Tamiya 1/14 Scale King Hauler R/C Tractor Truck

[Stinger 9]

Salutations all,

The young nephew, Monty Nigel 3rd, age 30, recently purchased this jewell of a model and requested assistance with the construction of same. This should most probably be posted on a Remote Control Model website however I thought some might be interested in this type of model.

The kit itself comes in a huge box and all parts are superbly crafted and packaged. I have built many F1 cars in all scales, model aircraft in all scales and mode ships in all scales and I can truthfully say I have never been involved in a model of such stunning quality. The majority of parts are screwed together and there are several parts that are beautifully chrome plated. The chassis and several other parts are metal along with bearings, axels and screws etc. There is also very little painting to be done and the instructions are the usual Tamiya quality, excellent.

I shall post as many photos of the build as possible so this might take a few days to get through.

This is a photo of the chassis with the servos and the diffs attached. The diffs have full working cogs that have to be assembled. Unfortunately, I did not take photos of that part of the assembly. The frame is metal and screws are used to assemble all that you see. The leaf springs, which are also metal have been attached as well

Close up of the Diffs and the axcels. The screws and nuts are well shown. The fit is magnificent with all parts sitting beautifully together.

This demonstrates the quality of the parts with the metal parts and bearings of exceptional quality. The finish of the black plastic is also excellent and does not need painting.

The Dampers have been added. The dampers have springs in them and work beautifully

The leaf spring have been added so the suspension for the rear is complete.

The front steering assembly is partially done with the steering rod attached

The gear box being assembles. Again metal parts and the gear cogs are hard plastic. You even get the grease for the cogs and springs supplied with the kit. The gear box has three gears that can be changed with the controller. Stunning.

Rear assembly has had the mudguards and coupler added. The couple can be controlled remotely by adding the appropriate electrics which are sold seperately. Yes, they have though of most things.

The motor and gear box has been added and connected to the servos. Again, a perfect fit and all bolted together. So far not a drop of glue used.

The first part that needed painting. The air cleaner needed the connecting hose painted matt black so the rest was masked and the connector sprayed matt black. It is black but looks silver here.

The fuel tank and running boards have been bolted to the chassis. The chrome plating is magnificent. The edges that are connected to the sprues are designed so that you don't see them once assembled. Really great thinking and a great help when assembling. The decals on the running board and fuel tank are peel and stick. They still need trimming and can be fiddly to get into the right position unlike the standrad decals we are used to.

The rear wheels have been added to the chassis. The wheels are bolted together and again the chrome plating is sensational. The tyres look so life like

The rear bumper bar and light fittings have been added. The quality of the brake light and indicator lights are equally as good as the rest of the model. The lights clip into the bumper bar so that light bulbs can be added. The decals have also been added at this point.The lighting pack and sound pack are also sold seperately and would be the duck's nuts when added to this kit. The package is not cheap so it may have to be added later when young Nigel can afford the kighting and sound kit.

The front bumper bar, decals and lights have now also been added.

Servos have been connected to the steering arm and the gear box.

The main propellor shaft has been installed from the gear box to the first diff. The shaft is metal and very strong.

The short propellor shaft from the first diff to the second has now been added.

Halt all proceedings. Young Nigel is as undecided as a first time bride on her wedding night! He has been vascillating about putting in a more powerful motor as he wants to get the trailer for the rig and believes he needs more power. He has decide to spend more lucre and purchse a more powerful motor even though he has no idea about the capabilities of the one supplied in the kit.

Alas, a new motor appears so he set to work dismantling the motor from the gear box and chassis in order to attach the new motor.

So far so good.

The saga of attaching the motor to the frame took quite a bit longer than expected as there was more fiddling done than two teenagers on their first date ! The connectors had to be swapped around and the servo assembly moved forward to accomodate the slightly larger dimensioned motor. Once fitted the screws did not line up so the cavity to accomodate the screws had to be drilled into the chassis. Finally it was done and progress on the rest of the kit could be contemplated. The seats had been sprayed so they also were installed at this time. This was the first bit of glue used on the kit

The sprayed air cleaners have been unmasked and are ready for installation. They come in various pieces and get bolted together and then get bolted to the main rig.

The front mirrors have been put together, the front light have been completed, the indicators are done and the roof lamps are done. Some glue required and all lights have cavities for light bulbs to be installed into them,

The front grill is almost complete with the supplied mesh screwed onto the grill and the decal added. We decided to spray a piece of cardboard matt black and put it behind the mesh so that you can't see into it as the wiring will be visable. Honestly, there are more screws in this kit that there are in a John Holmes movie fest !

The access hatch has been sprayed inside with a matt grey and the clips have been added. The clips slide so that the hatch can be removed to get access to the electrics inside

The outside of the hatch sprayed with the main colour which is a dark mica blue. The handle has been screwed to the hatch. The decal has been placed on it after the decals on the main hatch were done on the sides in order to line it up correctly.

The speed controller and receiver have been installed and connected to the motor.

The dashboard has been sprayed a matt grey and the instrument decals applied.

The cab has been sprayed a dark mica blue which gives it a great blue- black finish. The handles and locks were hand painted silver. The decals were probably the most difficult part of the model as they are peel and stick so can be extremely difficult to position and get the air bubbles out. I found by cutting away a small bit of the backing of the decal, it could be positioned and then the rest of the backing removed. Positioning is a bit easier this way which helped with the rest of the model. Once on and flattened as much as possible with removing the air bubbles, the decals which covered the door hinges and openings were removed with a very sharp modelling knife. This was the first part of doing the decals on the cab as it gives you the alignment of the rest of the decals.

The rest of the decals can now be applied to get the correct alignment. The entire process of applying all the decals took about 4-5 hours which is the longest part of doing this model.

The decals have been completed on both sides of the truck. The rest of the decals was simple.

So endeth the build. The rest was simply putting the cab onto the chassis, installing the battery and getting the trims right for the steering and speed control using the transmitter.

Young Monty did most of the construction whilst I did the paintwork, decals and parts of the construction. Monty's pater also assisted for a short period of time and it was great that the three of us could work on this together. I am told the trailer, which is a petrol tanker, has been purchased and that will be constructed this weekend.

It will be a sensational addition to this truck and no doubt at some stage the lighting and sound will also go in. That will mean disassembling quite a bit of this and installing those parts. We look forward to it.

The completed model for this build will be posted on the Ready for Inspection pages.

Until next time

Monty

Edited October 4, 2012 by Stinger 9

[paulj]

Thanks for sharing, looks a great kit and nicely built. Would love one of these myself, but too expensive for me when you add up the rig, trailer, radio gear and lighting.

[Stinger 9]

Thanks for sharing, looks a great kit and nicely built. Would love one of these myself, but too expensive for me when you add up the rig, trailer, radio gear and lighting.

Thank you for the comment Paul. I too would love to purchase one of these kits however the cost of the kit, receiver, transmitter, speed controller, servos, light and sound accessories, as well as the rest of the rig would be extremely expensive, regardless of how wonderful this kit is. My good lady wife would happily remove any extraneous parts of my anatomy if I even thought of procuring one of these gems. Fortunately my nephew bought part of the entire kit and it was wondeful helping him construct it even though my involvement was limited.

Regards,

Monty

Edited October 8, 2012 by Stinger 9

[Teri_W]

Hi... I'm new here & this is my first post... I have "work in progress" too, it's a King Hauler and I got it the very moment it was realised way back in the early 90's, it kind of got finished within a week of purchase... BUT...! there's always something better to fit to enhance its already wonderful appearance.

so up to now it has 3ch Radio, Lights for Cab, Flat Bed Trailer, and palleted load... and as it's been suggested, it IS expensive, up to date it has cost me just a little over £1000... but I have recently decided that looking at it sat on the shelf that it is time to actually "finish" it...

I'm planning on replacing most of the plastic components with CNC Alloy parts, ie. Die Cast Twin Drive Axles, CNC Front Axle, Alloy Chassis Cross Members, Alloy Wheels, Alloy Side Steps etc. upgrading the electrics to the 4ch Multi Function, new cab with new paint scheme. Also planned is a new trailer with lights and automatic landing legs, and like the tractor unit, it will have alloy components such as axles, wheels etc.

this work in progress is estimated at a further £1075.00 cost to what has already been invested... MAD I hear you say..? No, Just a Hobbyist.., this is my pride and joy, I have been model building since I was very young and I'm fortunate to be in a position to fulfil my desire to "Finish It" thanks to quitting the filthy habit of smoking....

at the moment it sits at 44 inches long, as it's 20 years old the chome parts have "dulled" a little (plus my photographic skills are not to be desired) and I have plans to replace all the chrome parts for new ones to revive that shine... The new proposed Trailer will be longer and it's the Box/Dry Frieght

In all, the total refurbishment will see this in the Smokey and the Bandit Theme and hopefully there will be nothing more I could add to this project which would be considered better, an upgrade or an improvment

has anyone got a Black Trans Am to compliment it....?