Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together!! Mr John Templeton must be over the moon with his nearly finished brand new custom Scania. As most of you will know John Templeton is no stranger to a heavily customised truck, his last one being “Avatar“. The brief given to world famous airbrush artist, Matt the Painter, was; “It has to be busier than Avatar”.

I think that brief has been met don’t you?! Before we go any further all of these photos belong to Matt the Painter and I have his permission to use them. There are lots of people involved with such a massive project, from the boys at Coles Customs, Tor Trucks paint shop, an unnamed leather expert and of course Matt the Painter. So where do you start?……a blank canvas of course. 

The eagle eyed amoung you will notice not only custom paintwork but also a number of custom parts; modfied side skirts (note the 3 exhaust holes), a completely flat panel on the rear of the cab, what looks like a lower windscreen panel, also a pretty amazing lower front bumper, you might recognise some of the parts used in the make up. There will of course be a few more custom parts added, lights and bits and bobs, but the second biggest custom area will be a amazing interior. The interior has been fully lined with black, red and white leather, approx 7 or 8 hides have been used. The painting also carries on inside the cab. Matt says there were approx 64 Heros on the external panels of the truck but he has added more, inside he has painted at least 14 on the ceiling panels alone, not to mention 20 or so on the rest of the leather panels. So those super hero fans can get to finding and naming as many as you can when you see it at a show this year. One of the ideas behind the theme was to appeal to all ages, kids and parents alike should be able to find characters they recognise. Although he’s painted somewhere around the 100 hero Mark, Matt says he’s got 600 odd Heros to choose from! Every hero imaginable or you’ve ever heard of from a 1938 Superman through to a female Asia spider woman type, called Silk from 2014. 

In order to protect the truck and the paintwork the cab will get an initial 3 or 4 coats of lacquer, before having its first bake, then it’ll be flattened down before a further 3-4 coats of laquer, more flattening down, mopping and finally one hell of a polish up. The big 730 Scania will also have the chassis and wheel hubs painted too. I mentioned the three holes in the side skirt for a special exhaust system but I’m not going to say anymore. It sounds so unique you’ll have to see it for yourselves. 
   
 

So what’s your thoughts on such a mad cap idea?? For a start we all know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and I had said since I had my Atego airbrushed I preferred simple straightforward paint job but I have to say this is just amazing, I can’t stop looking at it. My good friend James coined the phrase “I can appreciate that” the other year. Meaning you know it’s an amazing motor but not your preferred taste. I have to say I’m right on the edge of turning my appreciation of this crazy multicoloured V8 into love and want!! You can’t deny its a one off, you can’t deny its already got people talking about it, you can’t deny it is a work of art! Whether you’d want to drive it everyday for what ever reason is a different matter, but I think I would…..