steel_tiger1

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I usually run out of enthusiasm on my builds because I get to caught up in the details. I am hoping that having this build log will keep me motivated to finish something this year. So I really do appreciate it. Also if some one sees something i should fix or do differently please let me know, as sometimes I don't see stuff because I have looked at it to long. And I always like to learn and improve my skills.

I have got to spend more time in here. Very nice.

Wow.Nicely done, I really like the paint work. Is there a build thread for this?

So yesterday was spent trying to make the slack adjuster problem go away. First I cut 4 pieces of styrene and laminated them together with canopy cement. This stuff is great if you haven't used it. It provides a strong bond yet is water soluable when you want to remove it. It is made by Pacer Technologies it's called Formula 560. Anyway I carved and sanded away on the block until I got something that looked like what I wanted. . So I then tried to size it to the brake assembly and wouldn't you know....... To short. So start process all over again. This time I used longer pieces as my idea showed potential, I was headed in the right direction anyway. This time I am more successful. I have found some left over etched pieces to use as the connectors to the brake rods. I have sanded the tops down to try to get the taper to a thinner at the top look too. Here everything is mounted up on the front set of brakes. I set the brake rods to appear in a non-applied position. A piece of styrene from my punch set to look like the actual actuator arm sticking in the slack adjuster. Also shim of styrene to raise it to clear the bracket and the rod bracket. These picture show the finished assemblies. The rear brakes are made to look like they are in an applied position with the parking brake engaged and the spring brake active. Safety First! I am not 100% happy with them but they are far and away better than what the kit gives you. The molded on detail isn't even close to the real deal. And the brackets were about twice as long as they should be. Again I really need to learn to take before pictures so you could see before and after. I hope that some day a 3d cad guy will have them up on Shapeways so I can just buy them, as I am not a sculptor. So an ideal set up would be a set of slack adjusters, brake cans, brackets to hold the cans to the differential (could be printed on the cans), and the and the actual actuator arms that go to brakes themselves.Just in case any of you 3D guys are reading this. Oh and if the DOT guys stop by I did not check the travel to make sure they were adjusted properly. LOL Again thanks for dropping by next time I will have coffee on. Tom

Work continues on the frame rails & rear suspension. I have downloaded and looked at so many photos, I am sure I could build a real one by now. Here I have mounted the rear differential to the suspension arms. I made my own u-bolts again with Meng NBW casting and styrene hold down plates. This picture with flash to highlight the weld lines I made. The kit gives you a square rib so I just used that. I didn't really like the way it turned out as it made it so wide and tall. Next time I will sand it off and use thinner strip styrene to get it closer to the right size. Did I mention this is my first semi in decades? Live and learn. Here I have installed more Meng bolt for the airbags. I will be building the leveling valve and hardware for this as well. I also drilled out all the yokes on the driveshaft. Not overly happy with it but won't much be seen when the fifth wheel plate goes on so I wasn't going to rebuild it. The main driveshaft will be another story but I am quite aways from that. Well that's all for now I need to build a few thing to continue on here. I will be building the brake valves, the suspension leveling valve, brake slack adjusters. Then I need to start plumbing the rear suspension. Thanks for checking in. Tom

Have you ever tried Chris Wilson at Zactomodels? His casting work is amazing. I don't know if he does work for others, but hey it's a name. I have a bunch of his stuff without a doubt some of the best resin I have.

Your truck most likely had a single fuel tank on the drivers side. Step tank combo. Single tanks were very common on those old trucks. They were local delivery only so didn't need much fuel.

Will be watching this. Love me a kenworth.

As the title says. Anyone done this successfully? Tips tricks, ones I can use? The ones on the Italeri kit are BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH representations of them. Not even useful. Thanks

I just picked up two of these. Probably my favorite cabover to drive. One in the Rose Way inc. scheme in my future.

Frame rails have a lot of holes to fill and useless details to sand off. Holes filled rails sanded if I was to do over I would have used .005 styrene on the inside rail to cover holes less sanding. Most of it won't be seen anyway, but hard to get it smooth enough to suit me. Installed front axle. I don't like the molded on attempt at U-bolts so I rolled my own. Drilled through the flange and ran them all the way through. I used the smallest brass nuts I could find. It looked ok at the time. I used some magnet wire I have for projects as the U-bolts. Then I remembered I had the Meng nuts & bolts sets. Off came the brass nuts and on went the Meng ones. I like them muuucch better. I need to take picture of lousy fitting parts before instead of just after. The rear suspension parts didn't fit well to the frame at all. I had to do surgery to them to get them to fit against the frame rails. Also had to work the airbags to get them to fit as well. They were molded with really thick attachment points to the frame. I guess to compensate for the crappy fitting suspension arms. Shocks have been dry fit here had to use some styrene to fill the gap in the axle. Also molded on u-bolts are gone. rescribed the spring leaves to give them definition after removing the molded on ones. Filled the notch where the axle is supposed to go. Added more meng bolt heads. More to add yet, there are 8 per hangar. Thanks for looking

I need a better image hosting site Photobucket is soooooooo slow. And might i add highly irritating. What does anyone recommend? Thanks Tom

Lets get this started. First I haven't built a car model or Semi Tractor since I was a kid in the 70's. That was until 3 yrs. ago, then I built a 1974 Roadrunner for my mother in law as a Christmas present. I have to admit it was fun, but I went back to armor and aircraft. In that time I had thought it would be fun to build one of the trucks I used to drive. So I picked up this Italeri Freightliner FLC kit. The Inspiration come from the first trucking company that I liked driving for. The name of the company was Rose Way Inc. based out of Des Moines Iowa. The photo is of a mid 80's Freightliner with the stem headlights. It was what my first truck with them was. After a few weeks I got a newer version with the heavy fiberglass hood it was around a 1987 model. I have searched and searched for additional pictures of these trucks but I don't have any, they got lost in a divorce. So the only picture I have is this one from Hanks Trucks Pics. I do remember my truck number was 1536. So I will build it to the best of my memory. I haven't built a semi since I was 10 or so. Hopefully my skills have improved a little. I remember what hey looked like they weren't pretty. Courtesy of Hanks truck Pics: Obligatory box shot: Thanks for looking.

Finally found some better pictures of her truck. And no that's not her in the second picture. It was her boyfriend at the time.

Thank You.

The email came back as dead. So no luck so far.

Can i use my Freightliner FLC I have started on? I have the frame assembled. And at the pace I model probably won't finish it in year anyway. I can't start my wife's dump truck until I get this finished anyway.

I can see the grill is going to be problematic. Although hers has the newer style grill.

Air brake components. Slack adjusters, brake canisters, mounting brackets for the canisters. The italeri brake quipment isn't even a useful representation. The canisters are ok if you cut them off the brackets.

Thank you I will give it a try.

Awesome that site is exactly what I needed. Thanks

Do you know where the additional length is in this hood? I am not above mastering my own if I can get dimensions. Are there plans with dimensions out there anywhere? Thank You

She was telling me last night that hers was definitely an L9000 not an LN. In her words "I know what it said on the hood". lol So I making progress in the right direction here I hope. I have the AMT Race car Hauler and now have the Revell aerodyne Kenworth for the engine & the white road boss for the suspension. So all I need is the hood and grill. Anyone know when Plaskit will be back in business? The Box I will probably have to scratch build as I have seen nothing that really looks like hers. Thanks

Sounds like a good starting point to me.

This is the near twin to her truck. It's the gray one on the right of the picture. Crappy picture but maybe some of you experts can help out. Hers had aluminum tanks.