BK9300

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.

Thoughtful idea of using Jamie's mud flaps on the headache rack. Really like all your detail work and paint highlighting - very cool build, Mark!

I have one of those Bandag Bandits, in a box in storage, and your pics reminded me of that. Nice colour for your 'Old Iron' tribute!

Going to be hit and miss for the next couple weeks - more things to do besides bench work! Did start on de-chroming a bunch of little parts and hope to fit in some painting on those in the next while. Will keep checking in, though - always good to see what else is being built in the forum!

Thanks for the generous comments, Randy - much appreciated! Hoping to get to the paint in a week or so! Thanks kindly, Mark! Having a bunch of pics and measurements has sure helped with the scratch building.

Yes, Sir - very close!

Looks like fiddly work, for sure - back end is really coming together and the detail looks great!

Got to love gizmology - you're off to a good start with your first big rig!

Thanks very much, Jürgen!

Really coming together, Sam - too bad about the doors!

Amazing work, Ken!

My hat's off to anyone who takes on a weathering challenge - your results look amazing!

Appreciate that, Jeff - paint is coming real soon!

I've been distracted for much of this month, going over pictures for a couple new projects, and doing lots of idea work in Sketchup. Not being evasive, but the 'vision' for what's going to be next and how to do it hasn't been totally worked out, so nothing to let you know about yet - it will definitely be another 'maintenance' vehicle, though! Fun stuff, thinking about a new project, but I needed to put those distractions to the side and get the rest of the plow truck finished. Did the final repairs to the top of the hood and fenders, and some on the cab, and re-primed them. Now I need get on with the mirrors and air cleaner, figure out where to drill holes for locating pins and then get the hood and cab sprayed with final colour, and start the final assembly of the front end. Have done this a couple times now - light priming, repair the pinholes I see, and light re-prime and sand to see what's left. Like I said before, not my favorite part of building! All seems to be good now - any remaining defects I find after colour is sprayed will need to be sanded out as well. I had grand ambitions to do the mirrors from tubing, fasteners, etc., but I looked closer at the kit mirror parts - they look pretty decent and I may be able to save myself some work. If I can clean them up, drill in some thin brass rod mounting pins, and get them re-chromed ok, all without any breakage, then I think I'll be ahead a bit - A couple motivation pics, for the home stretch! Back in February, @Rockford asked me about issues with the cab being blue plastic and the hood being white plastic. Didn't know about that, so did a test spray on a spare hood - with grey primer, then white primer and finally a Camel Yellow top coat - it turned out well then, and there has been no bleed through since. So, after the locating pins for the mirrors and air cleaner are drilled, will carry on priming hood and cab with Tamiya white primer and then spray the top coat(s). Striping of kit chrome, and re-chroming still to happen, Then, final assembly (lots of little bits) and a few decals to come after that - take care!

First off, sorry Jeff - I missed this - apologies (and thanks!).