Scratch Built Salvage Dog Truck

Inspiration

A few years ago I came across the Alpha Forge website and was impressed by the Salvage Dog Truck.  I searched the internet and found good prices on the line of miniatures at a hobby shop named "The Basement" I believe - the shop has gone out of business since.  I ordered a Salvage Crew special and an extra truck and some other things but was unsure of the length of time I would have to wait for my order.  I decided to try to scratch build a truck while I was waiting.

Tools

The tools needed for this project are a razor saw, a hobby knife, and a steel ruler.

Materials

The materials needed for this project are a small truck for the basis of the truck, a Games Workshop 40K Orc Truk bed end, the tracks from a Mega Bloks set or something similar, some plastic sheet, styrene glue, super glue, a turret mounted machine gun (I used one from the GW 40K range), some spare hubcaps and rims from an old model car, and some sprue,

The Project

In the picture, you can see that I based my salvage truck on a toy Tonka truck which was available in some kids meals some years ago.  If you want to use the same toy as the basis for your truck, check used toy and thrift stores - you may be surprised at what you can find there.
I removed the cab of the truck and the "hitch" on the back of the chassis, and removed the rear wheels of the truck.  I shortened the Mega Blok track by removing the middle section and glued the two ends to make my tracks using styrene cement.
Once I had gotten my tracks securely glued together, I cut the tracks down the middle lengthwise and attached the product to the chassis of the truck.
I built up the cab of the truck using sheet plastic and used a piece of Plastruct to make the drivers window.  I then used the hub caps and wheel rims off of the old model car to make the two hatches.  I used a piece of sprue to make the gun ring on the top of the cab and attached the modified GW machine gun to the top.
I cut the ends of the dump truck bed and attached the GW Truk end to one end and I cut and attached a piece of sheet plastic to the other end.

Conclusion

By the time my package arrived, I had already finished the scratch built salvage truck.  I quickly assembled a Salvage Truck from the order and was pleased with the result.  The two trucks were quite compatible and I thought that for the very small investment the truck I had scratch built was a very good project.