixar fan and I thought that I would have a go at creating a 1/24th scale model of John Ratzenbergers character, ‘Mack’, from the Disney/Pixar Cars movies. I had never built a truck kit before, so I searched around for a donor model to be kit bashed. I chose an Italeri US Superliner and although it looked exactly like a Mack truck, there were no indications that it was. (Probably a licensing issue?) The guys at the local model shop gave me such grief that I wanted a truck and not my regular space ship. Sigh!
Now the fun, and the surgery, begins. The chassis was shortened. The sleeper section, behind the cab, was cut down and shortened. New exhaust mufflers where made from Evergreen tube with half round strips glued around. After painting with Alclad chrome, home made decals were added to simulate the black vent holes. The fuel tanks where shortened and new styrene steps were constructed that enclosed orange rectangular LEDs. (10 LEDs on each tank.)
I constructed Mack’s hat from balsa wood sanded to shape. I made a rough mold out of plaster of Paris and sloped polyester filler (Bondo) into it. A bit of filling, sanding and the addition of a styrene sheet, to form the hats peak, completed the job. The kit’s cab lights were drilled out, to thread fiber optic through, and they were lit by a single orange LED. The top of the radiator was modified to add the large Mack logo (Hand cut from a thin styrene sheet.) and the classic bulldog hood ornament was carved out of a block of styrene. Mack’s mouth was made from sheet styrene and his tongue from carved polyester filler.
Two SMD LEDs where encased in filler and became the orange lights on the front fenders. Rear view mirrors were made from sheet plastic with a mirror coating, that I found in a local art store, and brass rod used for their mounts. 3mm white LED’s for the headlights and some tiny red SMDs for two sets of brake lights. All together, 29 LEDs were used. (Wire everywhere!) Water slide decals were created and printed on my trusty inkjet printer. Mack was painted with Tamiya red enamel from a rattle can and the rest done with my airbrush. (Humbrol black, white, gray and Alclad Chrome.) A bit of earth in the tire treads and a small amount of weathering completed Mack.
Not wanting a statically lit model I programmed a micro-controller chip to control the lights. I also found a tiny battery powered noise making key ring that made the sound of a truck. (Such luck!) So now Mack’s lights turn on and off, he makes appropriate noises. All synchronized! (Note: I did install a hidden button to mute the sound because it can get annoying. Or so I am told.)
The base is a square of MDF with sandpaper for the road surface. Model railway ground cover for the earth. I used some strip wood, that I had in my modeling stash, to build the wooden Radiator Springs billboard. Three white LEDs, in model railway lamp shades, illuminate it with its inkjet printed signage.
To add a bit more interest I added some birds (From Ralph Egglestons ‘For the Birds’ short film. They did fleetingly appear in Cars!) I carved one body from polyester filler and took a silicon mold. I then cast five copies, added soldered brass wire for their feet (Claws?), and cut some thin brass shim for their tails. Even though they were all cast from the same mold, painting makes them look quite different and they become their own unique characters.
And have a got lots of truck bits in my spares box? Why Yes!
Alan Douglas
