Rockford

Another mock up with the quarter fenders added and the pogo stick painted.

In this shot you can see the shocks, the top of the rear diff (which was from a Camaro) and the rear crossmember I added. In the other you can see the brake chambers.

Scary part! Painting can ruin loads of hard work. Primed the wheels and finished in Hycote Aluminium. Don't know whether it's supposed to be dull but it siuts the application here. I was going to do the chassis in another system of rattle can. Shot the primer and something was wrong with the tin so it seemed to load very heavily. Swapped to Hycote primer and used their Gloss Black but the combination of the poor primer and the black blooming resulted in a mediocre gloss. I'm not too bothered because I used to work in a truck paint shop and the chassis wasn't really ever a pristine finish, you just wanted it one colour! Primed the cab and will topcoat that once it's had a chance to cure and then rubbed lightly with some 1200 grit wet and dry. The new rear wall to the cab doesn't look too bad. A quick run of stopper, rub down and reprime should be enough. As I've said before, I know my stuff is tame in comparison to other stuff on this site but it keeps me going. Thanks for looking.

Yuri I thought the first picture was a real truck you were using as a pattern! That is just beautiful. Perfectly executed. The Astro would still look good today, its design was so modern and forward thinking, I love it as a truck and as a model. Well done.

The thing is, you can always change trailers!

Aerodyne I GB I'm not sure if its 13.5 metres overall. Not sure what happened with my post this morning it seemed to go about six times! I've deleted the text.

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Aerodyne This is why I bought the 20ft container trailer. Remember me saying "less is more"? I love the fact that the tractor in this shot is longer than the trailer! In Liverpool there used to be thousands of these little trailers picking up containers from the docks, but they've all gone, replaced with extendable tri-axles. I used to work on these little 20 footers, they were great going forwards because there was no cut in but backing up with them was a nightmare because they'd be round on you in no time and you would be looking at it through your side window, not your mirrors!

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Aerodyne Look what I have waiting to be built! I've built the tractor. The KW would look good on the business end of the tank.

Aerodyne, I see this tractor mating with something like this.... though modified a little to make it more American. The box trailer will probably be plain aluminium as so many were in daily use.

Gerber Thanks for the advice and the kind words,that's a nice Petebilt! Can I ask how long you recommend soaking the bits and do you use it neat? I'm scared of finding melted blob!

Just scored this off Ebay for £10! Checked and all is there except the decals [which I'd never have used anyway]. Three appeared on the same day, one for £25 another for £35 and this for £9.99. Nobody bid for about six days so with 2 minutes remaining I added a penny and it's mine!

Added detail to the exposed chassis. Using plastic card I made some fillets for the crossmembers. Using square plastic rod I fabricated the crossmember for the rear cab mounting and a smaller one for the pogo stick just in front of the tread plate. With the majority of the work done it's time for a quick mock up and looks ok. I know when I prime the cab the joint of the new rear wall will stand out like a sore thumb no matter how much I have rubbed and filled, so I'm braced for that. Anyway, they reckon filler works better over primer.

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Enrico, it will be black chassis with a white cab and a little stripe along the side, pretty much as the truck in the photo though a little longer chassis. On the fuel tanks and battery boxes, I thought e exactly the same and was going to omit one tank, or shorten one etc... and then I realised there's no battery boxes there on the kit and I could go to all that work for something that will never be seen. So, I'm going to move the tanks and imagine they're shortened because it's a day cab on short runs so it doesn't need two 200 gallon tanks. It's the overall effect I'm going for with this, so that it looks ok on the shelf.

I want to move the fuel tanks forward so that they're pretty much completely under the skirts leaving as much empty chassis rail as possible. It also gave me the opportunity to remove the big locating boss they put on the chassis on these kits so the there is is just one straight rail right through. Also stripped the tanks because they're going to be aluminium like the wheels. In the chassis shot you can see the cab mount crossmember I've built out of square rod. I love seeing bare chassis, you don't see anything over here in Europe because everything is crammed into such a small space on our trucks that there's no space left unused. In the 70s and 80s when trucks were much simpler you'd often see the chassis on a truck but not now. I can't generate any enthusiasm for modern trucks, they're just so ugly and ungainly looking with their mini tag axles, steerable trailer axles and all the aero kit, and don't get me started on the amount of plastic! When we had metal bumpers, if a truck hit something you could pull the bumper out and weld any cracks, now it's got to have a complete front end on it costing thousands, but I did say don't get me started so I'll leave it there. I'm not writing a commentary on modern vehicles I'm doing a WIP on my Kitty Whomper.

Stripped the chrome off the wheels using bleach because these are going to be unpolished aluminium. I don't know whether I'm using the wrong product but although the chrome disappears it always leaves behind a clear lacquer on the parts so that they still need sanding to get back to actual plastic. Made myself a pogo stick out of some hollow plastic tube and some solid.

Charles Thanks ever so much for the kind offer but I'm ok with the tyres as they are, they fool the eye enough to look ok. I also think I'd make more of a mess of things than anything. I'm just waiting for the mistake that blights the whole thing, paint soon so could be that! Thank you all for the kind comments too. I look at some of the work being done on this site and I realise that mine is pretty primitive, but it is a real diversion for me, I become absorbed in the task, remembering my days "on the spanners" in the UK. The trucks were pathetic next to the American stuff [ERF, Seddon Atkinson, Foden, DAF etc....] but we had Cummins 14litre engines and Fuller transmissions [which were a bullet proof combination] with Rockwell rear axles so I see some familiar stuff! Takes me back. Strangely, Caterpillar never got into truck engines in UK although I did work on a few in plant like 'dozers.

I will install some shock absorbers on the rear axle too. I made them out of plastic tube, using small pieces at each end to form the locating eyes. I can't fit these until the axles are installed.

I used my cordless drill as a primitive lathe to turn some brake chambers. [I don't recommend this as a method, I'm just demonstrating how incredibly stupid I can be] I'm going to make spring-brake chambers [as we'd call them in UK] that apply the brakes when there's no air in the system, rather than plain service brake chambers. I considered adding slack adjusters and cams but I think that would be a little bit excessive. I first rounded the end, measured 5mm and 2.5mm on the sprue then slowly turned the chuck holding the pen against it to complete the circle. At the 2.5mm line I will turn a groove using a triangular file to create the two halves of the chamber I'll then cut it off at the 5mm mark. Finally, I used a scrap exhaust pipe from a 1/25 Camaro kit to form the black plastic cap on the end of the chamber where the winding-off bolt is [in America you'd call it caging the brakes]. Glued them to the axles and the look passable.

I said I wanted to add some detail to the chassis on this kit, Revell hide the lack of detail with tread plate so that had to come out first. This exposes the top of the rear diff which is hollow so that'll need building up, also you can see there are no brake chambers or shocks or proper crossmember etc...

Andy, thanks for the tip, i'll look them up in case I need them. Tarheelrick, that's a very innovative car carrier made from the fire truck and the issue with red versus white plastic doesn't detract from it at all. Enrico & Gator, sometimes less is more!