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Well, I bought these because I think I want to put a Roadway terminal on my layout. I worked a lot in shipping in my youth and I always liked the Roadway company drivers. They were always cool old guys that I got used to seeing at a couple places I worked. But I was thinking about having one truck unhooked from the trailer. But not with that lack off detail I'm not.
My point is the detail on the bottom looks fine. I don't understand why they didn't put the same effort into the top. It makes no sense. I do fine getting plenty of detail out of my N Scale stuff. More so than some HO stuff I have seen in my area. So I won't be switching any time soon.
How much detail do you want? The chassis is black it won't show much anyway.About the only detail would be is the driveshaft ,and exhaust pipe and maybe that carrier bearing for the drive shaft.Unless the truck is right at the front of the layout the detail won't show anyway.If the lack of detail rfeally bothers you that much you could try some modeling.
I think there is a big difference between your tow truck hook (which is right up there for the whole world to see).The picture you posted of the truck is several times larger than the model is so it will be more noticable. If it breally bothers you that much carve out the area and makle your own driveshaft for it,or put a deck plate over it and add the vsrious hoses and electrical connections that would be there.Personally I would go with the deck plate as it gives the driver a safe place to stand while connecting the hoses and wire cables to the trailer.
I decided to pick up a couple Athearn trucks when I was at my local hobby shop. When I got home and opened the packages I was pretty surprised to see the level of detail these little guys had, which was invisible in the package. Look at the differences...
Look at the detail on the frame of the Athearn C-Series truck:
And the Athearn Roadway Mack truck looks AMAZING!
The mirrors are laser etch, and the wire holding them on is so small you can hardly see it. The mud flaps on the Mack are movable. I guess in case it is sitting on a hill? Pretty cool feature. Anyway, the Mack cost a whopping $20. The Ford cost $10.95. I paid $20 for two CMW semi's with trailers. Look at the diamond plate on the Athearn trucks though. And look at the tries. Every little thing on the Athearn trucks is more detailed. Is the level of detail worth the extra money? I think so. But I don't know how many of these little guys I could afford. So these will be my foreground pieces for sure.
I just found out Plastruct makes N scale tread plate (diamond plate) and I think I am going to buy some to put on my CMW trucks. I think that really adds to the realism of these little guys.
