cifenet

Brilliant! I like how step by step things are shaping up nicely. Very interesting to follow.

Amazing, this is some work! With the roof installed shaping up the bus, I can easily envision how awesome this is going to turn out!

Nice job on this! Looks proper to me in terms of proportion and overall quality. Is this an AMT kit, right? I guess you did mention parts were changed, perhaps it makes things better compared to the stock kit. I am interested in building 359, I just didn't know how good or bad AMT or Revell 359 kits are, so just curious!

You did a great job on this! The overall finish is excellent and the quality shows. The engine details came out very good as well. I would drive one of these in 2023!

You did a nice job finishing this kit looking good! I like how everything is carefully put together and painted!

Just like the real thing! This is not an easy build for sure, but everything you have done looks very truth to the realism including CF decals!

It is gorgeous! A great choice of color and nice trim work, indeed.

Quality finish, great photography, and a faithful scale modeling! ?? ?? Bravo!

I am honored to see many positive comments! Keeps me motivated for sure! Appreciated, Carl! BTW, cool "Steve McQueen" as the avatar was a good choice! Thank you, David! Thank Brian! Someone commented your Tri-axle dump truck the other day and I get to enjoy seeing it just now. It was super fantastic what you did! I really like your realism on wear/tear weathering on dump. I would think some silver base coat/brown coat was carefully rubbed off to simulate the actual wear damage? It was one of the best I have seen. Nice job. Hi Chris, I see you always providing positive comments to all of us! Thank you for your support in this forum! Thank you, sir! I am flattered! I am following you Kenworth build also. The way it is progressing, I have a feeling it will turn out to be super! Thank you for the feedback, Mathias! Hi Jim! I really appreciate that you have been a good support on my topics so far and making this a great online community!

Super sharp and properly done! Love the small touch on tire markings. Very cool build, indeed!

Impressive! Nice job making this kit, I really like how it came out. Various small details are nicely done too.

This is one cool looking build and the paint job came out awesome! Thanks for sharing this build!

Looks good, I like the color too! But next time when taking photo, I'd be pick somewhere else safer, I definitely would not want to lose this over cliff here!

Awesome work here! I'd drive this today for sure.

Nice details! Good job making this look very cool! I like it!

Very realistic looking build! Nice job on this! I like the front grille came out also, looking great.

Hi Alex! Your supportive comment is very welcome! Thanks!

Hi guys, I finally finished another semi-truck and this time, it was very enjoyable. I started roughly three weeks ago and I put about 45-50 hours building it. I find these semi-truck kits delightful, they have distinctive features which you can build around to give characters! It was super fun and the feeling of accomplishment of getting it done is addictive! Now some close up photos for details: And here is the WIP I worked on for the truck: Thanks for watching!

You are taking this into another level for sure! Great work so far and I can definitely see things are shaping up.

The interior looks very luxurious! Nice job! And a good technique to hide the tank seam line!

This is becoming a very interesting WIP! Hope to follow more! It is also interesting how you paint the color where parts are still attached to part sprue. When the parts are detached from the tree, how would you address the unpainted spots that are exposed? Would that be just simple spot touch up, or do you go back and spray second coat? Just curious~

Thanks for the explanation on this, Steve! I could see that placing the fuel tank at certain location would be a priority factor rather than making sure that they are in symmetrical location between left and right. On the driver side, I see the truck has battery box under the cabin whereas the passenger side has the fuel tank underneath. I can see some challenge balancing two fuel tanks and a battery box (assuming multiple batteries are heavy!) and at the factory thought this was the best they could do... Nevertheless, when I found out this truck has unsymmetrical fuel tank configuration, it really bothered me at first. And thanks again for the kind feedback on this build! Thanks, Ronnie! I initially wanted to do black/white combo with gold stripes, but thought metallic blue would look more interesting! Thanks, Justin! I am glad I was able to finish it; I have old builds that still waiting for me to resume the work... Hi Gary, appreciated your positive comments!

I managed to wrap up the build over the weekend and here is the update. This would be my last update for International Transtar 4300 Eagle. I would like to do another truck before I try something less stressful. And I have to mention that building these heavy vehicles does reward you with a sense of accomplishment at the end. I added a small support beam (a toothpick wrapped with some masking tape!) so I can insert the intake pipe here as nothing holds this in place. I painted and wrapped the intake pipe with metal foil strips. It is probably the easiest way to detail hose connectors although P/E clamp sets offer better results. My mirrors looked very boring, I decided to add some details. The kit included two spot lights, but the instructions do not mention where they go. And they were missing the clear lens parts. I used UV resin to clear the lens. Antennas, electrical/communication cables, and spot lights added. The pictures doesn't show, but I added reflective tapes to simulate the mirrors as well. This is how the truck looks after completing the engine details, exhaust stacks, and mirrors. Mud guards were also something that I wanted to improve. The parts from the kit were too thick and stiff looking. Initially, I wanted to just add support brackets using the P/E fret (L shape area) portion, but I gave up that idea quickly since things were getting laborious. Instead, I rebuilt the parts using plastic sheet and plastic rods. Definitely easier to work with. Simple, but I think it should do the trick. I still do not know why some of these trucks has staggered fuel tanks setup. They are not symmetrical in terms of the left and right position. My common sense says they can disturb the weight balance in a bad way, so why this setup? Could someone educate me, please? Because of this setup, the area pointed with the red arrow (above) feels "empty". My internet search reveals that certain trucks mount an "extra" fuel tank or a tool chest in this area and some has this step ladder mounted (see red arrow) for the sleeper. I decided to go with the step ladder setup and simply made up something that looks "functional". I also started working on storage shelf that sits on the frame. I bought these the other day and my wife laughed at me so hard. She thought I was going to use these on my nails. They may not work as is, but once you add clean resin to round the diamond cut, all of sudden, these can be very useful for replacing side markers and turn signals. I used these to replace my torpedo lights on Chevy Titan. They looked very convincing. I will be using them to represent side markers for International Transtar 4300 Eagle. Another painting session, I actually enjoy airbrushing as long as the part counts stay low! I gave yellow coat for shocks. Bilstein shocks, maybe? I gave exhaust smoke stain on the exhaust pipes also. After giving some stains and washes, I had odd urge to wash more. I gave dirty wash on the sleeper, but it didn't work for my taste and cleaned off some. I will see what direction I want to do with this. Added the mud guard and shocks. From this point, everything is going to be attaching various parts... I feel like I can add more stuff for the engine, but I got lazy and wanted to just finish quicker. My engine work is done for this kit. I wrapped the blinkers with metal foil strips hoping to improve details. I don't think this is correct in terms of the real thing though. I permanently attached the bumper and grille. Once you attach the grille, you cannot detach the hood anymore (you can still flip it open). The hinge mechanism requires you to spread the front part of the hood so the attaching pins can come off, but attaching grille will prevent the hood to be flexible at front. I painted the sleeper boot that connects to cabin also. I am also thinking about adding these lane guides (is that the correct term?), but they interfere when the hood flips open. I will need to further implement this so everything works. I think the truck is 95% done! The sleeper needs work, still needs attachments, and bit more polishing left. I started building this three weeks ago and I totally enjoyed the building experience. My execution of the build wasn't satisfying and at times, I was kept making silly mistakes which dragged on the progress. I am sure the way I built this truck isn't correct in terms of the actual vehicle, but this is what I could only accomplish knowing (or not knowing) the subject. I certainly would like to give another truck a try, but perhaps I will need to do some reference studying first. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for the kind words, I am flattered. And I am also starting to realize that building these trucks makes you to be humble... By the way, some of the boxes does say these kits are for skill level 2 (out of 3) and age 12+. That cannot be true. I can't see 12 years old kids making these till the end, anyway. They need to warn the builders that "frustration" is included free inside! Appreciated your supportive feedback! But as you can see, I am making many mistakes including the stripes not having "equal" gaps and paint borderline showing up from under coat... I'd redo from beginning if I can, but I think I passed the point of no return. I just promised myself that my next won't have this kind of problems....

Classic and beautiful! They are nicely put together. Thanks for sharing the models!