Convoy Rubber Duck Mack

[Warren D]

Getting ready to start AITM's Rubber Duck Mack and was wondering what color the engine would be?  I've found a few differences between the trucks used in the movie wrt other items but I never did get a good look at the engine.

Thanks

[Bennyg]

It's a maxidyne cool power so it could be gold light blue or red, depending in the power output of it. 

Ben. 

[Warren D]

Thanks, guess I'll just pick a color.  Was looking at engine colors at the show last weekend, wide variety including black.

[Bennyg]

2 hours ago, Warren D said:

Thanks, guess I'll just pick a color.  Was looking at engine colors at the show last weekend, wide variety including black.

I did see a picture of one of the movie trucks after it was made into a yellow tipper, the engine looked black, but there is no way that's factory. Google mark maxidyne cool power to  see the colours they came in.

Ben

[Warren D]

The thing is, you never know with movies.  If the engine could be seen below the truck in a shot or two and it's color was "distracting" they could have ordered it painted.  Black would be their logical first choice.

[DrKerry]

Just looked for the image of when the truck went over the bridge, thought maybe that would show something but the hood stayed intact...

[Warren D]

1 minute ago, DrKerry said:

Just looked for the image of when the truck went over the bridge, thought maybe that would show something but the hood stayed intact...

Thanks I already studied the movie, even trying to look past the wheel wells.  Did you notice that the driveshaft was missing when it when over the side?  I read where the truck they used for that scene died just before and they pushed it off with a dozer.

[CRUSADER2]

Hi Warren

  just a thought, I am sure I have seen some video's of one of the original tucks from the film, didn't they use five in total? maybe you could see more of the block in one of those vids, assuming of course they haven't changed the colour when they restored it, it might be worth a try, good luck anyway, looking forward to watching the build.

  P S   I bought the Ertl kit when it first came out, what a disappointment, the only thing that was any good was the duck and the bull bar, I think I had to buy an AMT Mack to make it look anything like the real truck, that was a long time ago.

 

 

 

[Warren D]

1 hour ago, CRUSADER2 said:

Hi Warren

  just a thought, I am sure I have seen some video's of one of the original tucks from the film, didn't they use five in total? maybe you could see more of the block in one of those vids, assuming of course they haven't changed the colour when they restored it, it might be worth a try, good luck anyway, looking forward to watching the build.

  P S   I bought the Ertl kit when it first came out, what a disappointment, the only thing that was any good was the duck and the bull bar, I think I had to buy an AMT Mack to make it look anything like the real truck, that was a long time ago.

 

 

 

Thanks, that was the reason I bought the AITM kit.  Figured it was easier than trying to modify other kits.  I thought I read they used 3, but you can't believe everything you read on the internet!

[Force]

I haven't seen any pictures of the engine, but one thing is clear, the engines in the movie trucks are not Detroit Diesels, it's just on the sound track.
The remaining truck from the movie is still around and it's funny no one has taken any pictures of the engine.

Edited June 28, 2018 by Force

[DrKerry]

19 hours ago, Warren D said:

Thanks I already studied the movie, even trying to look past the wheel wells.  Did you notice that the driveshaft was missing when it when over the side?  I read where the truck they used for that scene died just before and they pushed it off with a dozer.

I knew of the missing driveshaft for awhile now! 

[Warren D]

19 hours ago, DrKerry said:

I knew of the missing driveshaft for awhile now! 

Found the thread from a few years ago of the builder in Russia.  Awesome job, lots of good detail photos.  His engine appears to be light blue.

[Force]

On 2018-06-28 at 12:18 AM, CRUSADER2 said:

Hi Warren

  just a thought, I am sure I have seen some video's of one of the original tucks from the film, didn't they use five in total? maybe you could see more of the block in one of those vids, assuming of course they haven't changed the colour when they restored it, it might be worth a try, good luck anyway, looking forward to watching the build.

  P S   I bought the Ertl kit when it first came out, what a disappointment, the only thing that was any good was the duck and the bull bar, I think I had to buy an AMT Mack to make it look anything like the real truck, that was a long time ago.

 

 

 

Yes the old ERTL kit is worthless if you want to do a correct Rubber Duck truck, I bought one back in the day in the ealry 80's and gave it a go but I gave up pretty soon as it's totally wrong, as you say it's only the bull bar and the ducks that's usable.

 

On 2018-06-28 at 1:50 AM, Warren D said:

Thanks, that was the reason I bought the AITM kit.  Figured it was easier than trying to modify other kits.  I thought I read they used 3, but you can't believe everything you read on the internet!

I also got the AITM kit for the same reason, it's not exactly true to the movie and correct in every aspect but it's a lot easier to do right than the old ERTL kit or the AMT R600, the Rubber Duck is a RS700L wich has a longer hood.
I have also read that they used three trucks for the movie, two complete ones and one glider, and one of the movie trucks has survived to this day and is owned by Anthony Fox in Georgia according to Overdrive Magazine.

[Warren D]

I think there were more than three from what I have read.  At least one was scrapped, the main one was restored by Mack and went on to be a dump truck.  Another became a mixer.  The dump still lives  as a cab/chassis as of about 5 years ago.  One that did the truck show scene (maybe the GA one?) was made from parts of 2.  There seems to be some differences between them, maybe the most notable is the size of the fuel tanks.  AITM is now providing the longer tanks by popular request.  There is supposed to be one in a museum in the mid-west.

[DRIPTROIT 71]

2 hours ago, Warren D said:

I think there were more than three from what I have read.  At least one was scrapped, the main one was restored by Mack and went on to be a dump truck.  Another became a mixer.  The dump still lives  as a cab/chassis as of about 5 years ago.  One that did the truck show scene (maybe the GA one?) was made from parts of 2.  There seems to be some differences between them, maybe the most notable is the size of the fuel tanks.  AITM is now providing the longer tanks by popular request.  There is supposed to be one in a museum in the mid-west.

Dan Bruno used to have a website with a lot of good info on it about this truck. He is the one who fixed up the show truck that we see out now. From what I remember it was the one that became a mixer and was later rolled. There was a lot that had to be replaced to restore that truck. It is the short tank truck and the only place that I think it can be seen in the movie was when he backed out of the jail. The truck that was used for most of the outside scenes became a dump from what I understand. Dan also purchased it. The truck was painted yellow when he bought it. I understand from the new owners of the show truck that Dan has now sold the yellow truck as well. I think that Dan is still on Hank's truck forum and might answer any questions that you may have about the trucks used.

As for the model, I have a different way of looking at things than most. The sound track appears to be a Detroit. No, none of the trucks had Detroits in them, but the truck used in most of the inside scenes was a glider and didn't have an engine at all. Dan even mentioned putting a Detroit in the first restore to get the sound of the movie. The truck did have the dual hose air cleaner, which if I'm not mistaken would have had the cooler like the AMT Cruiseliner engine. But the hood was never lifted in the movie. I have also seen the extra hose deleted on the real thing if there had been an engine swap. My point is that I would put whatever engine and whichever color that you prefer in the truck. If going with the Mack engine look up Mack brochure or adds to get the color you want probably gold or bronze. If I ever build one, (and I know plenty will say that I', wrong) I'm putting a Detroit in it in the spirit of the sound in the movie.

[Force]

Well as with the Movin' On trucks there has been lots of information on the interweb regarding this truck, some are correct and some are not so correct, but that's not important.
The engine is a Detroit Diesel in most places if you go by the sound track of the movie, but in some scenes in the movie you definately hear a four stroke diesel, the air horns sounds a little weird on the sound track too, the long horns used on the Rubber Duck doesn't have that high pitch sound.
In most pictures I have seen the air cleaner is the dual hose so at least the main truck for most outside scenes must have had a Tip Turbine ENDT676 Maxidyne engine as they had that particular air cleaner.
So look at pictures (there are lots of them on the internet) and decide what version of the truck you want to do.
 

Edited June 30, 2018 by Force

[Russell C]

6 hours ago, DRIPTROIT 71 said:

Dan Bruno used to have a website with a lot of good info on it about this truck. ................

I vaguely remember seeing that site. A search of his name turned up a forum thread with a link to it, which now doesn't function, however, the "Internet Wayback Machine" site has archive pages of it, where the latest in May 2015 seems to have quite a lot of still-visible photos within it:  https://web.archive.org/web/20150518145925/http://www.stlouisdumptrucks.com:80/ConvoyMackTruck/index.html

Edited June 30, 2018 by Russell C

[Warren D]

1 hour ago, Russell C said:

I vaguely remember seeing that site. A search of his name turned up a forum thread with a link to it, which now doesn't function, however, the "Internet Wayback Machine" site has archive pages of it, where the latest in May 2015 seems to have quite a lot of still-visible photos within it:  https://web.archive.org/web/20150518145925/http://www.stlouisdumptrucks.com:80/ConvoyMackTruck/index.html

Thanks for finding that, I had search his name but only found dead links.

[Force]

I have saved everyting from the St Louis Dump Trucks website before they gave it up after they sold the truck (they used to own the Duel truck too) and I have every picture posted there saved in my planned projects files, the new owner of the Rubber Duck Truck has a Facebook site with lots of pictures.
https://www.facebook.com/Rubberducktruck1970/

 

[Bugatti Fan]

A guy in the UK named Alistair McLaughlin was making a conversion kit for the Ertl kit with Vac form, resin and PE parts to correct it. Do not know if still available or not.

Would imagine that AITM's kit is a complete resin kit.  

I think that the same company makes a resin front end hood cab to build a Peterbilt Needle Nose like the Duel rig.

[Force]

5 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

A guy in the UK named Alistair McLaughlin was making a conversion kit for the Ertl kit with Vac form, resin and PE parts to correct it. Do not know if still available or not.

Would imagine that AITM's kit is a complete resin kit.  

I think that the same company makes a resin front end hood cab to build a Peterbilt Needle Nose like the Duel rig.

The old ERTL kit is not the best starting point for a correct Rubber Duck truck as it's a Mack DM 600 with an offset cab, the sleeper is too small, the frame is too short, the rear tandem is too far appart, the wheels and lots of other things are wrong too, so you have to convert and change mostly everything to even come close to the appearence of the movie truck.
As mentioned before, the duck hood ornament, the bull bar and the roof spoiler is about the only parts usable from the ERTL kit, put them on a AMT R600 together with a longer 700 hood and an Able Body 60 inch sleeper, some two hole wheels and you have a much better starting point.

The AITM is a complete resin kit with Modeltruckin' decals wich is close out of the box, it's a curbside but you can put in an engine if you want to, some things has to be corrected to do it as the movie trucks was but it's not much...I just looked on the website and this kit is out of stock right now tho'.
AITM also has the Peterbilt 351 hood conversion meant for the recent California Hauler kit.

Edited July 3, 2018 by Force

[Warren D]

12 minutes ago, Force said:

The old ERTL kit is not the best starting point for a correct Rubber Duck truck as it's a Mack DM 600 with an offset cab, the sleeper is too small, the frame is too short, the rear tandem is too far appart, the wheels and lots of other things are wrong too, so you have to convert and change mostly everything to even come close to the appearence of the movie truck.
As mentioned before, the duck hood ornament, the bull bar and the roof spoiler is about the only parts usable from the ERTL kit, put them on a AMT R600 together with a longer 700 hood and an Able Body 60 inch sleeper, some two hole wheels and you have a much better starting point.

The AITM is a complete resin kit with Modeltruckin' decals wich is close out of the box, it's a curbside but you can put in an engine if you want to, some things has to be corrected to do it as the movie trucks was but it's not much...I just looked on the website and this kit is out of stock right now tho'.
AITM also has the Peterbilt 351 hood conversion meant for the recent California Hauler kit.

Just to add a note about the AITM RD kit, it now comes with the longer fuel tanks which were in all but  couple of the scenes of the movie.  The instructions and website photo show the small tanks.  I asked Dave and he said he had many comments that the longer tanks were correct for the 1st unit truck whereas the short tanks were on a 2nd unit truck they crashed into the jail.

[Bugatti Fan]

Force, you are correct that the Ertl kit is not a best starting point. I saw Alistair McLaughlin's conversion kit when he was developing it.. There was a huge lot of stuff in it including a completely moulded cab sleeper to the correct size. Not sure if he ever got around to marketing it or not. The AITM resin kit is probably the best way to go as you I timated.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Bugatti Fan

[Force]

On 2018-07-03 at 10:24 PM, Warren D said:

Just to add a note about the AITM RD kit, it now comes with the longer fuel tanks which were in all but  couple of the scenes of the movie.  The instructions and website photo show the small tanks.  I asked Dave and he said he had many comments that the longer tanks were correct for the 1st unit truck whereas the short tanks were on a 2nd unit truck they crashed into the jail.

I have to order the longer tanks for my AITM RD kit, I've got the shorter ones as it was some time since I ordered my kit.
I will probably order some more stuff when I'm at it. 

[Force]

On 2018-07-06 at 7:55 AM, Bugatti Fan said:

Force, you are correct that the Ertl kit is not a best starting point. I saw Alistair McLaughlin's conversion kit when he was developing it.. There was a huge lot of stuff in it including a completely moulded cab sleeper to the correct size. Not sure if he ever got around to marketing it or not.

Well I think it must have been a lot easier to do a conversion kit for the AMT R600 kits.

Edited July 8, 2018 by Force