Occasionally professional model making feels a little bit like a kid in a candy shop. This phenomena occurred recently when KiwiMill was asked to build a car carrier truck model in 1:14 scale (big!) for a trade show.

When it was determined that the semi trailer truck model would be outfitted with RC, lights and sound, it became one of those projects that makes a model maker feel particularly fortunate that he went into the business in the first place.

Our team started with a cab kit. It was a surprisingly complex build, considering most of our work is custom, made-from-scratch. All of the chrome parts were swapped out for more authentic looking, hand-built parts. The only way to make chrome look realistic at this scale is to actually make it out of metal – otherwise it just looks cheap. These custom aluminum additions were more accurate and detailed.

Even though lighting was supplied in the RC kit, additional bulbs were added throughout the model. These decorative lights can be found on actual big rigs, which are really like a person’s temporary home on wheels.

The trailer was scratch built from laser cut styrene. Vinyl graphics were added to the trailer which included both the company’s signage and details found on the sides of trucks such as seams, rivets, handles, etc…

The wheels were molded and cast in the shop. The resulting combination of kit and hand-built parts made for an impressive finished truck model that was both a delight to display and interact with, as well as being an economical choice for a relatively large-scale vehicle.