JeroenS

I'm in! I love these buses. Nice work so far Chris, and the original is an absolute beauty!

Well done, I like the details like the taped up window and the bungee cord / strap. Nice!

The "hyper-turbo" made me smile as well. Looks like a Halfords sticker or something 🙂 Nice work!

Thanks Roger, well I don't want to disappoint, so here's another update. This will be the final update before paint. Pretty much all the parts are built. I've made a bracket on the rod connecting both arms. This bracket will hold a couple of chains with a hook on them, which are used for tipping the bin. More modern rigs have an actual hook on here instead of a bracket with chains, but I think the chains look more interesting and fit the older style truck I have. Some assorted parts. I stole some pins out of my wife's sewing kit to make the control box, I did tell her to avoid surprises 😉 ... There's a small ladder and two "stop blocks". And a small panel for stop and go buttons. The control box. The pin heads aren't all the same size but it should be good enough. Also, I made a provision for the rear lights. And made some guiderails for the bins. There's a multitude of ways bins are held in place, this is about the easiest one 🙂 For show, I put all the pieces on with some double sided tape, so we can have a look at how things should end up. These are the stops that keep the bins from crashing into the rack. The chains will be attached to the bracket, I will make something to attach the other ends to. You can just barely see the blocks which hold the bins in place. The control box mounted. I might just change the exhaust to a standing pipe. This is a rather uncomfortable workplace, especially with the PTO running! Pretty much exactly how I saw it in my mind's eye. I see now I forgot to dry fit the hydraulic tank, which fills up that empty space behind the cab nicely. So what now? The bins still need tyding up a bit, that's not a lot of work. I need to fabricate something to attach the ram covers to the pistons so they will move with them. Chain fasteners on the back. Then paint. After that, hydraulics and some wiring. And probably reconfigure that exhaust on the truck, now that I've thought of that I don't think I can let that go.

Of course! Thanks Richard

So here are the dolls, eh bins. It's really a pity that only one of them is wide enough to hold one of the other bins. Yesterday I saw a truck with 4 empty bins stacked on it. And no I'm not going to build more 🙂 Here's some detail on the bin. The stacking does work. I've decided to leave the smaller bin out and go for this look. Looks nice and full. Now I just need to clean them up a little and they're ready for paint.

Bins. A couple of things were wrong with them. First, they were "toe in", by that I mean narrower at the front, and I realized that was because the bottom insert at the front was rectangular instead of trapezoid. The side walls lean out, because the back wall is wedge shaped, so then of course the front should have the same wedge shape. So I cut that front piece loose and inserted a properly shaped part for both bins. Much better. As you can see I also lined the outside edges. I think it looks just about right. We'll let that sit for a bit and add some more stuff like that on the sides and bottom, and smooth all the edges out. The second problem was of a less fixable kind. Right.. with the outside lined like that, the smaller bin wouldn't fit in the larger one anymore! Anyway, so now I have 3 bins. They fit. There will be supports on the sides so the top one rests comfortably on the bottom one. I will paint all of them and use the misfit for actual storage, it will get a nice place somewhere. The final thing that was wrong, and you may have noticed earlier, was the direction of the bins on the truck. They were facing the wrong way. Now, that was an easy fix. See, fixed.

It's actually very similar. Probably it would have made more sense for me to convert to cubic yards instead of feet but what do I know, right. It says that 4 cubic yards is 3.05 cubic metres. Now I'm curious what type of truck came to deliver your container. Over here they use a smaller, short wheel base truck for maneuverability in tight spaces. I've had these things dropped off, or seen them dropped off, lots of times and I'm always amazed at the skill of these drivers, dumping a container in a tight spot. With some Austin Powers going on sometimes.

Well, sure, hydraulics seems like fun, but... what about building the bins? Much more fun. I've made 2 bins. They're not finished, but I have the basic shapes. A big one and a smaller one. They're pretty standard sizes (the real things, I mean). The small one is 3 cubic metres, which is 105 cubic feet says the internet. The bigger one is twice that size, 6 cubic metres or 211 cubic feet. A fun little exercise. The idea is to have them both on the rig, something like this (the smaller one should be a little more forward). You see this all the time, I like it.

I still think it's a winner 🙂

Thanks Ross. The diamond plate is from Plastruct: https://plastruct.myshopify.com/products/ps-150 I got it from a (more or less) local supplier. Indeed I'll also need to make a control box with levers for all the hydraulic systems. On the real thing, there are pistons for the legs and for the arm extensions, but I'm not modelling those. There will be hydraulic hoses somewhere on the rig, as much as makes sense.

Thanks Jörgen! It's nice to have a clean workspace every now and then. Like I had this morning. It's already a mess again 😇

Updates! First order of business: let's tidy things up some. This is a bit of a mess. I took advantage of the clean worktop and made some new sanding sticks. Some years ago I bought a good supply of Klingspor sandpaper, very good stuff and it lasts and lasts. I cut strips of it and glue them to wooden paint stirrers, a trick I saw a long time ago, on this very forum probably. A lot cheaper than the ones in the model shop, that's for sure. Anyway, where to begin. Some detail added to the loader body, a rail. I added bolts as well, on the flanges which connect the loader's frame to the chassis. But you can't see those. Lots of smaller parts were made. I now have two cylinders with covers, the stabilizing legs at the rear, and the extending parts of the arms, including chain hangers. These go like this (that hole still needs a cover). There is some brass rod inserted into the underside of these hangers, to hang the chains from. It's just about visible on that first close-up of the arm extensions. These are the legs. This is what it looks like with everything dryfitted. Pretty nice! The rear end in some more detail. I think it's time to start figuring out hydraulics.

Great engineering!

You're right about the wheels, and I still have a good bunch of KFS rims and hubs squirreled away. Not to mention all the standard Italeri wheels I haven't used, and some more of other kits as well. However, I would have the space for a 3D printer, that's not the issue 🙂 ... I do like the fabricating though, probably more than I'd like the designing. I spend too much (work) time behind a computer monitor as it is, it's good to be able to do some "manual labour" to keep the hands busy. That's my excuse!