fantacmet

Well just in case I have it swimming in brake fluid at the moment. Same batch(though filtered) I used to strip most of the enamel off my Pete 352 before I finished it with easy off. We'll see how that works out. If that fails too I'll let you know. I'd like to get some paint on it tomorrow if possible. Still haven't chosen the color but leaning towards purple. Plain purple and then using the stripe decals that come with the kit rather than the lightning express decals.

Kilrathy you read my mind. The C1500 base kits are ungodly expensive 100-200 bucks is what I see them for.

That is AWESOME! I could build 30 of them. There are tons of those out here. Wannabe shippers, food trucks, local delivery, mail vans, possibilities are endless.

Can't afford to get anything extra right now. My $$ That's saved in the bank is to pay the bills while I'mgone truck driver training(assuming I pass the physical). It's just a setback that's all. Just an annoying and frustrating one. It's not like I don't have other projects hanging around though. I stocked up on kits and paint. I may eventually run out of glue though. LOL

Single strand picture hanging wire should do fine for making a working spring. Doesn't have to be full on, but it's steel and will hold it's shape better, though working suspension is a PITA. I've done it even with leaf springs made from styrene and making my own shackles. Can't beat the coolness factor but won't look very realistic. I'd say Mr. Patten here has the right idea. When making my springs I've always just used a screw. You can size the wire to the screw and vice versa. I'm lucky enough to have a mill and lathe too(though it sits in my living room in my 4th floor apartment HAHA), I'd probably stick with the screw method, but well I'm a bit on the lazy side sometimes. Of course firing up the lathe is awfully noisy. Especially on the 4th floor.

I tried every 30 minutes for awhile. This is how it sits right now. That nice white part on the fender was how I was hoping the whole thing would be but that's the only portion that worked ok. Incidently, these are the stack modifications so Ithought I'd doa mockup along with showing the poor state of the paint on the cab. No it wasn't old paint either. The paint wasn't even cured yet, at least not the most recent coat.

Old toothbrush? Heck no I bought a 4 pack just for models and other stuff like that. I had the thing go for a week coating it with easy off every day. I've not had the brake fluid work on Testors lacquer before. Starting to tick me off. For crying out loud I've had a batch of chrome parts sitting in purple power for a week and it hasn't touched them. This is fresh out of the jug never been used before. Maybe it's just a buncha bad luck on my part who knows. Maybe something is telling me to put those two projects down and work on some of the others. At least that way I'd still be building rather than being stalled. LOL.

Hrm the one who voted Orange, who woulda guessed. LOL. Problem I'm having right now is trying to get the paint stripped. It is being EXTREMELY stubborn. A week in purple power. NOTHING. Repeated multiple times per day soakings in easy off, and it STILL doesn't want to come off. I don't want to sand it and lose the molded detail, I plan to cover the Kenworth emblems with foil before paint. If it wasn't for the paint being stubborn I'd probably have it done by now.

So I think I finally figured out what to do with it. Yeah I know I start more projects than I finish but I bounce around so much. Of course than I get so far and then I lose stuff and they never get finished but oh well. Anyway I think I'm going to turn it into some sort of an Oil Field Truck. I think I'm going to do it without the boom but I might put it on there. Not too sure. I've never messed with oil field stuff before but I like the way they look so any experienced help would be appreciated. Pretty much using what comes in the box plus stuff I have laying around, and whatever I can scratchbuild with the supplies on hand.

Didn't QUITE make the physical just BARELY got squeaked out, going back in almost 2 weeks. BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH job I'm sitting at now has done it to me.

Thanks for all the words. I don't have the drive test tomorrow, just the permit exams. All I need to do is pass those(I should be fine I've been conssitantly above 95% on practice exams with many 100's, and only a couple of abysmals a couple of times because I was half asleep), pass my physical, and pass a week of orientation and I'll be trying to find a way to get to phoenix, early next month. If I time it all right I want my orientation to start on June 1, and then 1 week later be in Phoenix, I just hope they start a new training class each week instead of every 2, or I may end up with not enough money. Knight Transportation.

Hopefully I'll be able to get it done soon but I'm not going to hold my breath. I go in for my DOT physical tomorrow and for my CDL Permit test as well. After that I'll be leaving after a few days into next month.

This was as quick as i could get the camera up at work when I was out on a smoke break. lots of cool rigs drive by.

Ok so it's just a shot of the STRETCHED chassis with the suspension and engine and battery boxes for now. I was doing the body in a metallic maroon, but the paint just was NOT behaving. So she's sitting in some purple power right now. Trying to think of what color to paint it, with what I have. I have like 4 shades of blue, Some red, Some yellow, the pink and the white are for a different project. Though I did set the can of pink paint on the chassis to give an idea of the stretch. I have some purple, both the plum crazy and some Krylon purple that looks nice. I was thinking the DARK blue that I'm using on the frame of my 289. I also have some Orange. Sublime green. Decisions decisions. I was thinking it'd be nice pulling the lowboy but there isn't hardly any clearance between the rear of the frame and the lowboy, and this is the Revell kit so the 5th wheel is non adjustable, I'll probably have it yanking the flat bed which is being built, probably with a beam or pipe load, and leave the lowboy for the 289. Anyway here it is.

See? Good think you didn't listen to me. LOL. This is a cool rig, I can't wait to see the progress on this one. Might be worth building one myself, I'd love to see one of these on my shelf.

Ok well not much in the way of progress.

Well it's kind of poor progress, but here are some progress pics.

I got mine at Fred Meyer a Kroger subsidiary. It has a triangular blade on the bottom, with a wire to show right where the cut will be. Mine is a FISKARS.

For the flamed interior panels, there is a guy on here builds these wild lower riders, there is one he is doingI think it's an egyption theme, but I asked him in there what he uses and he posted. It's a type of cheap thin foam you can get at the craft store that you can emboss. It does a great job on interior panels.

To me it looks like a medium to dark red in that photo.

For the yellow try the Krylon Shortcuts in the little cans. Called Sun Yellow, I think it's a MUCH closer match.

I figured to use the Pete one, seems more appropriate for a fleet truck. Maybe I'll put some Canuckistan decals on it. How about it any of my Canadian allies, got any trucks that look similar to this or idea's? The rebel one is going to end up on my wrecker eventually when I build that sucker. My secret project I was thinking of using the rebel on is going to be VERY different. Thanks for the kind words on this one. I usually don't fair so well when building anything other than show style stuff. So we'll see how this eventually turns out.

Nice, I will probably be using your build as reference for one I'm doing, which is going to be a 100% surprise, and will have basically no progress pics and will just pop up. Might I ask what you used for the airbags? Oh HA I just saw it was posted there, NM.

I think I've had one kit I turned into a money pit, because I wanted something specific and wanted it to look great and wanted to showcase I could do it. Otherwise for the most part I really don't buy much in the way of aftermarket. Maybe some wire, or some wheels here and there. Flocking. Generally I try to do with what I have. Armor can be another story, mostly with tracks. Aircraft, I usually get PE for the cockpit. Sometimes some decals, but I've been known to make my own decals as well. I'm working on putting together a sheet right now as a matter of fact. Most of my "endurance" builds are due to me getting distracted by something else, so I just go the rounds. Sometimes I quit building at all for months on end. Too many other hobbies I guess and I have only been able to afford one at a time. So I definitely feel ya.

I've gotten the grill foiled up, and I have a bug screen for it I've printed. Not sure whether to use the rebel one or the black Peterbilt one.