The real truck was an International "Super Transtar" CO 4090. The Super Transtar was taller than a normal Transtar and had a Detroit Diesel 12v71. The truck and trailer were considered "The biggest gasoline tanker in Michigan" at the time. It was owned by Kingsbury Oil Company from Alpena Michigan. The truck was featured in the early 1973 International Harvester company magazine TRAIL. Photographs of the truck appear with a tall roadside statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe, as well as at a marina (which I assume was the Alpena marina).

My rendition starts with a modified AMT IH Transtar CO4070. I cut the cab down to the smaller 74" non sleeper size, opened the windows, reworked the lower panels to make the cab taller (also raised the cab mounts), recessed the headlamps, created a new grille (older Transtars had fewer horizontal grille bars), moved the turn signals up under the windshield and closed off the air vents on the cab corners. The engine is harvested from the AMT Tyrone Malone Drag Truck kit with parts from the IH kit so it mates up properly. The frame was shortened to a 142" wheelbase. The 8-axle tank body is a 3d piece from Keystone. The suspension consists of 4 sets of Fruehauf Beaded Side Van (Coke) suspensions, axles and tires. The Kingsbury lettering is home-printed using my trusty Epson ink-jet printer on Bare Metal Foil ink jet paper.

I didn't want to drive 90 miles to Alpena to take photos, so I did the next best thing - I used my local marina to simulate the original marina shot - after all, both are on Lake Huron, and for Paul and Babe? Why not use the statues of them sitting a mile from me at Castle Rock along I-75?

This was an enjoyable build and enjoyable to recreate the original photos.

Thanks for looking!

Tim

This collage has my renditions and the original photos for comparison.