XJRV8

You haven't forgotten the cab visor have you? Are you fitting this later?

Hi Moe, Looking good. I think the fuel tanks will set this off too. John

Hi Dave, A great build with this truck. Some very clever construction with this scale. I have shipped your wheels and grill. I will mail you,

I seen the last contest and there was a gallery of models. Some had aftermarket parts and painted as I said to your own colors. This gallery I can not find now, Italeri keep updating their web page. There is a link to "Your Models" so maybe they are in here??? http://www.flickr.com/photos/italeri/

It must be an Italeri kit. It can be out of the box, modified using aftermarket parts, painted how you want. There should be a Gallery of previous builds on their site.

I am just experimenting with the colors that I intend to use on this truck. I may spray a bit more yellow down the side of the hood.

Here is one of my builds I am doing at the moment. This is the frame for a Custom Pete. The wheel base scales out to 350 inches. This has scratch built tool boxes.

Here's my build of the Revell Western Life:

Chris the cab is a very light grey. The frame rails are longer than the Bill Signs, they are the rails used for the normal 359 kit. You have the option to build a complete Bill Signs frame or the 359 frame. Here is one I built, I used the Bill Signs frame.

This is as far as I have got with this build. The grey on the hood is primer and will have bare metal foil fitted.

An update on the build of the engine. This is a Maxxforce engine and from the pictures I have seen the block is blue. I have decided to build this in my colours that will go with the colour of the truck. Pictures show a step by step as it isn't quite clear how the parts go together. If you want a detailed engine then you have to assemble just these parts and paint the block first: I then painted the engine pulley belts and fixed in position, the smaller pulley/belt goes on first. I also fitted the Alternator, top right in the photo. This would not fit as the oil filler pipe was in the way. I tried to bend this but it snapped off, so I made an adjustment for it to fit. At the bottom of the engine is a cross member with the horn fitted: The next photos show the parts assembled in order,exhaust manifold, oil filter and top right is the air pump fitted: Next is the 2 turbo chargers with exhaust and intercooler. I found it easier to assemble the first turbo with the second as per photo then fit this to the engine, then fitted the exhaust pipe. This is not glued into position just incase I need to make any adjustments later to fit this to the other pipe work:: The rest of the pictures are the engine fully assembled, I just need to go round again and touch up:

I have painted the frame a gloss black: This is the interior finished, no problems with assembling this: This is the dash fitted with the decals supplied. I am thinking of removing these and painting the panel and switches. I have more to post but will let you digest this. Thanks for looking. John

Here is a mistake I made. The first picture shows the rear shock absorbers. I removed one and tried to fit this realising that I had cut off a locating pin. I am used to shocks with a round edge at the bottom. Second picture shows the part that I cut off: Assembled drive axels: This next part fits into the chassis and the part that holds the side skirts. You can see the locating tabs are shorter on the left hand side. This shorter bit fits into the chassis, the longer tab would not fit as it hits one of the cross members. This is the side skirt holders in place, as you look at the picture the right side faces the front of the frame. Next I fitted the fuel tank brackets. I used 1 half of the tank to align all the brackets, there are holes for the brackets but I wanted to make sure these were straight: This is them in place. Fuel tank braces in place:

Next I built the 2 drive axles. Here we have another problem with the wrong instructions. This is the backing plate for the last axle, you can see the locating holes and these need fitted in the correct position and not as shown in the instructions. This is how it is shown to be fitted in the instructions: This is it fitted correctly as you can see if the brake chamber hole was in the previous position the the brake chamber would be hitting the suspension. Next I fitted the airbags, and these have to be fitted the correct way. The picture shows the left airbag correct and the right shows the incorrect way. You can see how the right airbag stick out more. Final picture shows the axles fitted. This is a good fit, and the small propshaft is tightly fitted in place.

Thanks for your comments. Jim B the seats I realised after fitting, down to the instructions. Regarding the decals with the seats and sleeper wall...I fitted these on top of the raised text...hindsight is a great thing. But this is what my post is about so that others learn from the mistakes/faults. I am constructing the steering and this has been built wrong...not my fault, honest, but it does not affect the steering....just confuses you when you want to fit the steer arm. I had left the steering box off the chassis until I was ready to fit the steer axle so I could see where all the link rods would go. This steering box should have a hole in it where the black dot is, but it hasn't. The next picture shows the steer axle. Please take note of this as this is what confused me later. Hindsight here, use this position of the axle to work from. As you can see in the right side there is a small hole. This is not mentioned in the instructions but is important to make sure this is on the correct side. This side is referred to the left side in the instructions, which it is when you rotate it into the position when fitted. I assembled the parts as instructed. Now the tie rod looks like this and the second picture shows it in the incorrect postion,: Correct position: Axle assembled and you can see the small hole where the steer arm fits. This is where I have made the mistake and you will see why. This is the axle fitted and the steer tie rod faces behind the axle. The small hole should be on the right side, side of the steering box...mine isn't.... This picture shows how it should be, although this is in reverse as you can see by the tie rod facing forward, this is just to show where the hole should be. The drag link connects to the steer arm and then the drag link should fit into a hole in the steering box, but there is no hole. Do not worry about this because these parts do NOT operate the steering. The steering still steers. So if you construct the axle the way I did it will not affect the steering., and it isn't a problem fitting the steer arm as I cut the locating pin off and glued to the axle.

I seem to have posted more pictures than I am allowed so will have to wait until I can add more. I hope this post helps.

After reading a post about the Lonestar being a waste of money I thought I would post my detailed build of this kit. Yes there are problems as there are with many other truck kits...but this adds to the challenge. I have posted this on other forums so some may have see this before. Upon examining the parts I have discovered the hood has some damage, not sure if I caused this or whether this is a one off as my other ones are ok. With the grill in place, looks like some heating will cure this. Some of the parts on the sprues are numbered on the part itself and not the sprue, a little confusing at times. I started on the chassis and as you can see the rails are slightly curved, but when assembled this becomes nice and straight: Next I fitted the front and rear cab mounts. The front ones are very sloppy in the fit: So I fitted the rear ones first, placed the fronts in position and then placed the cab floor into the mounts. Making sure this is all level and then gluing the front mounts. The dash is in 3 parts and was a bit confusing to assemble as it looked as if it could fit in 2 or 3 ways. I checked on Lonestars website and the dash is slightly different...so no help there. If you look on the right where the scalpel is pointing I thought the top half fitted over this bottom curve, it could do but a real photo shows this exposed. On the left you see the blue pointer pointing towards the middle. On a real photo this shows this lower and forward a little. This would not sit right if I did this. So what you see is what I believe is correct and this fits perfectly when assembled with the rest of the cab panels. Next picture shows all the cab in the assembled position. Everything fitted perfectly and have good locating points. I have not glued this in position as I will paint this first then glue it together.