QUICKWAY CRANE

My father operated a Quickway crane while serving with the 291st Combat Engineer Battalion from 1943 - 1945.  He was assigned to a pontoon bridge company within the battalion.  His rig was dubbed "Madie" after my mother (Madeline).  This specific crane was destroyed by artillery at Remagen in March of '45
 
I always wanted to build a 1/35 model of his truck mounted crane and finally last year I ran out of patience waiting for a kit of it , dove off the deep end and tried my hand a kit-bashing/scratch building one.
 
I started with a bunch of pictures, the Hobby Boss White 666 Cargo Truck kit and a bunch of Evergreen Styrene for everything else.

I began with the boom and crane cab.  Dimension came from a single line scale drawing I found on the net.  The cab went together fairly easily, but I think I built 4 different booms before I got it kinda close.

 

In my usual manner I imploded when it came to painting.  I painted, stripped and repainted the darn thing 2 or 3 times (I can't remember cause I think I blacked out during this phase).  Although I'm an armor guy, I sure do hate olive drab paint schemes.

The rigging and the block took some time to get sort of right, but in the end it resembles my Dad's vehicle pretty well.  The interior is finished out with a engine, radiator and cable drums with guards. 

I had a fun time researching and building it and want to do another when my skills improve more.  Mostly I like it because I think of my Dad every time I glance at it out of the corner of my eye.  He passed in 1989, but I sometimes think he is sitting in the cab on the shelf in my hobby room watching me struggle with the darn MENG individual link tracks (man those T-90 ones suck)

Thanks for allowing me to post this - George