Classic Pickup Truck

Spending the holidays in isolation meant plenty of time to design another alternative from set 10271 Fiat 500. Finished just before New Year, it’s both going out and starting with a “bang”. Considering the popularity of my other pickup alternates from set 10252 and 10265, of course one had to be created from this set as well. This classic pickup truck is not based on one particular model, but draws a lot of design elements from the fifties with integrated headlights and advanced shaped wheel wells. Sources of inspiration were for example American pickups from Ford and Chevrolet which seemed quite popular during that era, but there might be some European influence too.

Many challenges presented itself during the development and therefore the model went through many iterations.The main problem was that I always ran out of essential pieces, meaning that I had to revise sections multiple times to free up necessary elements. This meant using parts both more effectively and efficiently everywhere. The model ended up using almost 90% of the inventory which is quite high considering the large content of the set.

Building process

In the early stages of development I played around with the front section, if a similar trick could be used as in the official set with tapering wheel wells, but in the end it was not worth the hassle. That is not to say that there are no interesting building techniques, because there are plenty of cool little tricks implemented, beginning with wheel wells that curve in multiple directions. Another clearly visible detail is the tapered bonnet. Furthermore there are a lot of plate offsets to reproduce the many subtle surface transitions. Another tricky aspect was to get the windscreen to fit with the roof. Here I had to use half a plate in height because a full module difference clearly did not fit. Combining this half plate offset with the door also meant that here a snug fit could be achieved. Fixing the roof in itself was quite problematic not only connecting it with the windscreen, but also with the back pillar, because the sideways mounted window did not provide any studs.Here another interesting trick is used that is providing sturdiness in many directions. Once the exterior was finished was defined the focus shifted towards the interior and engine compartment. It seems like this is the common sequence I use in all the bigger alternatives: define outside shape, fill gaps and improve sturdiness, design interior, build something that can represent an engine. Of course many iterations and parts swapping occur during the process.

Result

For almost all aspects of the model several alternative solutions were tried and tested before settling on one. This resulted in a sturdy model with many interesting details. It features: