Scale-Master

The engine was disassembled and cleaned up and then the parts were painted; mostly silver and black. I painted one part metallic gray and airbrushed just the leading edge of the exhaust cone the same color. The fans are painted black and dry brushed with silver.

I thought once the tug was done it would easier to figure out what the dolly parts were from what was left on the runner, but apparently there are two dollies. (Maybe one is for the armament?) So I'm still playing the same guessing game to a degree, but I think this is the majority of the dolly parts. Curiously there are still several more parts still on the runner. I already assembled and shot these pieces the same yellow.

I semi-dry assembled the engine to figure out how it all fits together. A nut & bolt are provided to sandwich the metal parts of it together, and that was helpful. The circular halved parts were cemented together and the rest is tacked together with white glue. I'll use it as a guide to help figure out the dolly parts.

Thanks for the tip on the steering wheel Alan. I can grime it up more. I was actually wondering about that.

This part is done, but the project is not finished yet… The mirror faces are foil.

I found the rear license plate so I removed the decal on the right rear and made a duplicate one for the new part. I also added another Toyota decal for the rear; slightly different than the one on the front. More weathering/wear was applied as I went along adding parts. The seats were done with washes of brown panel line accent.

I noticed a couple holes on the body that I could not find parts to put into them so I had to fill them and touch up/blend the paint. I went ahead and cemented the hood section to the body since the pedals and steering column are installed.

When I put the body on the chassis I noticed there was a lot of daylight visible through the wheel wells so I made some inner panels out of sheet plastic to remedy that.

I gave it a coat of clear flat and used powders to add some wear to it. I'm keeping the two main parts separate until I install the pedals and maybe steering column.

I created all the decals for it too. The hood is still dry fitted to the main section and more washes were applied to some of the panel lines.

It is pre smog/exempt. And it's a gross polluter.

I had to machine the mounting hardware for the plate/bracket before I could install it. After it was installed I added the interior mounting brackets for the taillights and the loom (with pigtail) for all of the lights. Still some weathering to do in here. The rear spoiler has been installed too…

I did a little grunge work on the wheels.

When I test installed the new taillights I didn't like them; they were too bold for the car. Amazing what a couple thousandths of an inch can do… good or bad. I made a new smaller set like the previous ones, but that same design was still distracting to me so I machined one more even smaller "simpler" set. I had to make new bezels and bulbs too.

Thanks Ray. I went with some decanted Tamiya Camel Yellow as it was the orangest yellow I had on hand. I did some pre-shading and black washes before putting the yellow on.

This is from an old 1/32nd scale Hasegawa F-86F Sabre kit. I found it in my Dad's collection and always had been intrigued by that tug. The plane was used to fit the Scale-Master Decals artwork for the first release of the kit under the Mini-Craft name. Some of the airplane parts are off the runners, but I assumed it was complete. Unfortunately there are no instructions in the kit, and the only ones I've found online are not for this deluxe kit. It was only offered once with the tug, so the only instructions available just have the plane stuff. Some cool features are the rubber-like tires for the plane and the tug and metal parts for the plane's removable jet engine as well as wire and tubing for the engine. There is also a trailer/dolly/stand for the J47 engine. I may have to build the engine and dolly too, although ironically I am missing the instruction page for the standalone engine. At least I have the wiring diagram. These are the parts for the tug and dolly. After the main body parts were cleaned up and assembled I scribed the panel lines in. Some of the panel lines were at the glue joints. There were a few sink marks to contend with too. These two sections are dry fitted as I figure out what order to assemble and paint it in.

The plate is now registered, the tags are reflective too.

I had already finished the taillights and repaired a couple of them due to the flexible hose material melting into them in the box, but upon closer examination even the "good" ones weren't as true as I'd like. So I machined new ones out of clear Lexan and tinted styrene. Each lens is two pieces. I was able to refinish and reuse the bezels and the bulbs I already made. Two red and two amber.

The harnesses went in as planned.

While not a big visual thing, the cockpit section of the body has finally been permanently mated to the tub. Now I get to build the rest of the interior into the car. Nowhere near the ship in a bottle game; but the limited access proving to be the challenge had I expected in a couple of areas despite my optimistic planning. The seats are installed hopefully for the final time. The steering wheel can be popped off to install the harnesses.

I would bet someone already is making something like that, but these are old school "simple" coolers and radiator. I have made true flow through coolers and radiators, but once they are on the car you really can't see much through them.

The shifter linkage was the next "little" project to make and install. I was a little surprised the kit did not have the exterior part of the linkage. Turns out it's quite a tight fit, maybe that’s why it was not included. The extra parts I added and the correctly scaled engine did not help. I'm still relying on the magnets to hold the body section to the tub, but since I've run the shifter linkage all the way from the shifter to the transmission I'm pretty committed at this stage. I also connected the electrical items that were built onto the rear bulkhead to the receptacles on the tub and the fuel lines. The transmission cooler has been installed and plumbed. If it was a real car, it could be test fired now.

Thanks. I thought it was cool too. ?

The radiator is installed and the cooling system has been plumbed. I'll install the stone guard and petcock later due to them being somewhat fragile.

Thank you Tim! But I really doubt it will be done by Christmas.