PERFECT MODEL MAKER

MAGNIFICENT MINIATURES

Christian Chapson, of Vierzon, France, crafts scale replicas of some of the best known American custom trucks on the circuit

By Lucinda Coulter

East Coast Large Cars Owner Richie Acosta was amazed the first time he saw his prize-winning 2005 Peterbilt 379 extended hood replicated on a 1/24 scale on MySpace.

“I know my truck by heart because I built it myself,” says 40 year-old Acosta, a Little Ferry, N.J., resident and owner of West Coast Large Cars. “I couldn’t believe it. He’s very precise. It makes you feel like it’s a real truck”

He, like other big rig aficionados who’ve seen their trucks replicated on Christian Chapson’s MySpace page, are intrigued by the hobbyist, a native resident of Vierzon, France, who has had a creator’s passion for the tiny trucks since he was 12.

Chapson builds and sells European model trucks for about $680 and a truck-trailer combo for $1,082. But he says he collects the nearly 125 American replicas he’s made from old-school to outlaw as a personal treasure.

Chapson cut plastic to re-create the orange duo of the 1999 Kenworth WL 900 and 2000 Peterbilt 379, awarded Best of Show in Overdrive’s 2006 Pride & Polish, and owned by Terry Dicks, of Lake City, Fla.

The eerily lifelike miniatures displayed on the website involve a skill the hobbyist has honed over 32 years. In a telephone interview from his home, Chapson says that as a preteen he was smitten when an older brother bought him a special book, Big Wing. It featured 1960s trucks made in the United States.

All made on a 1/24 scale, the Class 8 models include Internationals, Kenworths, Macks, among others, and his favorite – the   Peterbilt 379. “They were the king of steel,” he says.

As American styles evolved, the craftsman’s adoration increased. The outlaw minimalist-styled wide plate, chrome steel bumper and chrome grills, Chapson says in a translation, “give the trucks a threatening, aggressive” look, one so powerful it “blows me away.”

Christian Chapson says he makes about seven models a year and starts by cutting plastic in widths ranging from 1 to 1.5 mm thick.

He says that the nearly six-month process of building a truck helps him relax from his daily work making Sperian safety harnesses in a factory near Paris. He pores over pictures from trucking magazines and websites that specialize in old school as well as newer models.

He designs patterns from plastic 1 to 1.5-mm thick, cuts aluminum pieces on a lathe and uses pre-fab pieces for only interior pieces, such as steering wheels, and tires. Automobile paint covers the body before he airbrushes the rigs’ finishing accents.

American truckers such as Acosta and Randy Supak, of Novosad Enterprises based in Caldwell, Texas, say they hope to persuade him to sell and ship his American models, but doing so would mean convincing him that no tiny headlight or exhaust pipe would be broken en route.

Having enough photos of the trucks are important to Chapson when he begins each model, all built in a small shop near his house.

Doing so would be worth the effort to those who admire the artisan’s replicas. The depth of detail struck Supak when he saw his 4-axle truck, 4-axle trailer and 2-axle jeep being re-created in miniature on Chapson’s website.

“I’d really like to have it, and I’m gonna’ bother him enough just so I can get it. The guy’s really talented.”

After Chapson completes a model in his home workshop, he displays them in a special place – on shelves in his dining room. He says soon a new cabinet will replace the shelves to showcase his beauties.

Both his 12 year-old daughter and a nephew apprentice are learning the handcrafted tradition, which, he says, makes him proud.

Those who hope to meet Chapson may be able to do so come summer 2010. He plans to visit New Jersey truck shows, among other places, he says, “to see all the trucks in a superb exhibition.”