cifenet

Ok, once decals go on, things are looking much better! 1:43 scale has its charm and your build is showing off these small and yet fine details very nicely.

Love the color and progress so far! Never knew nail polishing color can be this good! I built the same kit some years ago and I enjoyed building it. Keep up the good work!

Much appreciated for your kind words and support! And thank you very much for the thread discussing the subject I want- tinting the windows! It has some excellent information! I have been also experimenting the tinting part and the technique I am trying is to thin the paint three four times than usual and then make multiple passes to gradually adding the shade. And lastly, I was also not a huge fan of trucks in general as of March of this year. But since then, I am on third build of trucks. Just like that.

How are you building these so fast and so good!? I know you just introduced a couple of trucks last week which were also fantastic! I really like this one, the overall finish is top notch and I like what you did with the frame. The glossy red finish fits perfect. I always thought semi gloss or flat finish would look better for the frame, but this really looks superb. And all of the upgrade pieces do make the truck look quite special including the exhaust pipe ends spitting outwards! Nice job~

It looks very good, but we want more photos!

Thanks Daniel! It has been very fun build using all kinds of metallic finishes. Lots of chrome on this truck, I really want it to be be shiny at the end! Let's see if I can pull it off! Thanks Haken for detailed info on brake chambers, I actually did not know that they store the bolt within the chamber. Having said that, I really wanted to add that cage bolt piece to enhance the look and having it really makes the brake chamber sophisticated. I suppose you can still have these cage bolts in the truck considering it is getting the brake components serviced during the maintenance check at a dealer. Ha!

Nicely done! Great engine details as well!

This is as awesome as it can be! Amazing details and finish! Thanks for sharing.

Slow iteration this time, but still made some forward progress. As a typical build takes weeks, I like to clean my work bench between build sessions. And I must have accidentally threw this piece in the trash. There are 2 x part number 125, and I can only locate one. Luckily, I think I can scratch build this part by using a thin plastic strip and a round plastic tube. Now, more about the cab mounting on Revell's Peterbilt 359: As far as the instructions are concerned, the part 15 and part 16 need to be mounted at a same level so they are parallel in terms of height. My cab mounts on top of these and if there is any slight deviation from the correct the mounting position, the cab will not sit straight. And after carefully studying the cab assembly step yet again, I noticed that the arrows are going under the floor part "134" (see circles). So this does indicate that those mounting tabs need to go under! The instructions were indeed correct, it just that I didn't interpret it correctly. I started the polishing process as I make progress in painting. Polishing silver based color is tricky where gloss clear coat is almost necessary. And another downside of applying clear coat on top of silver metallic is that clear on silver metallic color doesn't show off its shine well. Sometimes, it is possible to damage base paint during the polishing process. Usually the paint on the edge gets polished away and requires retouching. I am masking off the good area here so I can repaint the exposed edges only. I de-chrome the wheel covers. Then applied gloss black to reveal ugly scratches. I began the process to correct this by sanding off the top surface. After some corrective actions, the painted chrome came out satisfactory for me. The wheel covers occupy large space on the back of truck, I wanted these parts to look great. Now it is time to replace the main driveshaft with aluminum tubing parts. It is all about cutting the universal joint ends and replacing the middle shafts. I also spent some time making small parts that may (or may not) improve overall frame details. Also I had a choice to make. I think the black windshield molding is what the factory uses, but it just looks super cool to have shiny trims around. As usual, a black gloss coat is applied and I chromed it. This paint is from Mr. Hobby and it is an acrylic paint. This is one of my best clear red paints where I hand paint many things with it including red brake lights. I was surprised that Revell did not include any "clear" parts for rear tail lights. And this entire bumper is molded in one piece. I began painting the tails lights using Mr. Hobby clear red. I used UV curing clear resin to mimic the light covers. I think this method is quite effective. I picked my interior color for the truck. I didn't want the usual offering, but I wanted to look slightly "fancy" and special. I mixed these two colors and produced something off purple. It may turn out to be ugly at the end, but let' see how it goes! My next step is to get things moving with the seats and fuel tanks. The frame details are also almost done as well. Thanks again for following!

That is good to hear! I know this method is also economical comparing the cost of similar P/E grille parts.

Impressive implementation! Keep up the good work!

Piece by piece, you are systematically connecting all the dots here! It looks like everything came straight out from the kit. But they are not! And is that how inner side of wheels are in this kit? That is some wild design!

Fantastic work you got going and great job with rivets. I hope the damage isn’t extensive, but I know how these things happen and we all need to regroup and push forward.

Getting closer, but still going! Doors fit nicely. No rubbing. The kit allows the doors to open and close, but I am hesitant to allow that. "Less moving parts = robust build = less problem" I want this sun visor to be shiny so the surface must be smooth. Unfortunately, the black primer revealed this sink mark that got pushed out from the other side. This type of issue will slow your work and take fun out of building. Another recess spin marking problem on headlights. I want to give some depth to the light housing, so I ended up removing the flat surface. A simple divider panel was made to split the headlight since there are two light bulbs (high and low beam). Again, utilizing parts from beads making, I simulate the headlight bulbs. Painted the inner light housing with silver and using Micro Kristal Klear, I attached the lens. The white residue (shown at the side of the lens) will dry clear! On certain situations, it becomes very beneficial to follow my wife on shopping trips. It was one of those days when I found this. This splatter guard (for frying pan) mesh can be used on grilles. I can probably build at least 10-20 grilles, no problem. And the mesh pattern is better than anything I have seen! Also no painting required. Peterbilt front is looking better now. Semi gloss black coat was applied to the chassis frame and I began attaching sub components that I made earlier. I see the differentials have joint line showing up, but I won't lose sleep over it. I did my best to connect air lines based on several diagrams. I struggled building previous two semi trucks on this, and this is no exception. For certain piping path, I had to hide the end of hoses because I really do not know where they would need to go from one side to the other. Maybe there is information already available and I just can't find it. Another test fitting session here. I don't want any unplanned surprises later. I solved the front track being too narrow, but I cheated. I extended the cap that mounts the front wheel to the hub. Time to mount wheels permanently. This truck will not have rotating wheels. I don't plan to play it around, so the wheels will be positioned and glued on! I noticed that my truck wasn't sitting straight. To be accurate, it is the cab not sitting in parallel. After spending some time figuring this out, I found out that it all started with my sleeper not being correctly assembled. If you recall (hope you do!) from the previous WIP, I mentioned that instructions were somewhat vague on how to assemble the sleeper and I didn't know how to mount the sleeper floor. Those guide tabs NEED to be under the floor. I assembled mine incorrectly. So if you are using this as build reference, please do not do what I did. There were 6 mounting points for the cab/sleeper and the incorrectly assembled sleeper floor altered mounting positions including the height of the last three mounting pins. Due to three mounting points under the sleeper being too tall, it broke the proper geometry of how the cab/sleeper should sit on the frame. This caused the cab to sit at an angle creating uneven gap at the front. To fix this issue, I had to shave off the middle mount points somewhat and the last mounting pin now has a bigger mounting hole. If this is too confusing, then don't be. If you assemble your sleeper floor correctly, you will not see this issue! Thanks for following!

You did an excellent job making this good! Looks flawless and high quality! ??? (clapping)

Great finish, looks like it came out of a promo photoshoot!

Great job putting this together, not the typical subject I see. The truck has its classic feel to it and you built it very nicely capturing the look.

Great work! Looks awesome. Can’t wait to see how everything comes together!

Nice details you are working on, looking good! These small details do matter, I think all of these definitely will improve the overall look. It may look delicate, but the rod size looks perfect for the mirror application as well.

Fantastic progress! Good job!

Thanks for the hint. I have never thought of the food coloring. I am digging up some info right now. At the end, if I find myself not comfortable for executing this, I will probably keep the window parts as they are.

Wow, it is like looking at a technical drawing. Amazing attempt and a great result so far! I wonder how you would address the round edge of the cab. I suppose the cab looks very boxy, it may not be an issue.

Great paint job! Smooth! You may not even need to polish this. I know laying out a good paint layer is the half the battle, but this is progressing well.

I see the difference now. But unless you pointed out, I would probably not notice it at all. The radiator looks proper to me, and I can see that many pieces were used to create the shape. I really wonder how the truck will turn out at the end. Great process so far!

The way this truck is standing looks very good. Well balanced and poised. Love the details and I can see tremendous efforts went into it! Keep it up!