cifenet

My my... This is one beautiful beast and looks super amazing at this stage. Those aluminum steps sure do look fantastic on the truck too~

The kit gives you TWO catwalk plates (deck plates) to cover the top portion of this frame. If you are attaching the sleeper, then you end up using one deck plate as shown above. With the fifth wheel plate + catwalk on it, you won't see ANY of the details underneath. I personally don't like this setup, I will still try to find some other way to open up the top so "some" detail work can be seen. This is my "quick-but-works" jig for assembling the mirror parts (this is the back side of catwalk plate). 😎 Measured the distance and mounting points on the truck mirror mounts and marked on the jig so I can temporarily assemble to create one unit. Building it was somewhat tricky since the bottom support has slight upward slanted angle. Luckily it fits well, now I just need to create opposite one ... Not skillful to do some brass tubing/soldering work, I relied on aluminum tubes and CA glue... Lastly, my tank straps are attached and now I need to complete the other side (which will make this truck even more heavier)...

Good to hear from you Gary!! 💪

While I was going through some impediment, I also sent my air filter canister to the bleach bath. Starting over... I am going to build a longer/better looking canister with a help of brass/aluminum pipes. I think I can... My A/C unit that sits on the roof isn't perfect. Both sides have very bad indentations. I only got to find this out while laying my first coat of paint. Fix it? Or let it go? Should I repair it? Or don't bother? It just became a road block and I can't decide which way I need to continue. 🤔 I also worked on my dashboard today. I decided not add any interior details, but I cheated and got myself an interior detail kit. I used light curing clear resin to simulate the instrument gauge glasses. And lastly I painted the steering wheel with cream color thinking it will accentuate the interior decor. In addition, my drive shafts are in and they are made out of simple aluminum pipes. I have total three driveshafts connecting the engine all the way to the rear axles. I can only guess how expensive it would be for the repair bill if the truck had to replace all three shafts at the same time... 🙄

This update is going to be about random build topics. I also took some steps backward thinking I could do better. This is the first time the truck is standing on its own wheels now. My fronts were the WEAKEST point, the front wheels wouldn't hold, no CA glue would withstand the weight of the truck. After some struggle, I had to use 2 part epoxy to attach them securely. Since the truck was quite heavy, I had to support the front (jack stand) and position my front wheels with positive camber while epoxy was curing. Once the epoxy fully cured and the jack support removed, the wheels were able to hold the load and naturally became zero camber. Some setback! (as usual) The more I look at the grille, I didn't like how it came out. Mainly the metal finish wasn't as sharp as I wanted. This was bothering me for awhile so I decided to redo.

Hey Rob, Right, the contour looks to be off also. While examining the correctness of the hood piece and the front of the cab, I also saw slight difference in thickness. Nonetheless, I am hoping I can complete the build without allowing the minor inconsistency to ruin the outcome at the end... So I keep checking and adjusting as I build... 😁 Thanks again for your support and info! Those tank straps came out tremendously clean and convincing, Bill! Thanks for the info on your solution. I think having those "black" (edge) liners do make them visibly interesting on these trucks!

This one came out very fantastic and it is definitely special! The diorama setting is also very interesting and well made. I like the small details such as the hanging bucket and plastic wrapped boxes on the back. And the beautiful weather you got going.

Progress so far looks very promising! And the color looks super cool, I can see metallic flakes!

Looking very good! I like how you added the support "L" bracket on sleeper too.

Great outcome! All of the putty work came out flawless here. And I like the color and tone too, gives that classic feel.

Those 3D parts looking good! Yeah, I get many of those moments where I end up thinking a lot and not much progress. This is mostly due to the fact that you got so many things to go through and plan out~

Looking better and better on each update! Lots of chrome parts contrasting black quite well also.

Your leather like texture for those seats are quite nice! Good looking interior!

After Rob mentioned the asymmetrical wall thickness, now I can see definite discrepancies on them (circled). To me, both my hood and cab have issues. I think it is somewhat a minor of an issue that no one is going to notice unless someone pays close attention to it. Initially not knowing the cause of the problem, I found a way to "spread" the low part of the cab (close to the front) on one side slightly to make it look aligned. I thought I got it to look straight, but now I am thinking sanding out the wall to match the thickness may also work. These parts will receive shiny metallic silver paint, I am trying to lay down a glossy black coat as my base. Already found issues with my bumper, so many scratch marks are revealed. I will polish out the scratches and re-apply the black paint. It is important to me that I get my front bumper (front grille / front headlights / etc) to look nice. While building this kit, I wanted to know if "water" based clear can properly seal the lacquer based metallic painted surface. For being test samples, these wheels were not properly painted, but they all had lacquer based silver paint that I lightly airbrushed. Then I sprayed Tamiya's acrylic clear and Mr Hobby's acrylic clear to see if they can maintain the metallic color. I only used water to thin the acrylic clear paints: No protective coat Tamiya's acrylic gloss clear Mr. Hobby's acrylic gloss clear Mr Color's lacquer gloss clear (just to see how damaging it would be to the paint) I think Tamiya's acrylic gloss clear performed the best, but not still perfect. Looks like I lost 3-5% shine/metallic feel to the painted surface... I may consider using Tamiya's (X-22) acrylic clear on metallic surface where heavy handling is required.

If you can even out that hood surface nicely, I bet the result is going to be superb!

The paint job looks excellent! Yellow isn't easy to paint since they are weak in color depth and you can easily overrun your paint trying to spray too much. All the detail work showing off too.

Things are coming along nicely on this~ Very interesting build with all kinds of parts being utilized!

Awesome info, Rob! What a great analysis you are doing! Mine involves some eyeballing and measuring by feel, but you are actually doing some investigation based on visual photography study. I read somewhere that these scale models aren't always exact reduction in ratio, but rather each company does some fine adjustments to make sure the models proportion look okay in our eyes. At any rate, I am glad to get your support on tire sizing! Super cool stuff you got going! Fantastic! And you are right about the hood and cab, I do see mine having a thicker wall on one end! I didn't mention this feature in this build just because I wasn't sure why my cab/hood was skewed ever so slightly. Something wasn't right, but something wasn't wrong either... This is a little "dirty" frame rail device I had to add to correct the cabin position thinking this is what I would need to make things straight (I didn't know this was due to the asymmetrical cabin walls)! I originally blamed it on my frame assembly being slightly off, but looks like it is an existing defect. Good work~

Always honor to get positive feedback from you, Brian! I am hoping those tank straps don't cause issues later on. My work bench is super messy, I didn't want to show people how crazy it gets. I just decided to have a dedicated desk with a white poster paper background as my "studio". Jürgen, I think your strap idea will work also. I bet those cable ties bend well and they can probably wrap the tanks easily. But unfortunately, it actually doesn't address my problem as I was looking for "rubber gasket" backing for the straps. Nonetheless, your hints and ideas are welcome. Haha, the black electrical tape can be useful here too. I will fix the piping for sure. Don't want my truck to blow up~ 😛 You are too kind, Jeff! We have so many expert builders/truckers here in this forum, I just hope to absorb as much knowledge as I can while working on these subjects~

Nice update, Brian~ The support rails under the cab are looking fantastic! And the hood is in there like a glove. The primer looks to be well matched!

Superb! Looking good! I see you painted the door trim edge also, nice touch!

Once I was satisfied with the potential solution for handling the fuel tank straps, I began the work of attaching wheels. Attaching wheels requires some mental focus for me... At least it is an activity that I need to concentrate and go through "struggles". I believe this is an important step to get it absolutely correct so spending some effort is must. I tried to ensure these three requirements are met when mounting wheels: All wheels (10) must touch the ground (I know this sounds very obvious, but it isn't always easy) All rear wheels (8) must have same camber and all needs to be mounted so they are parallel to the frame (they won't be parallel without an effort). All wheels must be mounted at their ideal locations (I measured and adjusted all of these during the early part of assembly, so no bad surprise now) Again, I use the slow curing CA glue (mentioned in the previous post) which helps me to adjust and fine tune. If you see the above photo, I put a spare tire (using it as a jack stand here) under the front axle to hold the frame height while wheels are being glued on. Once wheels were on, I test fit other components including the fuel tank and exhaust pipe. As suspected, the extended fuel tank is hitting the exhaust piping. I will have to modify the exhaust piping to correct this problem. More homework for me, but not a big deal, I don't think. In real life, could this be quite dangerous having a super hot exhaust pipe touching the fuel tank? I would think diesel fuel won't ignite like gasoline, so it may be somewhat okay? As I get closer to painting the body, I spent some time today going through my usual surface preparation. I plan to document my findings here, hoping this may be useful for others thinking about building this kit for the first time. First, there were some molding lines on the cab (noted above). I simply remove these using 800/1000/2000# sand paper. I plan to wash the door trim edges after painting, so scribe door lines using a panel scriber (shown here). I filled the mirror mount holes thinking I would drill smaller holes later for my mirror mounts. This step isn't needed if you are planning to use the mirror mounting parts from the kit. All of these roof holes must be drilled prior to assembly. They DO require big holes for reason. Torpedo lights, air horns, AC unit, etc all have big mounting pins. But just make sure not to drill bigger than they need to be. The firewall piece doesn't go all the way up exposing some gap. This piece needs to be accurately attached. Some test fitting is required and I made sure it was flushed again the upper panel. It will hold the hood and also sit on top of the cabin floor which gets mounted on the frame. Without a proper fit, I noticed my cab leans one side when attached to the frame (mounted through the cabin floor). Fenders attach quite easily, but they need to be symmetrical. You can confirm this by allowing the hood to sit on a flat surface. There was a long molding line which also had to be removed by sanding. There are recessed pin marking under the hood. They should be cleaned if you are seeking perfection. I didn't clean them as they didn't bother me too much... Lastly, I sanded down the entire body parts using 2000# sandpaper to reduce the depth of all the rivets. I personally think they are way too pronounced and out of scale.

Appreciate your support and glad to have you checking this out, Randy! Thanks for your approval, Victor, it is great to get your positive feedback!

To make things more interesting, I added some basic piping stuff for this air tank located on the outside under the cab. This is probably only plumbing work I would be doing for this truck. Once attached, I gave a quick black wash and then blended away to create some shadow on two mounting straps. Since I spent some time detailing this part, I want this to be quite visible on the truck... Now time to mount the fuel tanks, but... I have photo-etched tank straps for me to use for this kit, but I also would like to add some rubber gasket look to it. I think there are multiple ways to implement this and for my previous builds, I simply painted in black to imitate the rubber gasket straps. These are pictures from my previous build; I think the result of painting the strap black works quite effectively. You can see the black gasket showing off. The only problem with my current fuel tank is that I don't have any strap molding indentation on the fuel tank for me to paint it black (that is because I replaced mine with copper pipe). If I don't align and line things up correctly, it will look odd. Everything has to line up: the gaskets, straps, fuel tanks and the tank holding brackets. While this problem may not be so serious, I just did not want to screw it up which can lead to bigger problems. I suppose I can temporarily attach the fuel tank, mask it and paint, but I still didn't have the confidence that I can pull it off... The photo-etched strap is shown here and my natural approach was to use decals to stimulate the gasket look. I found some old junk decals with black stripes which I could cut into right size and slide around to position it. Then I found a better material, a faux leather band (it was laying around in one of our bedroom drawers)! Cutting it was easy too and it is thin enough for me to bend around the tank. I rolled the strap using a small pipe and also attached the faux leather trim. I conducted the fuel tank mock up testing and it passed.

Nice work on the frame extension, and it looks great in black already!