redneckrigger

Charlie, your work is always so fantastic! Your builds are where I draw the vast majority of my inspiration to try things I normally would be uncomfortable with. Keep up the great work!!!

I've been using acrylic enamels for years on my builds, without the hardener. Some of the paint still in my stash is from when I operated my own body shop over 20 years ago, and it still is great. I still buy PPG acrylic enamels in 1 pint cans when I need a particular color, and it goes a LONG way. I prime with Mr. Primer Surfacer, (usually the 1200 grade), on bare plastic, and then paint using regular PPG medium reducers. I personally have found that the quality of a paint job is far less dependent upon the quality or type of paint, and FAR more dependent on the quality of the application. I use a Paasche V series two stage airbrush. In my shop we used PPG enamels and acrylic enamels, Dupont Centari and Imron, as well as lacquers, PPG Durethane and their base/clear systems, various primers such as PPG DP series and Dupont VariPrime, and while the application requirements were all different, basic practices in application adjusted to the system at hand all turned out wonderful jobs. I closed the shop and retired from there just before waterborne systems became popular, and have zero experience with them. And that is, after 50 years of building, the exact same thing I have found in my builds, application is EVERYTHING. I DO strive for scale appearances, mainly in gloss, so in that area, for those that try to get glass like finishes, I don't go there, as that does not fit my build style.

Worked on the feed conveyor today. Am trying three different designs. For the very old metal slat style, I used a chain assembly from a Tamiya RC truck as the conveyor chain. Sprockets from MicroMark on 1/8" aluminum rod and overlapping slats attached, and it looks pretty good. Will attach the end slats at the sprockets at final assembly. For the second type will use drag bars instead of slats. For the newer design, I will do a rubber belt. How they come out will determine which I use. Getting there!

That is totally fantastic!!!!!

Beautiful work, full of details! NICE!!!

The auger was actually not hard to make though I had to give it a lot of thought and look at real 1:1 augers. I made the discs as noted and used a proper sized tube for assembling the discs onto. I slit the discs as shown. Then giving them a proper twist either left hand or right hand, I put them on the tube. I tacked the first one in place at the very beginning with CA cement and accelerator. Then I twisted it out to the pitch I wanted and attached that end. The next piece was overlapped on the first one about 1/16" and a drop of CA was applied between the two disc edges and clamped with a pair of tiny pliers and accelerator was applied. I proceeded on to the end of the auger in this manner, rinse and repeat, until I got the length I wanted and then made a mirror image. I then went back and added more CA as needed to make it permanent. Only glued my fingers together once! Pretty happy with the way it came out, and if I make another one for something in the future, it will be all that much easier!

When you own and run a gun shop, you have all sorts of interesting bits and pieces around! Racked my brain how to get 1/2" diameter discs and bingo, it just popped into my head!

You are a funny guy! LOL.....I only WISH I had the talent to do a diorama. I will settle for watching your shop diorama!

Got the right hand crawler frame done. Then it was on to the feed auger, right hand and left hand. This was a bit of a challenge but it came out okay. I used a .50 BMG case to punch out .50 diameter discs and then used a 5.56mm case to punch out the center and assembled them on the center shaft. Started bashing together a Continental F244 flathead six power plant. This build is a huge challenge as it is a very large number of subassemblies with seemingly zero relationship to each other. But it's coming along!

Got the left side crawler frame all put together tonight. Lots of scrap armor parts and some Evergreen strip and a passing replica!

Fantastic work Brian!!!!

Outstanding build...................and the dump body wear is fantastic!

Now THAT is a pile of resin! Sounds like a cool build!

I've got an excavator like that as well. It has been modified with Bruder tracks and tons of details, and makes a very good mid size CAT.

It is so it can be shipped USPS First Class Parcel. If it is too thin, it will go First Class Letter at a higher rate. Found this out quite a while ago selling stuff on eBay. I put a few peanuts in a lot of things that would cost more shipping as a letter.