Rockford

I've actually finished something! Got the Trailmobile finished. Decals on the reefer, little bit of pipework etc... I'm really happy with it. I'll post it in Under Glass

What a trip this has been! You're a great sharer! The finished product is going to be impressive. I particularly like your photography of the truck itself, makes it look very realistic.

I have to laugh when you say "I'll do a better job next time", look at the thing, it's brilliant! I couldn't hope to do something of that quality!

Steve Weathering would just be another chance to ruin my work, in my eyes. Just painting my models terrifies me until I get good results and then I'm elated. Weathering would be great, if I could trust myself to do it acceptably, so factory fresh they will have to be. I am thinking of lettering one of these though. You'll notice that the decals I put on the dark blue reefer have all gone. That's because I masked it when I decided to paint the grille instead of foiling it, and it took them all off. I accepted that philosophically, but that's about at the limit of my rework tolerance.

Apologies for being AWOL but my poor old mother in law finally succumbed to that dreaded Alzheimer's. It was rather traumatic because it turned her swallow reflex off. Four days of fighting for her life before it overtook her. So, the last week has been awful but my dear wife let me have some time on my workbench today for a bit of therapy. I did some detailing on the reefer, painted the rims silver on the Fruehauf, coloured my marker lights, built up the bogies, painted the battery boxes for the reefer batteries in a matching colour to the reefer and fettled the landing gear to operate. Looking good but not quite finished yet...

Wow, wow, and double wow!

Thanks mate, this is simple stuff in comparison to your jobs but I've spent four days and acres of masking tape doing these two. They're worth it though.

Well I couldn't avoid it any longer. I had to tackle the top and bottom rails. I was that nervous about the job I considered brushing them but I knew that would be patchy and with my trembling hands nowadays, a straight edge would be impossible. So, masked up both trailers this morning. It's a job trying to mask the whole job except for two little strips around the edge. The nature of the subject means that the very joint you're trying to mask is a row of hundreds of rivets so the tape has little room to grip. I laid it slightly over the line so that when I ran a cocktail stick along the river line it pulled back to where it needed to be. Did the same as on the Bison and sprayed a coat of the white first to seal the joints, then two coats of silver... I was either going to come away laughing or crying. Fortunately it was the former! As peeled off the tape the lines were sharp, straight and crisp. Just one or two places where there's a little bleed through, but only a slight shadow. The only real thing is that I seem to have missed masking a triangle on the front bulkhead of the Trailmobile but that will polish out.

Continued with the paint in the two reefers. Perfect conditions for painting, 34% humidity at 24°C, won't be many days like this. I was keen to use a different colour on the running gear etc... but after looking at hundreds of old photos of the era 98% of the trailers were a gull grey shade, only high end custom jobs were painted anything else. My truck are workhorses so that's grey it needs to be. Sprayed my reefer grills silver, the AMT kit version is on the right, my hand built one on the left. Then the van sides were sprayed white. All turned out very well. Tomorrow, the silver on the top and bottom rails. Just don't want any bleed through.

Scary day today. Reached the paint stage and I hate the paint process, there's so many ways things can go wrong and ruin the kit, prep, masking, the weather... Shot the primer over the lot. Then gave the reefer units a couple coats of light blue and the fuel tanks silver. They look good. One terror overcome. Next is chassis colour(s). Fairly straightforward, easy masking. Big dilemma is the white sides and the ali top and bottom rails. I don't know which to do first because of the masking. Ali rails then white or vice versa? I'll ponder it over breakfast in the morning.

Turned my attention back to my two trailers. When I painted the Bison I had some blue that was close to a Thermo King colour so I used that. Foiled and washed the grille. Not perfect but acceptable. Detailed the control panel and dials. Drew up some grill slots and cabinet door shuts on clear decal paper. Also reduced some TK logos and printed them. I didn't have any white decal paper so I just painted a white square on the clear sheet and overlaid my logos on it. Works fine. Door shuts could be thinner but they look ok.

Absolutely brilliant stuff.

I'm truly flabbergasted at the workmanship in this job. It's brilliant. If we hadn't seen it come together in the WIP you'd never guess it was hand built.

The 10th wooden buck was an interesting point. You begin to see how there were so many discrepancies in the finished kits. All before computers. Pencils and slide rules.

This is interesting, an article in Overdrive from 1977 on AMT and the model production process. Sadly the last page appears to be missing but still some good info. I won't spoil it.

Great little rig that mate. I have to restrain myself from getting into 1/87 stuff, there's some really nice stuff out there.

So, "I'm calling this finished" - to coin a popular phrase. It's one of the two Bisons I've been working on in my WIP, the other being a double sleeper. Final step was to draw up some Chevy bowties, a BISON nameplate and my fictional company logo Duvall Transfer Company. All done with old Microsoft Paint® on clear decal paper. I know they lose their colour against the paint but they look ok. White decal paper would have created its own issues. I'm happy with it all round. All the little adjustments have come together to make it a decent looking truck.

That's a masterpiece.

But how's the cab? Did it survive ok? It is such a work of art that you did there I'd hate to see it damaged.

Thanks Steve It's easier than it looks, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it! ?. Yes the wheels on these kits are horrendous but it's all I've got to work with. They're hidden usually but with opening the hood I've created a monster here. I'm currently working out a fix for this truck. I'm not a 3D printer/aftermarket person. I have to be resourceful [or stupid/stubborn?].

Thanks Ben. You can do it mate, just do your homework, get dimensions, positioning etc... and start building layer by layer. I'm not craftsman, believe me.

Didn't get my full afternoon off today but got a little done. Broke the candle out and bent up suitably sized sprue into a bottom and top hose for the radiator and an exhaust pipe from the turbo. For rubber hose I used some sheathing for household wiring that's sat in my garage for decades. Does the job perfectly. So my radiator is plumbed in now.

Put the inlet system together. Built a crosspipe between the air filters out of chubby sprue. Used the same with a candle to form two 90 degree bends. Wrapped the bends in 0.8mm square rod to simulate the strengthening ribs and matched it all up to the turbo inlet. Looks ok.

I had success several years ago using food colouring to tint screens. You basically form a bath of food colour and dip the pieces. It takes a bit of experimentation regarding strength and method but it worked well. There might be a tutorial somewhere.