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1/24 scale Italeri Western Star plus...???


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Hey all 

 I bought this kit for the Cummins NTC-400 engine so I can put it in the 1/24 Italeri Peterbilt 378 that I purchased off of Ebay to pull the 6 axle flatbed, and it is in the mail as we speak.

 I'm going to take the Detroit diesel series 60 out of the Pete and put it in the Western Star. Does anyone know how hard it would be to convert the Detroit 60 into an early Cummins X15? I'm hoping I can, as I don't really want to have a Detroit diesel.

  So, I  started by putting the Cummins NTC-400 together so I could detail it, and that led to building the Western Star. I also have a 1/24 Italeri Mack Superliner coming in the mail (If my wife finds out how much I have spent in the last week she is going to castrate me!...lol):popo::rtfm::D

  My plans are to take the Australian parts, tanks, air cleaners, bull bar, etc. From the Western Star and put them on the Mack. I plan on swapping the interiors of the two trucks so I will have a right hand drive Mack and a left hand drive Western Star. Thank God Italeri kind of comminized there trucks so you can switch parts around.

20210309_191645.jpgthis view shows the Italeri Western Star kit I'm using.

20210309_182832.jpgthis view shows how far I am on this build. Its just temporarily put together.

20210309_182744.jpgview from the front.

20210309_183024.jpgthis view shows the Cummins NTC-400. The front and rear tires are from the European truck rims and wheels kit. The fronts are 385's and the rears are 315's. These are for Italeris European trucks.

20210309_183054.jpgthis view shows the steering mechanism turning right.

20210309_183126.jpgthis view shows the steering mechanism turning left.

20210309_183211.jpgthis close up view shows the micro screen from model car garage that I used to simulate the rear of the radiator.  

20210309_183531.jpgthis view shows the Cummins NTC-400 sitting in place for pictures only.

20210309_183940.jpgthis view shows the Cummins NTC-400 and the details that I added. I painted it with a custom mix of Tamiya tan, dark yellow and brown. I'm still adding painted detail to it. I need to add a gloss clear over it, then weathering.

20210309_183921.jpgview from the other side.

20210309_183845.jpgthis view shows the lines from the trans to the trans cooler. Well that's it for now be back soon with more.

Ron G 

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Hey guys 

 Here's a picture of the Italeri 1/24 Peterbilt 378 that I converted into a Tri-drive by using pieces from a old old Italeri 1/24 Peterbilt 377AE that I did eons ago and found in a box that I haven't opened since we moved 7 years ago.

20210303_182001.jpgthis view shows the kit I used.

20210311_192248.jpgthis view shows the old 377 cab (I haven't assembled the new one yet) and the 63" stand up sleeper from the 377 kit with the 378 hood. I put my custom made headache rack from my Revell Peterbilt 359 heavy haul tractor on it (I plan on making one for the 378) for the picture. This is going to look sweet pulling the 48' 6 axle flatbed trailer.

Ron G 

Edited by ShakyCraftsman
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The 1/24 Italeri Mack Superliner kit and the 1/24 truck accessories kit showed up today. The Aussie parts from the Western Star will be going on this.

Italeri-3820-2.jpgthis is the basic kit, there will be alot of changes made to it to make it into a Aussie road train hauler!

20210312_170919.jpgthis view shows the truck accessories kit. I purchased this to get the rear Mack 6 spoke wheels for the Mack Superliner, I had to customize them to make them work.

hqdefault.jpgthis view shows the Mack E9 that I'm adding to the Mack. YES,...I bought a bunch of stuff from Auslowe model trucks, shh!!!...don't tell the wife, I don't want to be the next Bobbet!...lol I also got a 13/18 speed Mack transmission to go with it.

unnamed (1).jpgthis view shows the Bulldog I'm going to hand paint on the back of the sleeper. I need to come up with a name,  I was thinking of "Tasmanian Devel Dog.

20210312_171612.jpgthis view shows the frame for the Western Star, but it's the same as the Mack's except it will be right hand drive.

20210312_171517.jpgthis view shows the front 385/65-R22.5 on a widened Mack 6 spoke wheel.

20210312_171540.jpgthis view shows the rear 315/80-R22.5 on custom made Mack 6 spoke wheels. I had to add a outer rim to the chrome outer wheel and I got the inner rear wheels from the 1/24 Italeri European tractors tyres and rims kit, that's where the tires came from. Yeah I had to take parts from three different kits to make these, but I think they look pretty cool.

20210312_171456.jpgview from the top. Well that's it for now be back soon with more.

Ron G 

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Hey guys 

  Here's the final art work for the mural. I'm going to add a round tag under his collar that will be red with a white "U" on it.

20210314_190933.pngI also did some work on the Mack Superliner cab interior. I took the left hand drive dash from the Western Star and cut it up to fit in the Mack. It's not as wide and way deeper then the original dash for the Mack, but after some plastic magic...lol it fits great.

20210314_173528.jpgthis view shows the Mack interior with the driver figure that I kit bashed together. I also removed the arm rests from the two seats snd added them to the driver's seat in the down position, the passenger will not have them. This was not easily done, I had to cut the boots off of one set of legs in order to add them to the seated set of legs, after I removed the feet with the sandals off of those. I put the torso withe the cowboy hat onto these, then I added the arms from the seated figure to the final figure. After this I had to use a soldering iron to heat the arms and legs to bend them into position...wheh!:hsmack::)

20210314_173216.jpgthis view shows the driver figure in the driving position.

20210314_173150.jpgcloser view of the driver. He actually looks a little like me...lol

20210314_173303.jpgthis view shows that his hands are on the steering wheel.

20210314_173330.jpgthis view shows that he just barely fits in the cab. I had to lower the seat mechanism and make a depression in the roof interior panel to make this work.

20210314_173236.jpgthis view from the rear shows that his feet sit on the fuel and brake pedals.

20210314_173555.jpgthis view shows that his right foot sits on the clutch.pedal. well that's it for now be back with more updates soon.

Ron G 

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Hey guys 

 I just purchased this for parts on the Mack Superliner build.

20210315_101524.jpgI just found out after some deep research on the net that Renault used Mack E9 V8's in there trucks and French military vehicles. Makes sense since they owned Mack at the time.

20210315_101635.jpgthis view shows the sprue from the 3902 kit. As you can see, poorly I admit, heres my Mack E9 engine, not sure about the trans, I don't know what they used.

20210315_101655.jpgcloser view of the engine block and heads. Mack also collaborated with Scania on there V8 engines, but they use individual cylinder heads (8 total heads) where Renault/Mack have twin heads (4 total heads).

20210315_101749.jpgthis view shows that they used Mack suspension, or one almost identical to it.

20210315_101823.jpgcloser view of the suspension. So I  also have a more accurate rear and possible front suspension for the Aussie Mack Superliner.  That's it for now be back soon with more.

Ron G 

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Yes Renault used the Mack E9 V8 in some of their trucks, for example the Magnum and some others, but the V8 disappeared from the Mack lineup 1999 and there are no V8's after that.
You are right, Mack and Scania developed the V8 engine together and has some other engines in common earlier, they went kind of separate ways with the layout of the V8 with the head configuration  and some other things, so they are not exactly the same:
Renault still has relations to Mack as the parent company who bought both companies in 2000-2001 is Volvo, and it's a bit funny that Volvo ended up with Mack since Volvo and Scania are fierce competitors in some markets among them Europe, Australia and South America.
But if you don't want to buy a whole kit for the engine you can get a E9 V8 in resin from Auslowe.

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1 hour ago, Force said:

Yes Renault used the Mack E9 V8 in some of their trucks, for example the Magnum and some others, but the V8 disappeared from the Mack lineup 1999 and there are no V8's after that.
You are right, Mack and Scania developed the V8 engine together and has some other engines in common earlier, they went kind of separate ways with the layout of the V8 with the head configuration  and some other things, so they are not exactly the same:
Renault still has relations to Mack as the parent company who bought both companies in 2000-2001 is Volvo, and it's a bit funny that Volvo ended up with Mack since Volvo and Scania are fierce competitors in some markets among them Europe, Australia and South America.
But if you don't want to buy a whole kit for the engine you can get a E9 V8 in resin from Auslowe.

Hey Force

 Yeah I know I bought one of there's along with their 13/18 spd. Transmission, although there engine doesn't look like it comes with the turbos, so I bought the Berliet R352ch/Renault R360 kit# 3902.

Ron G 

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Hey all 

 I got a MPC 1/25 Mack DM800 for some parts to use on my Aussie Mack Superliner build. I spliced the front and rear sections of the DM800 frame with a section out of the Italeri 1/24 Mack Superliner frame to make a proper Superliner Ii frame that's a 232" W.B.          I modified the front axle from the Superliner kit along with a piece from the DM800 front axle and got a 4" (scale) wider drop center Mack axle, kind of. It's not perfect but it's good enough for me. Here are some pictures.

20210323_180026.jpgthis view shows the top of the completed frame.

20210323_175812.jpgthis view is of the bottom of the frame.

20210323_175902.jpgclose up view of the front of the frame and front suspension.

20210323_175836.jpgclose up view of the rear of the frame and the support pivot bracket for the camel back rear suspension 

20210323_180336.jpgthis view shows the modified front axle. I had to modify the DM800 front springs to get them in the correct position for a Superliner II frame.

20210323_175518.jpgthis view shows the cab and hood sitting on the frame.

20210323_175932.jpgthis view shows the modifications I had to make to the hood to fit the external Aussie air cleaners. They are from the Western Star Australian truck kit by Italeri. Well that's it for now be back soon with more updates.

Ron G 

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Hey all 

  Did some more work on the Superliner. I have the engine that came in the MPC Mack DM800 put together. It's a Maxidyne ENDT-865 V8. They were, from what I understand a pretty good engine. Thay were the predecessor to the Mack E9 V8. It has a 5 or 6 speed transmission, I'm not really sure. 

20210324_174327.jpgthis view shows the cab & hood along with the sleeper, fuel tanks and the wheels/tires that will go on this build.

20210324_180818.jpgthis view shows a top view of the Mack camelback suspension & Mack drive axles.

20210324_180837.jpgside view of the Camelback suspension.

20210324_174532.jpgthis view shows the Mack ENDT-865 from the MPC DM800 kit. Its about the same size as the E9 so I'm using it for fit purposes.

20210324_174506.jpgtop down view of the ENDT-865.

ENDT865_16f8961e-d4e.pngthis is a picture of the real thing. It's painted in Mack gold. Well that's it for now be back soon.

Ron G 

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Hey all 

  I found a picture on the internet of a Mack camelback suspension with a shock going from the front axle at an angle rearward to the front mounting bracket. It looked like this, so I copied it.

20210326_202842.jpgthis view shows the front shock and how it attaches to the axle and frame.

20210326_202954.jpgthis view from the top shows a little better how the shock mounts.

Ron G 

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