Model Employee

When Andy Lesiak started at NorthWestern Energy in 2007 as a welder-fitter in Grand Island, Nebraska, he was assigned a 1996 Ford welding truck.

“That was the truck I drove when I first started here 15 years ago, and it was old then,” Andy said.

Grand Island Welder-Fitter Andy Lesiak holds his model of a 1992 NorthWestern Energy service truck.

The truck left an impression on Andy, enough so that he decided to re-create it as a model car. Andy went to great lengths to capture every detail of that first welding truck. He started with a model car kit, which included the cab, interior and chassis. The back of the truck he built from scratch, with storage bins, spools of pipe and welding equipment. He added the NorthWestern Energy logo to the door. Andy captured every last detail to make the model truck look just like the real thing.

Andy got his first model car kit when he was about 9, and made many model cars as a kid before putting the hobby aside as a teen.

“You get your license, and then there’s girls and life,” he said.

Andy decided to start making model vehicles again a few years ago after he got a 3D printer. He estimates he has made about 200 model cars.

“I’ve got like another 250 model kits I haven’t built yet,” he said.

Andy takes his cars to shows and has won awards for his work.

Andy has made two other NorthWestern Energy vehicles – a 1992 service truck and a 1965 service truck.

The 1965 service truck model, which is painted the same color of blue as Northwestern Public Service vehicles were painted in the ’60s

In the ’60s, Northwestern Public Service vehicles were painted a greenish-blue. A now-retired co-worker used to paint the service trucks and told Andy what color to use. Andy found the correct automotive paint and used it on the model truck.

“That is the exact color Northwestern Public Service used to use,” Andy said.

The 1965 service truck model, which is painted the same color of blue as Northwestern Public Service vehicles were painted in the ’60s

Andy has also tracked down old Northwestern Public Service logos and made them into decals to use on his model cars.

For the 1992 truck, Andy built an air compressor trailer completely from scratch and found the old NorthWestern Energy logo in use at the time.

The model of a 1992 service truck with a welding trailer.

Andy uses spare parts from other kits to customize his vehicles. He also uses his 3D printer to create hard hats, traffic cones, meters, pipe wrenches and other details.

“I have a miniature lathe too, so I can turn my own parts,” he said. He’s in the process of making a 1994 Ford F150 service truck that a meter reader drove when he first started.

“All I have left on it is the final details,” Andy said.

Andy also plans to make a 1995 Ford service van modeled after a van one of his co-workers used to drive.

“They don’t make that in a kit,” Andy said. Instead, he found a 1970s service van kit and will tweak it to make it look like the NorthWestern Energy van.

It’s hard to estimate how much time he puts into each vehicle. He might spend about 20 hours pondering what he’s going to do, and them sometimes a model car can come together in a weekend. Most take about 40 hours to build.

Andy recently got a new, larger 3D printer that allows him to print a complete car, so he’s less reliant on finding an exact kit.

“I’m going to redo this one someday,” Andy said of the 1996 service truck. “My skills have vastly improved.”

The 1996 Ford welding truck model.

He also plans to build his current welding truck, a 2012 F550.

“I’m a car guy,” he said. “I can’t afford the real thing, so I make a miniature replica of it.”