BK9300

I got a bit more painting done today. Second coat of primer on the cab and then I painted the inside of the hood. Still looks like the grey primer, but its a bit darker, closer to the unfinished inside of the hood on the real truck. After, I had some over spray to clean up on the outside of the hood and it made me realize I had better mask off the inside of the hood before I paint the colour coat. I had wanted to not mask it off, to try and reproduce some of the colour coat overspray on the inside of the hood of the real truck, but, based on what happened when I painted the inside of the hood, I just might make too big a mess to recover from. As it is, I will need to do one more coat of primer on hood, after I mask off the underside. I might have chickened out, by masking off the inside of hood, but better safe than sorry, at this stage! Maybe I can apply some over spray after all is painted, using low pressure on the air brush and well thinned paint. My putty mess from yesterday has been fixed - at least as well as my patience allowed me to! Cab is ready for colour coat - Will need one more coat of primer on outside of hood, after masking off inside, to deal with sanding off the overspray from the inside. Then it will be ready for colour coat, too. I'm pleased with how the slightly darker grey shows up the inner hood bracing. Still need to paint hood support pads a flat black or rubber black to finish them off, and add the inner fender well rubber flaps - The little grommet on the front, inside of the hood (there's another one on the opposite side) will be to support the wire runs to the plow lights Hope to get to colour by mid-week. Take care!

Between the other stuff I'm occupied with these days, I did get to do a little more prep work for painting and eventually a bit of priming. Done with the grey primer on the hood, cab and day panel and into the white primer, similar to what ended up being done with the sander, before applying the finish colour. Still missed some glitches on the cab, that stood out worse with the white primer, so had to do something with them, too. Also, got most of the cab's 'chrome' parts primed and ready for the Easy Chrome black undercoat. Still have to do that test run with the chrome, first. Had a good afternoon in the paint booth - not totally clear from the pics, but two coats of Tamiya fine, white primer now on hood and day cab panel (cab has one coat but is back in the house, to fix a couple more things). Stripped chrome bits for the cab have been primed, along with the plow light housings, the two small sections of 0.2 mm styrene for the inner fender flaps, and the visor for the cab - I thought I would be able to get the second coat of white primer on the cab today, after filling in some small gaps in the top edge of my firewall modification. But, being a bit impatient and trying to fit too much into the time I had, I started to work the putty before it had hardened all the way through. So, now I have to let it set up more, and then fix my fix! I also got to spend some time thinking about the front grille and grille surround. Had initially wanted to have grille bars detached from surround, like on the real truck, so grille bars wouldn't bump into front plow lift arms when hood is displayed open. When I put everything together today, to look at how to do it, it quickly became obvious I had a problem. Real truck has rubber baffles around the rad sides, and some very short angle brackets to attach the grille bars, just a bit proud of the rad. I didn't pay close enough attention to how close the grille bars are to the rad on the real truck, and the way the engine, rad and hood assemblies come together in the model, that gap would simply be too much, if I made the grille bars flush with the grille surround. So, I'm going to reattach the grille bars to the surround, and limit the hood opening so the grille bars stay just clear the plow lift arms. The hood will still open most of the way, and there is a small bonus to this problem as the transmission cooler will now be visible when hood is open. I just need to run three, thin strips of 1.5 mm styrene along the horizontal bars on the back of the grille, to reattach it to the surround. Then this bit can be primed and chromed, too. Was able to remove a few things from the list of outstanding items to finish, today, and only added one thing back, so, good day - take care, and hope the summer is going well for everyone!

What a trio! I can only imagine wresting with the 'armstrong' steering, driving one these around all day long!

Just a really excellent build, James - fantastic paint and finishing details all around - well done!

All around, a very special accomplishment - you must be very proud of what you’ve created. Very well done!

Like following your builds, and this one is no exception - everything is very well thought out, and well executed. Treat to watch.

Excellent work on your upholstery upgrade - looks great!

Cool back story, Scott. Lots of detail in the chassis and motor - maybe you can display it with body off? From the looks of your first pic of the resin body, and the one photo of the real car, likely would have been a hell of a job to separate the hood from the body, cleanly. Coming together nicely.

Nice bonus - well done!

Great overhaul on your DAF, Jürgen! Never set eyes on one in real life, but, from your model, it sure looks like a workhorse of a truck.

Progress of any kind is good - summer’s a busy time for everyone, so good to see any movement forward. Looking good!

Looking good, Jeff - delicate work going on here!

A ‘no nonsense’, all business looking truck - well done!

Your bed floor and rails look exceptional - and all the rest is looking just as good.

Very precise work on your rims, Steve - the improvement is dramatic!

Lots of work ahead of you! From my very limited experience with resin printed items, I think your styrene booms will be stronger than printed ones would be. Going to be impressive!

Good modifications, Ron - posable steering will definitely be a bonus for the truck - nice work.

Appreciate that, Jeff! Painfully slow, but still moving ahead.

Must be very satisfying to design and print your own kit. A whole bunch of new skills needed to do that, for sure - your results are amazing! What scale are you using for these models?

Big improvement on your slicks - that process could be a post in the 'Tips and Tricks' section. Tough (and fast!) looking car.

Awesome build, David - love the tri-drive! Any plans for a trailer to go along?

Another excellent build, Scott - can spend a lot of time looking at all your detailing!

I've never done any de-chroming of kit parts before. Common knowledge to many out there, but sure was amazed at how well oven cleaner does the job! Was able to spend some time today cleaning up the de-chromed parts for the cab - removing what I could of the parting lines on the thin mirror braces, and some injection pin marks, etc. Because I opted to use the kit parts for the mirrors and hand rails, instead of making my own, I now had to re-drill all the locating holes for the kit parts - that sure felt like a step backwards! Basically ready to do some test chrome painting and then on to the cab parts for real. A few mock up pics of the mirrors and handrail/grab bars sitting in place on the cab - (day cab panel not glued in place just yet. . .) Once the grab bars, mirrors, etc, are re-chromed, I going to use some of the Tamiya Mirror Finish film to make the mirror inserts. Still not going to get much build time in during the coming week or so, but will do what I can - take care!

Charles, you topped this excellent build off with even more details! All of the detailing is well dont but I'm very intrigued with your leather strap and buckle hold downs.

Very nice build! Hard to find rubber tires like the ones you have on this truck.