Scratchbuilt: 1/87 Mack FCSW Water Truck

Craft & Design Energy & Sustainability
Scratchbuilt: 1/87 Mack FCSW Water Truck

1/87 is essentially HO scale, which is said to be the most popular scale for model rail stock in the world. For cars and even large trucks, as you can see, it’s pretty dang small. Which is what makes the level of detail achieved by renowned truck modeler Joe Enriquez on this, and his many other models in the same scale, so remarkable. The water truck does include parts from a cast resin kit of the subject, so this is technically a kit conversion, but as the work-in-progress shots in this thread make clear, about half of the model—including the grille, frame, tires, and water tank—is scratchbuilt.

14 thoughts on “Scratchbuilt: 1/87 Mack FCSW Water Truck

  1. stan196 says:

    Beautiful job!! to use an overworked phrase. you are to be complimented on your skill!!

  2. Ben Brockert says:

    The Make blog has certainly taken a sharp turn into models lately. Are no useful projects being made any more?

    1. JamesW says:

      Scratchbuilding _IS_ making.  How is this not a “project”  ??  Does something have to have a ‘duino and blue LEDs embedded in it to be worthy of the MAKE: blog?

      1. Ben Brockert says:

        The keyword is “useful”, not “project”.

    2. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      The “Scratchbuilt” series is for Hobby How-To month!  Generally, the reaction has been positive, but for those who don’t like it, well, there are only a few more days in the month.  So please hang in there, and thanks for your feedback!

  3. Timothy Gray says:

    Depressing.  Far too many people that are incredible artists and way WAY better at model making than I ever was.  People that can do this level of art are true masters.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Just for the record, I’m enjoying all these recent model posts on the make blog.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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