TaMater - part 3: dually conversion

The mid-1950's Ford F150 is still one of my favourite vehicles, and this is a homage to one of my favourite films too.

April 2019 - showroom update:

Status: update of existing new-build

Name: Ta' Mater (Tow Mater)

Chassis: M-06

Body: Lowride Pumpkin

I originally built this homage to the Cars Movie Tow Mater character for the Winter Build-Off competition in 2014/15 - not least as it seemingly satisfied all the suggested themes such as Working Vehicle, Low-Rider, Zombie Apocalypse, On-Screen and Hero that were mooted at the time... and was the perfect opportunity to take my rust and weathering one step beyond!

Starting with the relatively affordable Lowride Pumpkin kit would give me everything I needed to build a runner, and I endeavoured to use as many Tamiya spares I had in my stash to create the crane and other detailing (not least the unique 'Larry Willy' driver).

I was aware that basing this build on a Ford F100 meant this was more of a nod to the movie vehicle rather than a true replica - not least as I didn't have the time or the sculpting talent to completely recreate a 'face' on the front of the truck itself - so this became more of a scale build - ie. what Mater might look like if he were real...

One thing I would liked to have incorporated at the time was dually rear wheels, but this would have been expensive (for the 1:14th scale Tamiya Truck dual rear wheels and tyres, plus new axles), and again time consuming - with the need to significantly extend the rear wheel-arches to cover the wider wheels...

However, while Mater has always been huge fun to drive on his skinny retro tyres (Sand Scorcher front tyres) doing donuts and skids galore, I couldn't help but wonder how much better it might look with a fatter rear end?

So in January 2017 I bit the bullet, and bought some 1:14th scale dual rear wheels and two pairs of Rough Rider/Buggy Champ front tyres (since these are closer in diameter to the front tyres - it's worth noting that the 1:14th Truck tyres are actually about 10mm larger diameter in comparison) and set about narrowing the wheels and widening the arches... (I'll post details in a seperate 'how to' showroom entry, in the meantime, there is a detailed and illustrated description in the 'Bulids' section of the forum).

The result is dramatic - just widening the rear end (approx 10mm each side) has made the stance of the truck a lot more mean and aggressive - more of a racing Mater perhaps?

Fortunately I can confirm that even with double the rear rubber, he still spins and skids like mad - huge fun!

I hope you like the latest modifications!

ps. Fans of the Movie DVD may notice that Mater now has his own Ghost-light too ;o)

UPDATE April 2019: Magnet/hidden bonnet mounts, period wing-mirrors and scale licence plates added.