Freightliner FLA (fsba) 1/25

[Vince66]

Hermann just wow looks great 

[PettyKW43]

I can’t wait to see your progress , this is a spectacular build! For the emblems , the decal sheet in the most recent reissue of the White Freightliner, there are current Freightliner emblem on the sheet that would work well for you.

Edited March 10, 2019 by PettyKW43

[Hermann Kersten]

Hello gents!

On 9-3-2019 at 11:28 PM, PettyKW43 said:

I can’t wait to see your progress , this is a spectacular build! For the emblems , the decal sheet in the most recent reissue of the White Freightliner, there are current Freightliner emblem on the sheet that would work well for you.

Yes Richard, i've got the the reissue  and  exchanged the Freightliner emblems already, thanks for the comment

Today i show you the small progress on this Freighjtliner.

First of all i modified the tiltpump for the cabine and put it on place on the exhaust tower.

Than it's time for the grill and the small upper grill above the main one.

First i had to modifie the hinges for the cabine, because i make this grill exactly like the reference pictures i have.

With this conversion, the tilt support will be slightly higher placed, and that is why I made the tilt supports myself to the new situation.

Then the grill itself, the grill grid is made out of 0.25mm x 0.5 mm styrene strips and glued them  one by one.

Than with a self made tool, i cut the smaller parts for the grill grid and glued them on the first strips, to get the real looks for this Freightliner grill.

And how it looks on the cabine....

Looks totally different than the original parts of the kit.

The duplicate is for Uncle Koos his Freightliner.

I hope you find this an interesting update., see you next update!

 

Hermann.

 

Edited April 12, 2019 by Hermann Kersten

[Vince66]

Excellent work and progress on this truck H. 

[Scalper]

Just love the old Cab overs. nice work on this. lots of scratch work. cab is looking great 

[DRIPTROIT 71]

WOW!!!! That grill looks GREAT!

[PettyKW43]

You are building a masterpiece Freightliner!

[Hermann Kersten]

And we continue!

Perry, Andre, Brian and Richard, thanks for the comments!

On 13-4-2019 at 4:34 AM, PettyKW43 said:

You are building a masterpiece Freightliner!

Thank you Richard, i do my best to achive that..

 

Yep gents, today i show you the progress on the cabin what is intended for Koos.

Here also a lot of work and the cabin don't leave the table until it's good and smooth.

Today i show you the rivetting of this cabin, first of all, the tool and the box with 300 rivets...........yep, i counted them.

Than the rivetting it self.....

The cabin was completely sanded, and therefore the edges of the storage compartments have to be made again.

For this I made a mold and glued it to the cabin with wood glue , wood glue is a good temporary hold,  does not affect the plastic,  is easy to remove and clean when the job is done.

Then the result of many hours of a patient job, the grill.......

And finally, all loose parts for Koos, neatly in a bag.

He is very eager to start with this truck. so at this moment, this cabin has the priority, and it would be fun to finnish both  this duo build at the same time.

Thats all folks!

See you next round!

 

Hermann

Edited April 16, 2019 by Hermann Kersten

[Hermann Kersten]

And the cabine is done!

All the rivets are attached now, cut a new windshield out of 0,5mm transparent styrene, and the inner roof modified.

After all this work , i sprayed the cabine in a primer and found 3 small spots, which have been filled, sanded and smoothend.

No i can hand out this cabine to Koos, so that he can start the paintjob and continue with his Freightliner.

In the meantime, I still have to make 2 under grilling, and 2 bumpers for both Freightliners.

Thats it for today and the progress of this cabine, will be continued in Koos his topic.

See you later!

 

Hermann.

 

[Vince66]

Okay Speedy. 

 

[Hermann Kersten]

Hello gents,

Today some progress on this Freightliner.

After some doubting and comparing with the many reference pictures, i decided to shorten the chassis with 15mm.

With this shorter chassis, the proportions look better as i see in the many reference photos i have.

The extended fuel tanks that are modefied for this Freightliner, will  be exchanged with the shorter "normal" tanks, and the bigger ones are for the Freightliner FLB.

 

The AMT tires are rubbed with  ash to get a better rubber looks, and nooooo....there is no smell.

the modified fuel tanks that have already been varnished, and the 2 new shorter tanks.....

In the meantime, replace the "White Freightliner" decals with "Freightliner" decals, mounted the indicators, edit the roof lights with Molotow chrome marker and paint the orange glasses with Tamiya clear, and finish the chassis in a dark gray color.

The 1st choice was matte black, but did not find this give a nice contrast with this bronze-colored cabin and the white rims.

The brake boosters have also been modified to this newer Freightliner model.

Attach the small light glasses on the back of the cabin.......

Ok guys, thats it for today and see you next time!

 

Hermann.

 

Edited May 1, 2019 by Hermann Kersten

[redneckrigger]

Fantastic work..................................amazing attention to detail!

[TarheelRick]

Oh my that is a riveting update (sorry, I couldn't help myself).  Lots of beautiful detail work you are doing.

[PettyKW43]

Haven’t had time to check on all the projects that I have been following but this build is continuously impressing me! I am going to use it as blueprint to build a similar truck , will be doing a low cab forward auto transport hauler!

[Hermann Kersten]

Thank you for the nice comments guys!

Today i show you the progress on this one.

The chassis and the fuel tanks are done with painting, I still had to spray 1 layer of dark grey for the chassis and the tanks with silver for car rims.

After the paintjob it was time for the small details like, the battery box, CTM tank straps, and put the engine between the chassis for the full picture .

After this job it was time to modefy the 5th wheel.

I used some reference pictures and made it as the real one.

The  threaded end and the nuts on the front of the fifth wheel is also attached, i really don't know what it do or means, but i saw it many times in my reference material.

 

The tail lights are painted with Tamiya clear and attached and the air valve block is also attached to the crossbeam.

And the cabin on the chassis for the looks and for fun.

And slowly it is going to the final stage.

Next job is the wiring for the brakes and air supply, mudflaps for the rear and afcourse, the final work on the cab and a bumper.

Thats it for today and see you next round.

 

Hermann.

 

 

 

 

[Vince66]

That front bolt and nut are used to adjust the locking jaws of the fifth wheel. 

My 2005 W900 had that allowed the jaws to be  adjusted on it to prevent trailer king pin slop that will beat up a fifth wheel.

Hope that helps Herman. 

[Hermann Kersten]

Thank you vince, that info helps indeed, thank you for that.

Later i found out that there are 2 sizes, the 2" and 3,5"  kingpin.

 

Ok guys, i made some little progress on this one.

Everything of the chassis is painted now, and i attached the wiring for the brakes and air supply.

The engine is in between the chassis and after placing the engine, i could attach the batterybox on his support.

Then the exhaust pipe and a cover for this exhaust what i used from the CTM-set.

On the back i exchanged the AMT mud flaps with the CTM mudflaps, because these mudflaps are much thinner and nicer than the thick ones.

For these mud flaps i had to make new supports.

For the trailer wires i still need to make the connectors.

With these connectors i will make coloured rings for the red and blue wires, I could not find a suitable size of these coloured wires.

For the front wheels i will use bud hole rims.

I have some 1/24 rims and i converted them into a 1/25 version.

Later i will look wich one looks better for this Freightliner, the standard AMT rims, or the modified 1/25 rims.

And together with the cab......

Ok guys, that's it for today, then i will start to finish the front grill and make a start with the 2 bumpers and lower grills.

The small cabine details will be attached when the cabine has been permanently installed, this is an easier and safer way to do with the small details, instead to pick up the cab and have the risk that something will break off ........... at the very last moment.

To be continued.

 

Hermann.

Edited May 20, 2019 by Hermann Kersten

[signguy2108]

Great job on this one. I guess its my age, i've come to love these things. J B Hunt ran a bunch of them in the late 80"s, they had to b the ugliest trucks on the road. 

[DRIPTROIT 71]

WOW!! This thing looks Amazing!! Excellent work!!

[Hermann Kersten]

Larry and Brian, thank you for the nice comments!

In the last post, i showed you the conversion from the 1/24 bud-hole rims into a 1/25 bud-hole rim.

The last thing to do before i could paint them, was to attach the smaller nuts on the rims.

These nuts are done by the punch & die set and smashed 1mm rounds /nuts out of a strip of 0,5mm styrene, for these front rims, in exactly the same style as the AMT rear rims.

After this job i painted them first in a black primer, and then in the white paint.

The black primer gives the white paint a brighter shade and makes the white paint even more whiter.

For this Freightliner i put the bud-holes only on the front axle, bec i saw that also in my refernce material and for this Freightliner it looks, in my opinion, also nicer.

After the rims are dry, i put 2 nice steer tires, buyed from  Double Take Replicas, on the rims and attached the wheels on the hubs.

And it immediately gives a different look.

That's it for today and till the next one!

 

Hermann.

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Hermann Kersten

[Vince66]

Really Nice Herman 

[Hermann Kersten]

Thank you Vince!

Today i show you the completion of the engine and the chassis.

The only thing that i have to do, are the connectors on the trailer wiring.

After my computer mouse was not working anymore, i saw on the inside of the insulation, the right wires in size and colour, that I needed for the right wiring.

I cut the blue and red wires and exchange them with the black ones, that i attached before.

I copied the steps from the 1/24 Freightliner kit, and made them in the right scale, little less wide, and attached them on the sides of both fuel tanks.

The supports are pieces of metal waste of the CTM set.

The engine still needed a connection on the air supply and the last thing was to make a breather that is going from the airbox, to the front and next to the radiator.

I saw a picture of this system on an auction site who sold a Freightliner FLA.

Ok guys, now it's time for the pictures.....

 

That's it for today and see you next round!

Hermann.

 

 

 

 

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Man that's a lot of holes to drill. Excellent Work!

[Hermann Kersten]

On 1-6-2019 at 3:20 AM, DRIPTROIT 71 said:

Man that's a lot of holes to drill. Excellent Work!

Yep, and 2 blue fingers. lol

 

Ok guys,  the brass connectors of the trailer cables, and the grill are now also completed.

On the grill I have glued the 66 pieces of small styrene strips, 0,5mm x 0.5 mm x 10 mm ,  to the main strips of the grill.

After this job i made the grill chrome with a chrome marker and added a CTM Freightliner emblem , what was first blackened, and then later the paint, on the higher surface, was scratched away.

And an overall picture so far ....

Ok guys, thats it for today is till the next round!

 

Hermann.

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by Hermann Kersten

[Vince66]

This is so cool Herman.

Was it a molotow chrome pen you used on the grill if so what if any clear coat did you use over it.