1/24 Italeri Mercedes Benz Actros MP4 GigaSpace

[SpikeSchumacher]

You are doing an outstanding job on this one Steve. Impressive!

[cifenet]

 

 

 

On 1/7/2024 at 2:18 AM, Rockford said:

Looks fantastic that mate. You're learning what European trucks are like, so cluttered there's no room for anything, and they're so complex that they're a bear to work on. You're doing a great job though. 

Thanks Steve!  You are right, European trucks do seem like very space conscious.  

I know typical US trucks are known for its substantial weight and size, but I think some of the European trucks aren't far off. 

Maybe it could be an interesting topic for discussion, comparing US trucks vs European.  I must admit, I am liking this one a lot!  

On 1/7/2024 at 7:50 AM, Gary Chastain said:

Your attention to detail and your skills are really doing this project justice, well done

Appreciate your warm compliments, Gary!  

And thanks again for keeping up with this build, I really value your feedback and having interest in this European truck build!

 

On 1/7/2024 at 11:37 AM, SpikeSchumacher said:

You are doing an outstanding job on this one Steve. Impressive!

Good to hear from you Mathias! 

I hope to complete this soon now that I am at the last stage of the build.  Thanks again!

 

Edited January 9, 2024 by cifenet

[cifenet]

I am able to put about 60-90 minutes of work on the truck each day for the past week or so.  And I can do this while watching TV, so I am multi-tasking.

 

Getting ready to apply clear coat.  I studied the panel edges where I need to spray "extra" clear coat layers so the finish won't wear off from parts being touched/handled.

 

Masking work #1: To clear coat the entire area except headlights.

 

Masking work #2: to paint the headlamps with silver.

 

Masking work #3: To paint the grille with semi gloss black. 

Multiple masking jobs were needed to take care of the front grille/bumper piece here.

 

My first clear coat session was success, I will allow the parts to dry completely.

The golden rule that I follow is to spray in multiple sessions starting with a light coat or two.  Then medium coat is applied and then finally heavy wet spray to finish it off. 

And do sand/polish as needed between the coats.  Lastly, I can bring out the surface shine by polishing. 

 

Unfortunately, when I was polishing after my initial clear coat, I scuffed too much on several areas and now back to paining again so I can clear it again.

Things do get simpler if I am planning to build an aged vehicle, then it is all about weathering without this clear coat and polishing business. 

I want this to shine, so I must go through the procedures to clear coat!

 

Additionally, the truck is no longer French registered, now it is Danish!  Worked on the tail lamps also.  There is orange clear in there somewhere, but it is not showing up...  And P/E backing was also used to enhance the light pattern.

 

Tail lamps mounted, and Danish rear license plate attached.  I am trying to stretch the intake pipe location (circle) by wedging a sponge next to it. 

I think I mentioned in the previous post that this intake mount was a blind assembly.  The location does not align with rest of the pipe configuration on the cab, hopefully this can fix it.

 

A tough decision was made to not drill out those small vent holes on the grille. 

I really wanted to drill them out in the beginning, but then I realized that as soon as I make ONE mistake drilling incorrectly or drill it with different spacing, it is GAME OVER.  

I did 3~4 attempts to fill those with a black panel liner from Tamiya and I need to feel good about not ruining it. 

 

Added small amber lights and also clear UV Resin was used for head lamps and driving lights at the bottom of the bumper.

 

Nothing to hide, a close up picture!

 

My first clear coat is applied and minor polishing work also done.  I am planning to apply another clear coat tomorrow (if everything is dried well). 

I still need to paint the aerodynamic pieces, but they have horrible sink marks which I am still working to putty...  

 

 

Edited January 9, 2024 by cifenet

[Rockford]

For a kit you intended to build quickly it is becoming another museum piece. Amazing attention to detail mate. Well done.  

[SpikeSchumacher]

Excellent!

[cifenet]

On 1/9/2024 at 3:06 AM, Rockford said:

For a kit you intended to build quickly it is becoming another museum piece. Amazing attention to detail mate. Well done.  

Hey Steve, knowing all the great builds I see here, that is a big stretch for sure! 

To be honest, I wanted to build something quick over the holidays so I can feel accomplished, but it is dragging now. 

When I was young, I remember building a kit and finishing it in a same day, but now it is never a possible...

 

On 1/9/2024 at 7:29 AM, SpikeSchumacher said:

Excellent!

 

Thank you, Mathias!! 

I hope the European truck is something of interest!  I know the subject isn't quite popular as Mack or Peterbilt here, but I really enjoy the modern look and configuration on these!

 

[cifenet]

My update: Polishing work still on-going and the third coat of clear applied.

 

I am quite satisfied with the shine and glossy finish here.  Normally, I would want to apply an additional heavy coat of clear, but I think this is enough...

 

From the frontal view, the truck is looking super massive with its high roof and this has to be my favorite view of the truck.

 

Next, I went through some frustration dealing with aerodynamic parts.

All of the aero parts had bad pin marks and I fixed them multiple times. 

My issue: once I filled and sanded and confirmed that they are okay through my naked eyes, the surface defects would show up again as soon as painting session started.

I would sand them off and repeat the whole process only to find out I still have problems.  I think the main cause was that my sanding sticks gave up on me; I should have replaced them with a fresh set. 

 

After fourth attempt, I think I have something acceptable to work with.  I was going to NOT mount these out of my frustration at one point.  I also painted the mirrors here.

 

Another challenge I am dealing is the visor piece being transparent.  I used "smoke" color as my primary color, but my airbrush spit something bad and now it is ruined.

I will either strip off the paint and repeat, or just simply spray over with solid black. 

I hate stripping paints, so I am leading towards to adding solid black finish.  No one will know it is supposed to be semi-transparent anyway!
 

Once I was satisfied with the final clear coat finish on the body, I began painting the black trims including the window moldings.  The toothpick is a good tool for this type of masking job and I also use pointy cotton swaps to seal the masking tape edges.  Of course, a sharp knife blade is must here.

 

Talking about the toothpick as a tool, I also use it often to paint parts. 

Here, I painted the "AdBlue" tank cap using Sky Blue color.  I think it is a close match.

Unless I am building military subjects, I think most of my paintings are done via an airbrush.  I would only use a brush to paint if parts are small and delicate.  Oddly, toothpicks see more action from me than paint brushes!

 

I painted this with a toothpick also.  It is more of transferring a small amount of paint rather than brushing which works quite well.

 

Now there are TWO big problems with this kit which I am trying to solve. 

They need to be addressed if I want my cab to tilt forward and back.  I explained the problem in one of the previous postings.

Unfortunately, the kit requires you to select either the open or close position and your truck is stuck in that position forever.

In order to allow the cab to tilt, I will need:

Condition 1: to allow the upper grille piece to open and close  

Condition 2: The Condition 1 above needs to be in "open" position first.  And then the cab ALSO needs enough clearance space between the cab itself and the lower grille piece so cab can tilt forward. 

 

I was able to resolve Condition 2.  I addressed the tilting the cab problem by introducing a vertical movement of the cab.  The hinges were modified to allow this movement. 

Again, a quick solution was all I was looking for and this was how I did it.  Now I can pull up the cab to create clearance space ( + 3/8 inch) to tilt the cab forward.

 

The Conditon 1 is still in Working-In-Progress and it is to make the upper grille piece to flip open/close. 

I am going to come up with a design so I can slide out the grille and flip up.  I CANNOT simply add fixed hinges here because the grille piece needs to come out first to flip up (another clearance issue)...  

Hopefully I can provide more details in the next update on what my solution is going to be.

 

The trims are painted and the truck needs its interior now. 

Also, the Benz emblem was added.  I painted it in chrome to make the logo stand out, but it really doesn't.   

 

Still many parts left to attach and assemble!

 

Edited January 13, 2024 by cifenet

[Rockford]

Impressive stuff! Clever solution to the cab tilt problem. You're very brave doing stuff like that after paint, I'm terrified of destroying my mediocre paint jobs once they're on. 

[Gary Chastain]

This truck build is turning out first class, it’s good to see you take the time to do a quality build. You will be proud of this build when you finish. 

[cifenet]

On 1/13/2024 at 3:02 AM, Rockford said:

Impressive stuff! Clever solution to the cab tilt problem. You're very brave doing stuff like that after paint, I'm terrified of destroying my mediocre paint jobs once they're on. 

Hey Steve,

I think this was a mistake on my part.  Getting lazy and didn't want to think through prior to starting the build.  I ended up handling the cab way to many times after the painting, I had to re-polish and repaint some of the parts.  

 

On 1/13/2024 at 6:26 AM, Gary Chastain said:

This truck build is turning out first class, it’s good to see you take the time to do a quality build. You will be proud of this build when you finish. 

Thanks again for the compliment, but I think I underestimated this Italeri kit and the kit threw me some wild punches!

 

[cifenet]

My original intention was to start and finish building this kit in a week or so.

I ended up cutting some corners and skipping steps along the way, but still ended up taking 3 weeks. 

How silly was I to think that I can pull this off.

Nevertheless, I think the end is near and another quick upgrade is here.

 

This is how I am able to make the front upper grille piece to flip.  It is two thin metal strips wrapped around with an adhesive/flexible tape allowing the middle to bend. 

As far as the durability is concerned, I bet I can flip this back and forth probably 100+ times till the tape gives up.  So there you have it, my flip is good for 100 times.  Cheap and easy, but an ugly solution, indeed. 

 

I started to add basic details on the inner panel and drilled a hole on each end where the hinge end will be inserted.
 

 

It is an unattractive way of implementing it, but the hinges are hidden and they aren't visible unless you look under the grille. 

I made many paint scuffs everywhere while working on the hinge mechanism, so I am actually doing some massive paint correction/repairing right now.

 

Hinges are installed.  These will pull out roughly 1/8th of an inch to create enough space for the front cover to flip up. 

They are made to slide out, but won't fall out as a stopper was glued at the end of the each strip.

 

In order to flip this cover open, I slide them down while pulling it out at the same time.

 

Then it flips.

 

I also mounted the windshield and windows from the inside.  I always try not to touch the clear parts to minimize unwanted scratches. 

This was another reason why I wanted to build the entire cab FIRST before painting.  I can always repair glue joints and also confirm that my windshield/windows fit perfectly into the fully constructed cab.

 

Having stated above, this multiple piece cab assembly method made everything difficult and it was a big challenge for the first timer like myself.  

I looked at the built example by Italeri and they left all kind of glue marks themselves!

 

My mirrors are now painted.  Italeri provided chrome stickers for the mirror, but they didn't attach cleanly on curved mirrors.  So painted mine.

 

The bottom was also blocked here so when the cab is tilted, at least you won't see the ugly bottom as how the kit left off. 

I didn't do a proper research on what is under the cab and I just glued a large plastic sheet.  Bad me.

 

As the last final step, I am adding emblems, repairing paint scuffs, and lastly cleaning the body panels.

 

I will admit that this wasn't an easy kit to build, but I greatly enjoyed the time building it.        

I know that European trucks aren't for everyone, but I think they are excellent in what they do and I just enjoy learning more about them.

For my next subject, I would like to try an older European truck from either 80's or 90's.  I think they are quite beautiful in their own way.

 

Lastly, I thank you all for following this thread providing positive encouragements and valuable feedback along the way.

 

[Rockford]

You can be truly proud of that mate, very clever engineering on the cab tilt issues. Possibly a European trailer to suit?

[Gary Chastain]

Outstanding build, well done

[cifenet]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:41 AM, Rockford said:

You can be truly proud of that mate, very clever engineering on the cab tilt issues. Possibly a European trailer to suit?

I am glad it is all over now.   It felt like a good dream to think about, but matter in fact, it was a nightmare. 

Yes, European trailer is what I want to do, but I just don't know what to get yet...  And some of them are quite pricey!

 

On 1/17/2024 at 8:17 AM, Gary Chastain said:

Outstanding build, well done

 

Thanks Gary, but you have "multiple" outstanding builds!

[cifenet]

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