Stakeside Cotton Truck

I finished up a cotton truck (almost) yesterday.  I ordered a 41/46 Chevy flatbed, MiniMetals brand, in hopes of being able to convert it to a stakeside-type truck.  Actually, the flatbed worked out pretty well.

I used some left-over "lumber" from the Coryden Company Store I had made earlier.  Had to slice a few "4X4's" with this setup:

The horizontal boards came from scale 1X4's that I picked up from a train store in Tampa, FL, the 2nd largest train store in the US!  The first two 1X4's I glued to the 4X4's were farther apart than I had planned, but I just left them that way and matched the others to them:

I only had early American and walnut stain pens to use, so I chose walnut.  Since the flatbed was rather light, it got a few coats of stain, too.  It's pretty evident where I got some extra white glue on the boards:

Still not sure exactly WHAT to use for raw cotton.  For photos, the converted flatbed and a Woodland Scenics pick-up were "loaded" with cotton from commercial cotton balls.  The pick-up was the Henry's Haulin with the acetylene tanks, barrels, and sacks removed.  The "gear" will find itself at the Company Store sooner or later.  All items popped out of the pick-up easily, except one; it finally came loose.  Here are the two trucks of cotton lined up to be weighed and emptied at the Cotton Gin.

Looks like I'll need to add some screen or "fence" to the stakeside to keep the cotton in, or have the cotton wrapped in burlap.  In due time, a horse and wagon with cotton will be added.  Oh, and the truck still needs the outside rearview mirror and maybe some weathering.  Hate to weather a nice, new truck but this is supposed to be about 1956, so the truck is at least 10 years old. . . .