The starting point here is pure affection: Headquake137 has loved 1960s trucks for years and picked one from 1965 as the subject, going with the Canadian Mercury version rather than the Ford to keep things a bit more unusual. That badge-swapping habit apparently runs deep, since a Fargo was chosen over a Dodge on an earlier project too.
The body was made entirely by hand from expanded PVC board known as Komacel. Printed templates were traced onto the white sheets, pieces were cut with utility and hobby knives, and contours were worked over with a sanding block and a handheld rotary tool, the latter run inside a dust collection chamber. Everything was bonded with CA glue and painted by brush in red, white, black, silver and weathering washes.
The details that stand out to me: a driver figure carved from glued blocks of wood, with plastic arms and hands formed over the heat of a lighter, plus a scratch-built steering wheel, bed floor ribbing, cab pillars, rear wheel arches, side mirrors, wipers, a slatted grille, raised MERCURY letters on the hood and tailgate, clear sheet lenses for the windshield and headlights, and a diamond-plate style toolbox, slatted crate and cardboard box riding in the bed.
The whole thing took about a month of near-daily work, sits on an Axial SCX10 2 chassis screwed on from underneath, and handled rocks, tree roots, mossy mounds and steep dirt on its first drive through a forest trail. My one open question is how that Komacel skin copes with repeated rock strikes over many trail runs.
Project by Headquake137. Watch it on their YouTube channel: