Chariots of Fire

Got the latch areas put back together and covered. Body was re-painted and weathered a bit. Now I'm working on the lift mechanism for the body and the hydraulic piston that pushes it up. Will post some pix as soon as I have all of the parts together.

Hey, Mike! No I am definitely not ready for winter! It has been such great weather up our way this fall I just don't want it to end! But Alas! Rain and in the 40's and 50's now so it looks like the good stuff has just about gone. I guess I better get the plow done if the IH is going to move any snow!

It's been a while since any progress was posted but I was having a brain f--t as to how to do the tailgate and the locks for it. I wanted a small sliding door in the center of the gate since my truck will be a municipal rig that on occasion would dispense some cold patch to fix pot holes. Going on line I found a couple of images of typical gate mechanisms. The first two pix show the sliding door in the closed position and then in the open position. All the gate parts are made of brass stock; brass angle, sheet, rod and strip. A bit of a pain to get together but there it is. The next issue was how to make up the moving locks that hold the tailgate closed. The solution involved cutting into the completed ends of the body to open up a place for the L shaped locks to sit. Then came how to make them move together. At first I thought of hinging them at the corners of the L but it presented an additional problem of how to make them rotate. After trying unsuccessfully to rotate them about the corner of the L I made an adjustment and now have them rotate from the bottom. The holes at the corners of the L did have a function in the end, however. I was able to temporarily screw the locks in place while the rest of the work was done. You can see the unused holes in the second photo. Here's a better look at it all. There is a piece of 1/16" diameter tubing soldered to the end of each lock. In turn these pieces were inserted into the next size larger tubing that runs across the width of the body. On the larger tubing another small piece of brass stock was soldered that would act as a cam. With both of the 1/16" pieces soldered to the larger tubing they act together and the cam makes them rotate. The rotation moves the L shaped piece up and down which unlocks and unlocks the tailgate. Next to the cab is the lever that operates the locks. A connecting piece of brass rod joins the lever and cam. The lever now moves both of the locks and allows the tailgate to open. Parts will be painted later. Here's the underside showing the brass tubing that extends from side to side connecting the two locks and 1/16" tubing. The cam is located close to the lock in the top of the photo. Now that all of this is in place some small pieces of plastic sheet stock will be used to fill in the open area around the locks. A bit of sanding and repainting and the only thing visible will be the end of each lock where it holds the tailgate closed.

Real nice work! Great piece of scratchbuilding!

Pete's photos above are great examples of good weathering. I talked at length with the guy who did those at Classic Plastic a couple of weeks back. They are outstanding. If you notice a lot of his chrome parts are still shiney. That is the way it should be!

An ambitious project but a great one! Will be following along for sure!

One thing that I have seen a lot of is poor weathering. If done properly it can make an otherwise ordinary model stand out way beyond the others. But so many models have been poorly weathered or rusted in all the wrong places. I've seen models covered with "real mud" as if that were something special. Put that in scale and that "real mud" would be rocks the size of your fist! If you are going to weather a model study how weathering takes place and where it shows up the most. Rocker panels on older cars rust out. The middle of the hood or top usually does not but would be well faded paint. To be done good enough to catch a judge's eye weathering and rusting has to be SUTTLE! Yeah, I know that's not the way it's spelled but you get my drift!

Sliding door should be pretty simple with a U shaped channel top and bottom for the door to slide in. If you have some small brass channel that would work. If not you could build some up with plastic strip stock.

Now for the stake body with individual pieces.

I've done some HO scale trucks and I thought those were a bear to work on! I can't imagine trying to work on something that is only half as big! One thing I know! I would not try and plumb the engine!

You've done some amazing work, Mike. Thinking outside the normal modeling box for sure!

Coming along nicely. Those LED's are really bright! Where did the new grill come from?

CPIF!!! (Cutting plastic is fun!)

Strange that the springs are not centered on the axle.

Usually you can find that sort of thing at model shows. Look in the parts boxes that some vendors have. They typically separate it all out so you might find just what you are looking for in quantity.

What they said! Superglue. You might try minimum superglue in the gaps as well and then sand right away. The sanding particles will mix with the glue to fill the gap solidly. Epoxy may not set up hard enough for you to sand it well.

Actually got that tip from a while back on this board as I recall. Glad to pass it on.

NOOOOO! Andy! PULEEZE! That's too early for snow!

Is the tank elliptical? If so I have seen a solution for it. Take a piece of thin wall pvc pipe slightly smaller than the largest width. Inside it insert a piece of wood that is slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe. This will push the round shape into an oval. Secure the ends with some sheet stock and you have an elliptical tank. All the other stuff is essentially window dressing. Another option is to modify the tank that is in the Monogram AC Mack kit. The tank is old fashioned but it can be modified with a bit of TLC and some scratch building.

That is some nice work, Ray. It's obvious that you know a lot about the truck and where things are supposed to go. All that detailing sure looks nice.

Got into the details a bit. A snow plow frame was built up of 1/8" angle stock, sheet stock and some tubing. A hydraulic "pump" and belt were added in the engine compartment and a tow plate with pintle hook were made up for the back. Will concentrate now on the lift mechanism for the body, the tailgate and the lever that unlocks it. The rear view mirrors also got changed.

That's pretty nice! Is that a photoetched IH emblem on the front?

Thanks, Tom! I guarantee you the next one you see will be red!! Town of Marion has one that was built by Maxim as a brushbreaker. It has been refurbed with new bodywork and an up-to-date paint scheme. That is what is on the project table after the dump truck is finished. After that.... there will be something that is completely different but as for now it is under wraps with very tight security!

SUPER CLEAN build!! Awesome work. Neat as a pin! Love it!

I guess it did turn out ok!! The color scheme and graphics are just great!