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Here in Minlaton, South Australia I design & build realistic Big Rig wooden models plus even draw up the woodworking plans for those who are interested in this of wood working.
Been a woodworker for as long as I can remember,- Grew up on a Southern Yorke Peninsula farm, but enjoyed wood work heaps more than farm work.
In my younger days, I worked on house projects, concreting work, and furniture restoration, plus even built a bit of timber furniture, etc., etc,- but now I am an, " oldie, " with a few, " creaking hinges, " I prefer designing & building wooden models of our Aussie Big Rigs.some of which, when completed stretch all of 2.9 metres in length !!
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @bigrigmodels. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for sharing your projects.
Those are exceptionally detailed, and you've done some outstanding work there. I can't believe you're able to craft them from timber, and I suspect you're using a lifetime of skills. I trust our other keen woodworking aficionados will be interested to see your trucks and I'm sure you'll receive plenty of attention over them. Let me mention @kel, @Jamespeter100, @woodenwookie, @r23on and @Poppop.
How many hours would you say you put into one of these?
Many thanks for sharing, and I'm sure you have a wealth of knowledge to offer. In exchange, you'll find plenty of inspiration for your projects around the home and garden. Shout out if you ever need assistance.
Mitchell
This wooden model is set to 1:20 scale, ( 1/20th of the real one ).
Starting with the Truck, ( Prime-Mover ),- That is based on a late model Kenworth T909 Tri-drive,- I have all the specs here from the Kenworth website, which I used along with photos of a real tri-drive to enable me to draw up the highly detailed, realistic plans, which I then used to build the truck, plus have truckie friends who own a couple Kenworth T909's as well, which also helps. The frame is cut from good quality 9mm ply, using my scroll saw, while the bonnet is shaped from a decent block of solid timber,- The cabin & bunk sections are cut from 6mm & 9mm ply, while the seats; etc., are simply oddment pieces of timber, &/or ply.
The side-tipper bodies are a heavily modified version of the, " Side-tip iron ore road train, " which I purchased from Ashisworkshop some years ago, His plans are much smaller, @ 1:27 scale, so did a major redesign & rebuild to suit my big side-tip quad, The Tri-dollies are all my own design, along with the shorter A-Trailer.
Construction is good quality 9mm ply with nice Red Gum Trim along the upper edges of each tipper body.
The linkage is 90% my design & about 10% of Aschisworkshop as had to do major modifications there.
The tipper bodies & underside frames are relatively easy-to-construct,- but soo time-consuming,- and the most difficult part is getting the Tipping Linkage to line up so it works without sticking & jaming !
As I build these Side-Tip Quads for people to buy from me,- each one takes me weeks & weeks to build,- probably make about two a year as have a disaster or two ever so often & they end up in my winter firewood heap !
The wooden wheels, ( yes - they are real wood ), I have a retired school-teacher who makes them for me, and I simply paint each wheel.
Enjoy the pics,- and if you have any questions,- simply ask.
Thank you for sharing your amazing Big Rig wooden models with us!
You are very skilled in what you do and we can tell you love doing it.
Do you hand paint the artwork?
I especially like your "Bandit" one!
Katie
This is another impressive model!
It is so cool how it does the tipping motion and everything.
Your decision to use the Red Gum as the trim really makes it a feature.
Can't wait to see your next model.
Katie
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