When Train Worx announced that they would produce the truck from Duel in N (1:1160) scale, I knew that I had a good candidate for great weathering project. Duel is a great movie that was originally made for TV in 1971, but was later released (with added footage) as a full length movie. The basic plot centers around a businessman chased by a tanker truck while driving through the Californian desert.
The weathering was a challenge because I wanted to copy the exact same weathering patterns seen in the movie. Although there are 4 trucks used in the movie, and careful watching (and reviewing screenshots) showed the same truck in most scenes. Also, a 1:160 truck is pretty small, only about 1 1/2 inches long! The various weathering effects have to be scaled appropriately, since photographs will enlarge the truck many times and any stray paint blobs will be huge.
In addition to the weathering, I built a bumper out of two pieces of small rail. This was missing from the stock model, despite being such a cool (but ominous) feature of the truck in the movie. I also made license plates that are actually legible despite being about 1mm tall! Finally, I made a swamp cooler for the back of the cab using a brass square tube and etched metal grill.
Here are a few completed images of the truck, followed by screenshots from the movie.
Thanks for reading, Tom
