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AMT White Freightliner COE-Progress 05/07


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With the end of my "Demon II" now behind me and an empty bench in front of me I've decided to put my next build on the it. This one is another "Blast from the Past". I built this kit as a kid and although it was a terrible build looking back, I had a lot of fun with it. After a tumble on the shelf shortly after I built it she was put out of her misery. The Pactra Star Blue paint had been brushed on and it was the ugly duckling of all of my builds even in that day. Flashing forward some 35 years later here I go to give this beauty another shot. As some of you know, I've been wanting to build a rig for some time now and this just seemed like the perfect one to build.

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The Pactra paint line has ended so I'll be on the search for a close, if not perfect, match to the original Star Blue as possible. I also need to do a lot of research on White Freightliners as to get a lot of the details right and the paints as close as possible. Decals are shot so I'll be outsourcing those to get a fresh set. I've also managed to round up an upgraded set of wheels and tires for this bad boy so I turned to Moebius for those.

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With that............let's get started...............

Edited by mustang1989
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I've been looking at this and a few other boo boo's that this kit has. The front tires are supposedly a problem area as they stick out from the wheel well too much. I'm either going to have to cut the front axle some or not install the front brakes. The cab is sectioned into a front half and a back half................presenting a nasty seam. The list goes on but I've started trying to remedy the problem by turning to my spare kit. I'll be doing a dry run on a total assembly of this truck without any paint just to see how to mitigate the problems that show up along the way.

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Got the frame and suspension already assembled. The front axle is just lying on top of the leaf springs. I'll be working with this part to ensure the tires end up where they are supposed to. I'll look into that whole headlight ordeal when I get there. Dunno if I'll do anything with that or not yet.icon_hmm.GIF

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10 hours ago, vrsmatt99 said:

Great Start! Ill be watching this. :popcorn:

Ive got this one in mt stash to do at some point, Im just finishing off the Revell K100 Aerodyne reissue at the moment!!

Gotta love an American Big Rig! :)

Thanks for the comments Matt.

2 hours ago, Roy vd M. said:

Don't forget to scrape away the mold lines along the propshaft. 

 

This is a great truck and an easy modelling subject to follow along. 

Thanks Roy. This is  an assembly without paint so I'm marking / taking notes of all the seam lines and ejector pin marks as I go along. The point of the paintless build is to personally identify all of the flaws that this kit has and work through them as to have a smooth sailing build for the actual build that will follow. Additionally I'm doing all of the research and installing all of the parts in the correct orientation as well as the correct place they are supposed to be that way all that will be identified for the "real" build. Not a bad kit at all but there are lots of faults with the instructions as well as lots of seams/ mold lines to take care of.

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Well...........among other little tidbits that I'll have about this tricky kit (along with some tricky instructions) is the fact that the cab rests will have to be installed at a later part of the build than what the instructions call for. At least that's what I'm finding. They interfere with the exhaust crossover pipe installation between the two exhaust stacks. They are called out in this photo:

 

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For the most part it's going fairly well. This kit has ALOT of seam filling, mold lines and ejector pin marks to contend with. I've marked most everything with a black sharpie so they'll stand out boldly for reference points during the actual build. I'm sooooooo glad I'm taking the time to do the build up because I'm finding some faults with the instruction sheet in terms of where stuff actually goes and I'm hitting the problematic areas with no fear of screwing anything I've painted/ detailed up.

 

Here's where I'm at right now. I may have to cut the crossover pipe in two in order to install it but that's ok. Again.......I'll know about this before hand with the actual build.

 

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Interesting approach, never would have thought of doing a "pre build" myself. Your tagline makes me think it's okay to ask this stupid question ;): earlier in the thread you mentioned a spare kit; are you actually going to build the 2 kits (one for practice and one for real), or are you taking this one apart to start again? If the latter, what kind of glue are you using at this point?  

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 12:25 AM, JeroenS said:

Interesting approach, never would have thought of doing a "pre build" myself. Your tagline makes me think it's okay to ask this stupid question ;): earlier in the thread you mentioned a spare kit; are you actually going to build the 2 kits (one for practice and one for real), or are you taking this one apart to start again? If the latter, what kind of glue are you using at this point?  

Sorry for the delay in answering you Jeroen. Yes sir there will be one for practice just so I have a "heads up" on all the quirks of this kit personally and then the one for real. I put this one together with Tamiya glue so I could handle it a lot easier without worrying about it falling apart. I'll be able to separate the cab from the chassis though so I can refer to the complete build later. So far this has helped me out a lot.

On ‎4‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 7:18 PM, mini man said:

I am a fan of the Sharpie marker idea,it helps cleanup before it's too late...

Thanks MM.

 

So far it's fairly smooth sailing. I did find that when I fitted the cab onto the chassis that the bottom of the interior tub was hitting the air intake for the engine at the top of the radiator. I had to sand a little from the bottom of the tub and at the air intake assembly but it all fits good now. Front tires are right where I wanted 'em so I glued those in place as well. The front bumper is low enough to allow the cab to tilt forward with no fit interference issues. So far, aside from ALOT of cleanup and the headlamps that are too high issue this kit is turning out to be a good one. I'll be getting a heads up post ready in the next few days to cover the overall kit issues that I encountered.

 

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