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Peterbilt 352


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Another scary day today, trying to put the thing back together without damaging the paint. 

Fuel tanks needed a bit of massaging to get the brackets to slide in now that they were covered in paint. Managed that without ruining them, used an Emery board sliced in half. Slipped the tank straps over and slotted them in, look great! Added the step on the driver's side. 

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Dressed the cab with BMF etc... and it really pops. Home made bumper looks good. 

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Still got a few things to do, the rear shocks fell to pieces as I tried to install them and I still need to fit my Winslow stripes, airlines, rear lights etc... 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Fitted the rear shocks today, took me an hour and only I can see them!!! Why do we do it? 

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Also fitted my air hoses around the pogo stick, front licence plates from the kit on a board under the front bumper. 

One thing I have wanted to do is add the round flashers on the front of the cab. I am very aware that at 1/32 scale they'd be so fragile someone would only have to cough and they'd fall off. So, I had to be resourceful. I snipped off a piece of amber sprue from an AMT 1/25 kit and filed an annular groove in it. Then, I put a piece of wire in the groove and wound it tight forming a pigtail. I cut and filed the sprue until it was a thin disc bound by the wire. A little Tamiya clear orange to deepen the colour, drilled a hole in the cab and wound the pigtail into the hole. I now have more realistic, translucent and tough lamps. Much better than the ones the kit tacks onto the mirror brackets. I'm very pleased. 

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I'm now trying to draw up my Winslow stripes on Inkscape which was recommended to me by Peteski, thanks mate. In typical make style I faffed around with it for four days fruitlessly before deciding to read the manual and knocking out a simple pattern in half an hour! Long away from a set of cab stripes but it's very interesting.

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  • 1 month later...

I can't believe I'm the first to try this. How does this heat shield look? It's a bit short I know but I was just trying something out. 

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It's the foil off an electric shaver. I bought a new head for my wife's leg shaver and when I looked at the foil I thought it was perfect heat shield material. Dismantled the head, put a tighter curl on the foil and slipped it over the muffler. Looks good to me.

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There are bigger ones out there for around £7, this was £3 or thereabouts and it rejuvenated the wife's legs! The bigger ones might be ok for 1/25. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've been trying a couple of graphics packages to draw up my Winslow stripes for this truck and I've got nowhere. I can draw rectangles and that's about it. Previously I'd tried using Microsoft Paint, the old program but I wasn't happy with the results, you could see the pixelated steps in the diagonal lines. I used the same program to do the Trailmobile mudflap decals and I noticed that you couldn't see the pixels on those. It was because I'd massively reduced them on printing so they fooled the eye. Why not do the same on my Winslows? I drew a set of stripes as big as I could and then printed them at 32% original size. Then I flipped the image and printed the other side, just altered the margins on the paper so it missed the first image. Results are ok, good enough for me to use. I'm using clear decal paper because the paintwork is white, to get the use out of the sheet I also drew up some plain blue stripes for another truck. I want to let them dry thoroughly, then clear them with a Tamiya rattle can and then let's see how they look on the truck(s).

I know you can buy decals but on e you get them shipped to GB they start getting expensive. I've enjoyed messing around on the computer. 

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Well, my Winslow stripes looked like they were going to work. Got the passenger side on ok but the driver's side just went to pieces. The setting solution softened the decal but started leeching the ink out and the black outline started crumbling. I suppose using Tamiya clear to seal the ink wasn't the best move. Incompatible with the setting solution and the decal paper. 

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So I peeled it back off and thought I'll just leave the name on the doors "Ozark Trucking" but then I lost one of the Ozarks!!!!!!! It was all I could do not to throw the cab across the room. Yet another anonymous, stripeless truck. 

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I then fitted the cab steps and broke one. Fixed with super glue but close to deciding this is my last model. I'll post it in Under Glass because any more faffing around and I'll break something else. 

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Thanks mate. I'm sure I'll calm down. I was probably a little too ambitious thinking I could do a full stripe set. There's so many features the decal has to conform to. I might get some of the proper Microsol sealer and try on another truck, but I've decided to leave this one alone. 

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New day, new start. I've put too much work into these Winslow stripes to just give in so I'm going to buy the proper decal sealer and have another go. It just looks too good with them. I'm also going to try printing the decal in a two stage process to eliminate that colour shifting you can see in the photos.

To build confidence I've gone ahead with applying the blue stripe I  printed at the same time for my old 352 that I built in lockdown. I cut around the vent in the door this time so I only needed to use setting solution on the door hinges and lockers. It is a very simple stripe but it worked, it transforms the look of the truck and I feel better about trying on the other truck. 

Apologies for the terrible protective tablecloth. 

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Edited by Rockford
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've admitted defeat on the stripes. I bought the liquid decal film to match the paper, printed my stripes also some company and mudflap logos I drew up. Gave it two coats of decal film as per instructions and let it dry overnight. 

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First I tried my logos and while they took a bit of getting off the backing paper they went on great. So, time to try the stripes. 

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As soon as they went into the water the black started lifting. Then the dark red started showing patches of white before I'd touched it. I had to throw it out. I used some company logos I'd drawn up myself and they went on great. I don't understand it, why are some ok and others not? Is it the black ink? It can't be as the mudflap logos are almost all black and they're fine! My printer is a Canon inkjet 3100. Is it certain colours? There's yellow and red in the logo I used on the Pete and that is perfect. Maybe the stuff is just not cut out for big decals, I don't know. I've emailed Bare Metal to see if they can shed any light on the situation. 

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It's academic anyway because I can't touch the Pete again. I broke the step and both mirrors stripping it to apply the stripes. I can't risk stripping it again.

Maybe it's time to start masking and painting different colours. 

Edited by Rockford
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I emailed Bare Metal and asked if they could advise me on a possible solution. Randy emailed me back in just a few hours, on a Sunday!!! How's that for customer service? 

He suggested that I'd brushed the liquid decal film on too heavily which has bonded the decal to the backing paper. I never thought that could happen. I might try again.... Glutton for punishment. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I said I wasn't going to try again but I did. Printed another set of Winslow stripes, removed the decals I put on last time and hoped it would work. 

As soon as they hit the water the ink started breaking up in places. Some of it stayed perfect though. The parts that cracked were no longer colour fast, when I touched them against another piece of paper the colour came right off. I think I've got a duff sheet of decal paper so I'm going to see if I can get another sheet from a different source. 

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9 hours ago, clayton said:

Try useing a clear coat. A fine mist,let dry then another coat and build up real slow. 

Sorry Clayton, didn't mention it above but dutifully done, two coats, applied to two sets of stripes and still they crack up. That's what is so galling about the situation, and that's why I reckon the paper's shot, like the film I'm printing on to is cracked through being bent or stored incorrectly. Otherwise, why would half of the decal be perfect  (circled red) and the other half disintegrate (blue circle) 🤔 ?

 

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Edited by Rockford
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I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I clear coated the set of stripes I printed at the same time as the last ones (so these are the third set). Gave it two coats, same as the rest, put them in water and they just worked pretty much perfectly! 

They probably didn't lay down quite as well as kit decals might, but maybe that's my nervousness after all the problems, making me a little over cautious. The lower stripe mimics the chassis colour pretty well and so ties the theme together. 

Anyway, I now have a Peterbilt 352 with Winslow stripes all of my own making. I'm so pleased with how things turned out. It's not perfect but it will do me. Little things like being able to see the Cummins through in the doghouse, the single stack and the internal air intake just make it for me. It's been 11 months in the making. Here he is with my favourite trailer, the AMT dry van. 

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Edited by Rockford
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