mustang1989

Man it's all good Brian and no I don't think you're being too critical. I can definitely tell that you're offering constructive criticism and THAT..................is always welcome. When it comes to WWII Luftwaffe aircraft, I have a huge experience in their history as well as reference base to draw from and the same goes for the light truck/ car lineup except I've got 20+ years of hands on experience with that but THIS area......is definitely uncharted waters for me.

You bring up an interesting point Brian. I merely looked on the side of the box and it displayed an NHC-250 engine so that's what I started looking for. Now ya got me thinkin'...................

Thanks Clayton! 'Preciate the vote of confidence and great to see you again Tom. I've been scarce until the last couple of months. Had to take a break from the bench for a while. Thanks for the encouragement Brian. I'll be going with a resin NHC-250 Cummins.

Thanks Dave!! I'll be sure to keep that in mind because I don't have just a whole lot of big truck experience. LOTS of light truck but none on the heavy side. I'll surely do that if / when I find the match Jeff THANK YOU for that heads up on both parts Clayton. Is there a PE set for these kits?

Right off the bat there are a lot of parts to this basic frame and suspension. Got lots of cleanup to do and some research before painting. I'm not used to building these kinds of kits so the research is going SLOW.

With the end of my "Demon II" build in sight and a slight lull in it due to waiting on parts I've decided to put my next build on the work bench. This one is another "Blast from the Past". I built this kit as a kid and although it was a terrible build looking back, I had a lot of fun with it. After a tumble on the shelf shortly after I built it she was put out of her misery. The Pactra Star Blue paint had been brushed on and it was the ugly duckling of all of my builds even in that day. Flashing forward some 35 years later here I go to give this beauty another shot. As some of you know, I've been wanting to build a rig for some time now and this just seemed like the perfect one to build. The Pactra paint line has ended so I'll be on the search for a close, if not perfect, match to the original Star Blue as possible. I also need to do a lot of research on White Freightliners as to get a lot of the details right and the paints as close as possible. Decals are shot so I'll be outsourcing those to get a fresh set. I've also managed to round up an upgraded set of wheels and tires for this bad boy so I turned to Moebius for those. I've also ordered an upgraded resin engine to use with this kit. The OOB one isn't bad but it just doesn't have the details that I want. So I'll be posting pictures of that when it comes in. With that............let's get started...............

I'm really liking that color now that you've got it mounted up on the chassis. Looked "Bad A" man.

Thanks Jim Thanks Carl. Trying to keep the progress moving. All the work that's left is stuff that takes time. 'Preciate that Jeremy. Ok folks , I wet sanded out the dust particles in the painted hood this morning and dug out the flame masks. I chose the third set down from the top to use on this project. So I applied the mask to a spare piece of plastic and broke out the Alclad Polished Aluminum and sprayed a very light coat onto a test subject. Although there's a little camera movement in the following photos, they still depict what I'm trying to accomplish here which is a subtle "ghost flame" in which the finish will vary with different lighting against the black base coat. Under direct light: and under an indirect light: I'm really looking forward to seeing how this is going to look under a good gloss coat.

Unusual but sharp color JC.

A bit late to this Jeremy but.....................WOW!! Great work on this one bud.

Color is on all exterior parts now. Just waiting a few days for the paint to totally cure out before I start sanding some of the dust particles out and movin' on to the flames and the clearing process.

Thanks Jeremy! I have enough of a nerve racking time painting for just me.

'Preciate that JC! Thanks Carl!! We now have ........................body color:

x 2!!!! Watching.......................

Man JC! This build is taking such good shape that it's blowin' me away bud!! Dang this thing is lookin' good.

Thanks Carl. Well guys since I couldn't use the wheels that I wanted I decided to use my favorites which are the Weld Draglites. The only problem with those are that 99.9999% of the rear wheels that I've seen whether they are resin or kit supplied have the bead locks on the wheel.......................which I do NOT want for a streetable vehicle. Here's where we start. A set of resin Draglites from Competition Resins: After some research I found what I want to coat the wheels with. This months issue of Scale Auto has a whole 5 page article devoted to the different methods of chrome coating and clearing. After reading through it I'll be going with the Molotow chrome with Spaz Stix Ultimate Clear both of which I ordered last night. Here's after removing the bead locks and drilling out all the wheel holes, center hole and the unused lug stud holes and cleaning it up a bit as compared to the untouched one on the right. I found a block of time last night to work on the interior so I could finish it up this morning:

Gonna have to do something about that radio. I aint likin' THAT at all. Dang macro shots!!!!

Thanks Jeremy! Thanks Curtis. I know ...........right??!!! Something about the "carpet" and the way I did it just did NOT agree with me. I textured the flooring by spraying some Rustoleum Textured paint from a spray can and then coated the textured paint with a coat of flat black. The more I looked at it the more I caught myself thinking that if I had flocked the flooring in black it would've had a slight semi gloss and some depth to it. The way I had it painted there was neither quality there. Just ..................................flat bland black was it. So I thought a minute...... and decided to apply some Tamiya Clear in a light coating. The results turned out better to me. To recap. Before: and after. Just a tad bit more depth and more correct finish IMO: I've also got the dash finished. I really don't consider this to be one of the better dashes I've done for two reasons. 1.) I think I could've done better and 2.) when I was done with this dash I had and still have the feeling of .......................that's it????!!!! Any ways here's the dash:

Man!!!!!!!!! You're doing a great job with this one Phil. The only thing I would watch is the scale depth of the scratches but it's definitely not a deal breaker with this build. Keep up the good work buddy.

Coming along nicely Scott.

This looks really good Eric. I'm a big fan of re-do's like this one here and you've definitely added some nice touches. As a hint for battery cables, I've used the wire that can be obtained from the old landline telephone cable. I think there's even a red strand in those to make it a little easier.

You're gonna knock 'em dead at that show Darren! This is no longer a model dude. This ...........................is a masterpiece in the makin's.

Got some more done on the interior yesterday morning. I'll be coming up with an idea for the black carpet and install a PE accelerator and brake pedal and maybe throw a couple of items in the front seat. The dash panel I just test fitted into place and still have to do a lot of detail painting and apply a good gloss coat over the dash pad. I did away with the Foose decal on the medallion in the center of the seat and chromed it. I put an "embroidered" demon decal just under the medallion for a little interior snazz. These seat and interior decals were a little tricky to me and it seems like I may have needed a little stronger setting solution for them besides Microsol. I'm thinking something like Solvaset would have done a better job of settling them into the crevices but they didn't turn out too awful bad with around 8-10 coats of Microsol. Just for kicks I added a Hot Rod Magazine and tossed a set of PE keys attached to a scratchbuilt key ring in the seat. I also added a set of PE foot pedals and gave 'em a quick wash to spice things up in the interior a bit.

Progress on this one?

He's right..................there aint nuthin' to laugh at here. Impressive work.