Peterbilt 352 Cabover

So during a recent trip to the local everything store.... I stumbled upon this little guy on sale.

 The mighty Peterbilt 352 Cabover. A great looking big rig (with 10 wheels, not 4) and decided to give it a try.
Now this is a snap-tite kit, and lower on detail and number of parts, but to me that was a little built in challenge... Can I make this look less like a cheap toy, and more like a higher priced kit.
And would be my first and only 1/32 scale kit in the collection.

Here's what is in the box. A couple of trees of light blue plastic, on black plastic tree, a chrome plated tree, and a single clear piece for the windshield. This might be a challenge....

With careful painting, several shades of black (flat black, semi-gloss, rubber, etc) the chassis was at least starting to look fairly convincing.

The kit came with no decals, just sticker. I didn't necessarily care for the ones shown on the box art, but I liked the overall shape, so I decided to try something along those lines.

Here is the cab all masked off, and several different shades of paint. I was going for a sunset fade look using reds, oranges and yellow. The yellow paint didn't "play nice" with the orange is was going over and left some little "dimples" in the paint, but I decided I liked it and left them.
Hard to see where where the masking tape is.

That's better. Without the tape, you can see where the design was masked off. Still wasn't sure I liked the design at this point. Had to keep reminding myself this is an in-expensive and fun build, so I went with it. In the end a coat of high gloss clear, brightened it up a bit.

Here is a picture taken with my phone of the test fit of the body on the chassis. Starting to look like a rig, but still has lots of little bits that need to go on.

And here she is.... All finished up, with the chrome bits, a few more details picked out with paint, and even used some of the stickers. The license plates on the front bumper at stickers.

The mirrors, horns, exhaust stacks, air tanks and lights and horns atop the cab do really fill this one out and make it believeable.

A few more of the kit supplied stickers add text to the diesel tanks, safety gear, and inspection stickers.

I even coiled up some colored wire, and added the air lines on the back of the cab.
Given the smaller scale of the kit, the overall finished model is not a whole lot larger than a 1/24 car, and fits nicely on the shelves with the rest of the collection.

On to the next!