Down and dirty

Should have waited on the thinner wire. Repairs ahead 

There has been a lot of dry fitting going on. This truck requires, NO,demands! Alot ! Buckle up, Buttercup  

Decals added for flair. Won’t even be seen very well once it’s toned, grimed, and dusted but, I’ll know they’re there. 

Tried to drill out the step plates but the styrene gods did not shine their grace upon me. Popped them off and ordered some photo-etch. Gonna be a minute till that arrives so for now I’m practicing with copper sheet. 

Pure Swiss cheese hell! ?Terrible, terrible, terrible. Even with starter holes ( that obviously weren’t deep enough) the bit wandered. Eh ?I tried something new, failed, learned, will try again. 

Used CTM photo-etch to replace the perforated steps. Drilling out the plastic ones failed miserably and these are a HUGE improvement so a land mine turned into a goldmine ? 

Wanted to start showing some of the wiring and hoses but dang it, I must have been Batman, hanging upside down taking these few pics. Really…….they are right side up on my phone ? Michael Kohl helped me fix’ ‘em. Thanks Brother 

Don’t have a clue why these are upside down. ?They are right side up in my library. Hmmmm….Aliens. Fixed! Wooo hoooo! Thanks again Michael.? 

First post for the shocks 

Soldered upper shock 

Just glued a rod on the leaf spring for the bottom. 

Bench reaching critical mess? 

Shock attached. 

Men’s bolts were superglued onto the post ends 

Yup!☹️Critical mess achieved ? 

Testing fit and how the grill needs modification  

Should be moving to paint real soon. 

Still gotta retest the engine dry fit but she’s progressing  

Ammo by mig red brown primer 

Mottled primer will help on the next steps. 

As you can tell, a grey primer first ,would have lightened the black plastic’s brown, yet , I stayed the course. 

Think the rotary tooled fenders will pop during the following steps. Took forever to get to these steps. 

See what brown can do?? 

Oooooooo?more brown…….. 

Eeegads! Is it a model or a……….,,

Snickers! What did ya think I would say? UPS? 

Okay ! They get it! BROWN?!!!! 

Rust? Fancy Rust? Too Fancy?! Just the right amount of rusty? 

This is gonna play hide and seek later. 

This is the stage that the frame, hood, and cab are at now. Has been sponged with a mix of dry sponge and wet blend of Vallejo colors . Then a VMS (vantage model solutions) satin acrylic top coat. I love their products. Weathering, auxiliaries, pigments, glues , etc; love ‘em!☺️ interior next!Gonna let it harden for a week before hairspray and acrylic chipping. Not sure on the colors and have to test Tamiya acrylics for viability. Gonna be busy. 

Should have taken in progress pics. Colors are Vallejo sand beige (tub and seat weathering)flat black ( pedals) ensign white (dials) Ammo by MiG red brown primer (dash, seats, door panels) Tamiya acrylic semi-gloss black (column, wheel, heater, sticks,seat frame, gauge panel) Ammo by MiG brown wash for German yellow and dark wash applied and cleaned up followed by Ammo’s light dusty.  

Dust in the seat creases is too stark and unrealistic to me . Further washes will ensue. 

Wanted old, dirty , used & abused. Got “ open door, sand stormed, whisked out barely” and …I…shall…have…satisfaction! 

And the dials have decals coming and UV resin in store before close up. Will it be seen? Nope? yet it will be great practice for my other kits. “That’s what I’m doing to get better” to quote a great podcast ( my modeling fluid of choice is “ State mandated sedation”? 

End product for this step. Some papers leaves a debris next plus a darkening wash to tone down the dusty shadow areas. Got a pizza or parts box for the passenger seat too or , maybe something else? 

Finally got the hairspray down, Tamiya gloss yellow airbrushed, chipped and dry fit. The frame has been done for about 4 weeks. Chipped Tamiya semi-gloss black with frame decals from ST Supply 

Another view. Careful! It’s lying to us all 

She is a beast to work with but, learning ALOT! 

I’m ready for my closeup, Mr Deville! 

Here, our Mack is wearing Chipped Tamiya Yellow with a delicate rust sponge of AK, Ammo by MiG, and Vallejo on One Shot Brown Oxide Primer as the chip reveal. 

Ummm…..what else can I say? Hard to see in there.☹️ Also, the seats aren’t even in. 

The scratches were made by hitting the metal of the brush carefully and then timidly brushing water to soften the edge 

The pin on the hood front snapped here (knew it was gonna happen as soon as Bozzer pointed the part out) and am not sure if the engine will even be exposed. There are other issues first. 

Engine is in. Wiring and hosing will come during the next breakdown. 

Taking these pics help a lot. I noticed I hadn’t chipped the fender underside. Thankfully, it was well within the window and it got done. 

Here is the “warts and all” section of the build. These are some of the issues I spoke of. The rims and hubs are an aftermarket resin kit. Figured they would make painting easier seeing the hubs and rims were separate pieces. Well, the resin for the round rims was soft ( could squeeze them almost flat and back again) and different sizes of the rim rings was intriguing. After fighting, cursing , pleading and finally acceptance ,I knew I was defeated. I am coming up with fixing plans that range from new wheels all the way to the “Ah…screw it “technique. As you can see, the air brakes all went ping! At different times. The ones on there are held by the airlines.I guess, seeing that am taking it all apart anyway, no worries ? Pics also look like the frame is askew but, it’s the “lie” I eluded to. It’s square, just optical. 

Took a lot to get this flat. Hot water several times, some serious force (and serious sweating. Scary?) and finally, flat! 

Flat? 

Here is my screwup but, I popped it loose and fixed it. 

Some of the Best Fun with the ejector pin marks. Mixed bag of raised and recessed… …I knew what I was getting into. 

Final product was sanded to 800 grit. 

What is this supposed to be? Diamond plate? Worlds largest Mine Sweeper game? I’m toying with reproducing the plate out of aluminum (disposable square cake pan) and photo etch diamond plate. If it fails, I will use plastic diamond plate. 

Really….the texture would be a cheese grater at this scale.? 

Some 3d printed steel 5 hole bud trailer rims from Kootenay 3D model parts. We will be trying them for the fist time together. 

Trailer will be ready for paint soon? Nope. Real wood and a change for the diamond plate. Also waiting on D-rings for the sides. Plus I wanna try scratching some loading ramps? 

Rear beaver tail. Plate is only clamped so as to get the rear ramp plates square. Not prepared to lose them so. Here they are. Here they stay? 

The rear of the rims each needed two shims of styrene tube. The rims needed to have the centers sanded out as well as sanding the first tube. Leave it slightly tight and slide the next tube then onto the rods. Looks good? 

Got the interior to close to button up. 

I need to gloss the gauges  

The newspaper is meh to me 

Here, the newspaper is slightly distracting 

Again. 

Decals applied on cab. Was looking around for others and found 2 companies that will do custom decals. Only problem is they never emailed back. 

Just some extras on the bumper. 

ISP #32 

Bozzer called it. First, and hopefully only, pin on the hood to break. Wasn’t too hard to replace. 

3/4 view of the truck before wheel replacement  

The new hubs. Got them from ST Supply. 

These require a lot of work to get fitted up. Learned on the previous set….dry fit, dry fit, and $@&#’n dry fit? 

Lots of work to get them to fit up. They seem to be the answer so far 

The match up and scrub cutting started here. 

Tread plate in place 

Real wood! Gotta have it 

The gray board was a practice run and it will fit the bill. Some carving and sanding will keep the worn look going.? 

These are the scenes unlimited rims that were defunct. The front rear rim had the outermost lip separate and added to the mismatching of the rims…..out they went 

View of the engine from the passenger side. 

Hood up on the driver side 

New Auslowe rear rims installed. Big improvement in my opinion. 

Scratched some rear ramps. Used VMS black flexi-super glue to strengthen the build. 

Same here. Superglue gets messy here. 

Cleaned up with debonder. 

It required 2 so here’s the mate. 

These are the notches that I filed into each of the 9 x 2 pieces of wood for the deck. 

Lower deck notches. 

Sat a lot better afterwards. Smiles for me at least. 

Lower deck sitting pretty. 

Front 3/4 view. 

Up top view. 

Rear ramp 3/4 view. 

She’s getting there slowly 

Not sure but I’m thinking about a headache rack or a spare tire rack. Do have to come up with a pogo stick 

A height rear 3/4 view. 

And directly from the back. 

Started the John Deere 310A backhoe. Only kit on the market but with extra care, she is coming along 

The base of the kit. 

Had to add some styrene to fill a gap. 

Another vantage point  

Ugly thumb contest anyone? 

The beginning of the seat pedestal refinement  

The seat was so very plain Jane I had to do something. 

One of two handles added for detail. Definitely a application of gizmology. 

Some more carving on the pedestal  

This is the stabilizers out of the box. No bueno.? 

The start of the hydraulics being scratch built. 

Another view 

Rear tires need a lot of tlc. Still need more after a sanding and filing session 

The main body placed close to its final resting place 

All joints needed superglue reinforcement. Still fidgety unless my most lacking of implements is used….patience ? 

Cleaning superglue after setting. Took a bit of before mentioned patience, even with insta set.? 

Finished one side, till it is finalized  

Going to redo the pivot points on this but, does anyone know how that lower “c” attachment point connects. Well more to the point, how it swivels. From the little bit of video and picture evidence I can muster, it looks like the whole crossbar between the forward bucket arms does the swiveling! If so, easy!
Well, I figured it out. Now for the scratch built replacement. 

The rebuilt answer to the abomination in the box. To tell the truth, if I were to do it again, I would make it out of brass. This think broke several times as I moved it.? 

Here they are in place? 

Another angle 

Closer still. The pins will all be cut flush with one side getting a round disc and the other getting a Meng large nut. 

Here I made a steering hydraulic system. It’s gizmology but, there was nothing there before. 

Replaced the last hydraulic piston on the rear boom. In for a penny, in for a pound ?