Monogram 1/16 Peterbilt 359 Conventional
By Chellie Lynn
The Truck
First, a bit of history on the real truck. The Peterbilt Model 359 was the top of the Peterbilt line from the mid/late 1960's. Ads of the day claimed there was no such thing as a standard 359: the Company standard was to build a truck tailored specifically to the needs and requirements of the buyer.
A standard production truck existed on paper as a base for speccing out the final vehicle for the buyer. I have always wondered if any trucks were actually built to the "standard" as printed in the brochures and data sheets? Promotional material from the period lists a prodigious quantity of both regular and special production options.
Among these were 18 different engines, two dozen transmissions, 10 rear suspensions, more than 20 rear axle types, and it goes on and on. There were more than 40 standard paint designs with any color your heart desired. A purchase order for a friend's 1975 359 ran to 14 pages and the build sheet that came with the truck was 32 pages long.
The Kit
When Monogram originally released this model it was billed as the largest truck kit ever made, but it was actually smaller than the Pocher 1/8 scale Volvo truck kit of the same era. However, the Pocher kit was definitely not a mass market kit like the Peterbilt. This is a very convincing replica of the Peterbilt 359 conventional semi tractor as marketed in the mid to late 1970's. It differs from the "standard" spec 359 in the following options: Caterpillar 3408 engine, Peterbilt Air-leaf rear suspension, and a 60" low roof sleeper.
The kit itself provides only one building option. The parts are well molded in 2 colors, yellow and black, plus clear and chrome. The assembly breakdown of the parts is reasonable, but a significant number of components are by design 2/3rds molded. This leaves some rather glaring gaps and holes to fill or conceal. In this scale this is quite inexcusable. After all these years the parts are still quite sharp with very little flash or misalignment.
Accuracy
Well, sorta, kinda, maybe, and close enough! Overall it looks right, but there are some problems. The parts breakdown and design shortcuts compromise both the appearance and accuracy of some components. That said, overall it's a very good representation of the full size article.
Conclusion
Overall still an excellent kit with only one drawback, it's big! I am expecting an easy build with no significant problems. I shall do a few enhancements during the build, which shall be detailed in a forthcoming article. I would like to thank Revell for the review sample.
