Jump to content

Stickframe

Members
  • Posts

    613
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Stickframe

  1. Another big GM beast! Nice, and your engine yard, yes! absolutely worth keeping - you never know....lol - as I try and convince myself to toss old sprues..."I'll never need this...." ๐Ÿ˜„
  2. Bravo on the chassis! Now you're just showing off - making it look easy ๐Ÿ˜„
  3. Looking forward to seeing how you tie this together! Cheers Nick
  4. The suspension is looking really good! Cheers Nick
  5. Hi Pete, Hmm - rattle can, air brush - or leave it primer, matte black? with some glossy black rims, small chrome hubcaps and raised white letters on the tires? - or not!๐Ÿ˜„ The wrap around bumper looks the part, and yes, the paint on the exhaust did the trick, as the pipes no longer look molded in place! Cheers Nick
  6. Well guys, Billy big rig here again - Joroen, well, you were absolutely right - I did go ahead and glue the engine in - and then, embark upon a remarkably unpleasant task - the exhaust. For whatever reason, I concluded that this should be built in what amounts to a reasonably convincing fashion - which means, parts shouldn't touch where they shouldn't, such as exhaust pipes and drivelines - seems fair enough. Unhappily this was much easier said than done. Just one big, hot, tedious mess!! Adding to this, rather than just scratching a new exhaust, I unwisely concluded that it would be a better idea to "just" adapt the kit parts.....but as you will see, it's done: And here you have one sassy looking big rig! piece of cake....no - it wasn't. I added and removed both sides of the exhaust and those stacks several times. Inside the red circle, you can just see some light between the driveline and the pipes! Above you can sort of see how this works out. The reason this was such a headache? As this is a straight six engine, the exhaust comes out of the engine with a single pipe, then transfers via crossover to the two stacks - en route, it is strikingly close to my front axle driveshaft, which means in the center, there is now a "U" shaped crossover pipe, made from old sprue material. Next, the routing from under the truck to the stacks, which is, of course, not a straight shot - it is off-set to allow room for fuel and DEF tanks, and a battery box....perfect. In any event it's done. Next, of course I had to go back on my earlier thinking - and concluded that while pretty cool looking, the "shorty" bed wouldn't cut it. So, a guy went ahead and cut the rear of the frame off, removed the rear driveshaft, and extended the chassis rails and made a new driveshaft: Ahh - a real winch truck! The two vertical pencil marks on the chassis show the two sides of my original cut and fill! Back to Billy really-big rig! In the mean time, I added to the engine, which I'll show later. It turns out that aside from being six cylinders and turbo charged, the likely a Cummins engine, not a Caterpillar, that comes with the kit is not at all like the newer Paccar engine...great. I can live with that. But, also worked on the front steering, which went relatively smoothly: Above, you can see I went ahead and added a pitman arm (not sure if it's called that on a big truck?) to the steering gear, then added what looks like a short drag link to the knuckle, and then, a drag link connecting both front wheels - and it works remarkably well ๐Ÿ˜€ Then - back to the bed. It seemed like adding a big oil field winch was the right thing to do. I purchased a big single and a smaller dual winch from KFS when they were closing the old site - as the song goes "it's now or never" so, in the big one has been dry fit: In the spirit of the rest of this, another wise conclusion - If a winch is going in, why not build a chain drive PTO?? another easy task - lol. It turns out many oil field trucks run these big Tulsa winches, which are run off of a PTO(power takeoff), from the transmission to a chain drive. So, in went a PTO connection at the transfer case and a small, operable U-joint. I haven't added the same to the rear yet. For now, the plan is to use a 1/12 scale motorcycle chain to connect them. I order one from Spotmodel. Funny thing, it could arrive next week or next month! I eyeballed a resin part - and guessed it might work, and if not, well, I'll make it work - fingers crossed! Thanks for having a look Cheers Nick
  7. Hello - thank you for providing a really interesting introduction. I'll watch your build, as I have been tempted several times to buy this kit - sort of a two for one - we get yo see your project come together and maybe make a decision about buying the kit too! Cheers Nick
  8. Hello gents - all the good eating! all of it!! ๐Ÿ˜„ As some of you might have been able to gather, I work from home - so, one hand it's great - obvious enough why, but on the other - being at home always can get a bit old! Thankfully I do lots of zoom meetings, and my clients are far away, so every now and then I'll fly off to Texas or New York to project sites, and once a month drive up to Sacramento for a client meeting - they insist on in person - not sure why, it's a long drive (about 2hrs each way) and it's obvious enough that zoom works. But, when not doing that, I make it a point to go out for a walk every day - sometimes for lunch, other times, just to get out and move. And, as you have seen in various posts, I often see relevant material for a quick picture, like this: This glorious photo on the left is of a Kenworth concrete mixer, featuring the Hendrickson rear end. This doesn't say too much about it's flexibility, but it does suggest they can carry some weight! I did some research and found one cubic yard of concrete weighs about 4,050 pounds, and mixers carry 8-10 yards, so the load weight is between about 32,400 and 40,500 lbs or about 14,700kg to 18,400kg. As I am not a big truck expert, I can't say if that is a lot of weight or not, but, I can say that in my colorful youth I worked in construction, and have shoveled, wheel barrowed, and pumped lots of concrete, and can say with clarity - it is heavy!! And, the other photo is of a Paccar engine in a Peterbilt tractor, likely a 348. Unhappily for my, the model kit includes a big CAT engine - which is indeed a mighty beast, but not right for what I'm doing - so I can report there are several differences between the two. For my purposes I am focusing on getting the turbo routing correct, and changing from two external air filters, to one interior. In addition, because I cut up the hood/bonnet, and grill, I needed to cut up the radiator and fan to make them smaller, build a new fan shroud and reroute the radiator and turbo intercooler plumbing. This was not difficult per se, but it was slow going, and required lots of dry fitting and reworking: I'm sorry about the lack of contrast in these images. The glossy black kit parts just merge into a black mass. The model engine is nice enough, but a bit light on detail, which might be fine - I'll add some tubes and wires eventually, but for now the goal was to get it all to fit together. By this, I'm referring to getting the hood to tilt, locating the cab so it's a moderately close fit, locating the transfer case - and so on. Like noted already, this was not a strictly complicated series of tasks - but, did require numerous dry-fits, adapting kit parts and building new ones to tie this mess together!! So far so good. I decided to post now, because next on the list is routing the exhaust pipes - which now must be located above the front driveshaft (as someone, decided it would be a good idea to make this a 6x6), and under the shaft connecting the transmission to the transfer case. Hmmmm. Making this more of a challenge, I am considering making this a winch truck with gin poles. To make the winches work, a secondary driveshaft is run from the front tandem axle forward toward the cab where the winches are mounted. It's a PTO (power takeoff) that powers the winches, via chain drive! how's that for crazy? I debated making some sort of a load for the bed - a drill rig? crane? anything, but concluded that if this were my truck, I might like the flexibility that comes with a flat bed. This of course raises other problems, a guy should have mounted the tandems further back on the chassis, and it seems that gin pole trucks have conventional walking beams or giant springs packs....yeah, I going to go ahead and pretend not to notice those subtle points, and carry on! ๐Ÿ˜„ On with some progress: The foam sanding block proved useful for this little test - you can see the rear suspension doing it's thing! the walking beams pivot as hoped ๐Ÿ˜“๐Ÿ˜„ And, the other way too! Just like a real vehicle, the long driveshafts have slip joints (fake splined yokes) and those sassy U-joints! I'm glad to report no binding, and easy movement - whew!! I'll add the steering gear up front, which will have a pitman arm and drag link, tying to a bracket I need to install on the knuckle right next to the ball joint on the left front wheel - from there a drag link across to the other side. I'm not looking forward to this. I'm sorry I forgot to take a pic of the bracket that the transfer case hangs from. It took some time to make, and has a good and connection to the chassis. I also figured out the aforementioned torsion rods, don't have extra arms - apparently they are just controlled in the bushings - ok then. I'm still pondering where to glue the motor in place right now or not. I don't mind painting while in-frame (heck in real life, guys rebuild engines in frame!) so I might just glue it in - this will allow me to get that exhaust resolved a bit more easily - maybe I'll take it out one last time to string some hoses and wires? Not sure yet. Ok, that's my report - thanks for having a look Cheers Nick
  9. Hi Vesa, Some nice and clean building going on here! I understand your concern that the pattern on the decal might look a bit out of scale, but you managed to get it to follow the contours nicely, and it looks really good! Looking forward to your next post Cheers Nick
  10. Thank you for posting so much of your process - this is very interesting to see, and it is certainly coming together nicely. Cheers Nick
  11. Hi Joroen, This is certainly a sharp looking rig and trailer - great finish on all! and against your backdrop it really looks the part! Beautiful job on the scratchwork on the trailer. The little bit of color on the ratchet straps, reflecting tape and lights looks nice against the black. Looking forward to seeing your "shorty" tanker truck! Cheers Nick
  12. Well guys, sort of a funny day - did some zoom calls, emails, and so on for "real" work, and had more time than I guessed for the big Pete - Speaking of "big Pete" - man, that breakfast sounds pretty good! I might just walk on down to my neighborhood cafe in the morning and go for some pancakes and coffee!! ๐Ÿ˜„ It could be a treat - supposed to rain all night - a good reason to break out the umbrella and go for a stroll! And back to serious business, I kept going on the rear end. During this phase of work, the tasks ranged from getting it to work ,to getting it to look right - both important, but as it's only a model, both required some head scratching. As you all know, there are limitations that come from scale - you can't "just" do anything as the parts are small and there are not scale welders, grinders, cutoff tools, ratchet straps, or ratchet wrenches - instead, giant fingers, huge knives, lots of Tamiya tape, sanding sticks, glue, optimism and enthusiasm ๐Ÿ˜„ In the spirit of this, on we went with that sassy Hendrickson rear end: Sheesh - there is plenty going on here - I finally figured out the right geometry between the walking beams, drive shafts, brackets, and control/pivot arms from each diff to the chassis cross member. I wish I could report that I came across some clear and logical answer or keen insight, but - no, just an instinct to declare that it was done. This "inspired" conclusion was driven by the reality that this is indeed a model being built with no instructions, dimensions, or "replacement" parts - time to hope for the best. With that declaration made, it was time to figure out how to make it look right - the relatively easy part was adding nuts and bolts - a bit tense, but not too hard to do. The bigger challenge, as noted by @stevehnz, was getting the required rubber blocks in place. To clarify this, as you can see above, in the area circled in red, this suspension (should) include rubber blocks between two steel parts - but, a guy doesn't have those handy.....what to do?? After a fair amount of pondering, we came up with the idea that rather than installing a solid piece of material between the two plates, two opposing parts would be installed. That is, two thin pieces of styrene, on the top and bottom, that don't align with one another would be glued in place. This would allow the appearance of a solid surface, but as the two parts are offset from each other, the walking beam could tilt, and suspension could move! Well, I was pretty happy with this idea! Next step will be to add some really thin styrene rods to the plates to make them look more convincing. Another minty treat was adding the "Transverse Torque Rods"....yeah - the two rods that extend from the axle to the chassis. Happily, the KFS kit had some rods - not intended for this exactly, but I can adapt. As you can see above, a guy installed some alu square tube to the axle, then attached said "Rods" to the axle brackets, and eventually connected them to the chassis. And installed: I wish I could report that installing this was easy and went smoothly - it wasn't and it didn't ๐Ÿ˜„ The common model builder's lament - if I had another hand or two, but like each of you, on we went. Once the basic assembly was in place, went ahead and built some receiving brackets for the torque rods, attached them to the rods from the axles/diffs, and glued them in place. The biggest surprise was that it still flexes - not quite as much as before, but pretty fine with me. In the morning I'll add (fake) torque rods, front and back (in the area with the red circle. Ok, time to go to bed - those pancakes are on my mind - lol - thanks for having a look cheers Nick
  13. Hi Jeroen, This will be fun to watch. Building the tank should be interesting to see. Will you extend the chassis or keep it really short? Every now and then, I see short chassis trucks running around - short dump and flatbeds - and think they look pretty cool - though I have wondered why put such a small load area onto such as big truck? They look good anyway! Cheers Nick
  14. Hello guys, @stevehnz, hi Steve, you could well be right! I am hardly a big truck expert, but do enjoy building models of them. As I was getting going on this, I did some homework, but hardly scientific or through - and along the way, I found this image from Hendrickson that caught my eye. It's unclear to me how they achieve this much flex with the rubber blocks - adding to this, I have since seen several concrete mixers with this in use, which don't suggest something with too much flex ๐Ÿคจ This is the prototype I'm going for. Now that I have been working on this for a while, It seems the rubber blocks themselves don't "give" too much, but because the bracket and axles have pivot points, some flex may be achievable. I really don't know! I appreciate you taking some time to join the discussion - as it seems you know about trucks, please keep sharing some thoughts on this! I don't want to make any giant blunders as we go! @JeroenS, Hi Jeroen, the u-joints are some no-name variety I found on Ebay. They are intended for use on RC vehicles, and while a bit out of scale, heck, they are fun to use and were not expensive! They use tiny allen studs, and it turns out the wrench for these is more expensive than the u-joints. I didn't buy the wrench, and instead used a fine point, magnetic phillips head screw driver, then sealed with some CA, a bit like locktite! Cheers Nick
  15. Hello model builders, @JeroenS and @keefr22 - how about those ti/yres!! yes, they are pretty hefty! As always I really like KFS products. These were a bit uncharacteristically chunky, so they received some attention from the sanding block, to round off the edges and level out the tread. @Vesa Jussila, yes, there is plenty of scratch work here, and I must say that includes lots of head scratching! While the KFS axles are in use, I wound up adding new tabs for the walking beams and cutting off the others, which is fair enough, as this rear end was supposed to be used for another kit - ๐Ÿคจ ๐Ÿ˜„ Well, my beloved SF 49ers didn't play today, so I kept after this truck. I spent all day working on two brackets! How hard could that be? well, maybe not all that hard, but certainly slow going. Nonetheless, after building and tearing apart a few times, some progress was made: While new to me, this suspension has apparently been in use for quite a while, so with some effort I was able to find photos and even some diagrams. But, as none of these are dimensioned, I took a different approach to getting the dimensions that would result in a flat chassis. Basically, propping the rear end up to match the front with tires and wheels in place, then measuring the gap between the top of the walking beam and the bottom of the chassis rail, then adding the thickness of the chassis and walking beam. You can see the layout in the lower left above. Next, I measured the length of the clevis' I'm using to allow this to pivot (the square space you see on the two images to the right. It turns out the bracket is mounted on the outside, then filled to match the thickness of the walking beam. Sorry if that was to windy an explanation - hopefully the pic in the upper left clarifies this. Oh - you'll also note those fancy pants U-joints. Well...they're in - but they put up quite a fight - both in terms of adapting them to driveshaft and pinions, and in getting the length to work and not fall out! There is a slip joint to allow flex, but it turns out, the geometry of the two trailing/control arms affects the geometry of the driveshaft, and alignment of the entire rear end - how do I know that? see below: Ahh, more model building good times....as you can maybe see in the photo on the right, the walking beams are not parallel to the chassis rails! And the driveshaft fell out each time I tried to make this work. Why???!! well, I measures all of it for square - check - so why??? The front trailing arm was about a millimeter longer than the rear. Obviously ๐Ÿ˜„ So, out it came, and I cut it down and made a sleeve, like a slip joint yoke and that seemed to do the trick: As you can see, it now sits level. I still have to add lots of detail to those brackets, like the diagram, but at least the overall system seems to work. Sort of funny, took a few minutes to type this up, and all afternoon to make it work ๐Ÿ˜„ And below, it still flexes. I came very close to giving up on this - as the driveshaft dropped repeatedly, and only the rear end would only tilt upward on the forward side - annoying: And above, you can see, it still tilts and flexes. So, a productive weekend, thanks for having a look Cheers Nick
  16. Hi Jeroen, ha! yes, we are speaking the same language - I simply could not pretend not to see -- ๐Ÿ˜„ So, this is how they turned out: "a guy" simply couldn't abide the other version! ๐Ÿ˜„ these still need some sanding, but they are better! Now, back to Billy big rig - and the rear suspension. My plan was to convert a KFS rear end that seemed close - and well in concept, it is close, but in application, and with big tires, not good: Well, not ideal - the tandem tires are too close, so, I extended the KFS control arms, and experimented with length until it looked right: Hmm - as you can see in the red circle, the kit control arms are too short, so I lengthened them - first too much, then cut them back - the photo on the right is not correct. I cut 2mm off each and they worked ok. Then on to the walking beams: As I didn't have walking beams, a guy went ahead and made them. I have a nice diagram of what these are supposed to look like, so laminated several sheets of cut .040" styrene together to make them. It's 62 mm from centerline of bushing to centerline of bushing for this model. A bit slow going but more or less correct. I might beef them up as we go, as they just look thin. That said, they work. And as to why I chose this suspension: You can see plenty of flex. But, next up will be making the bracket to hang this from the chassis. Which brings to light two problems - I think I can keep the dramatic pivot using some extra brass clevis connections I have - but, as both of these are drive axles, I'll need to make some flex on the driveline too. A while ago I purchased several small scale u-joints, intended for RC kits - which might work here - don't know just yet! OK, thanks for having a look - Cheers Nick
  17. Hi Dan, Beautiful and inspiring work - really a pleasure to see! Cheers Nick
  18. Ha - "Who's gonna drive you home?" the Cars of course, in a sassy low rider! Took me a few looks to understand your nerf bumpers - got it! and looking good! Cheers Nick
  19. Hello model builders, Billy big rig here again - I simply could not abide those fenders. So, a guy went ahead and changed them: So the first step was to figure out what was wrong - the outer curve was thin, and the inner, sitting too low on the hood side. So, as you can see above, went about fixing these. Next, adding a new outer shell: And now, slightly more credible fenders! The "skin" is very thin, at .010" - so, touching it up with some Tamiya white putty - which unhappily is a bit dried out, so not all that user friendly. However, in the end - better than where we were. OK, I feel better now- Cheers Nick
  20. So, back at the shop I'm still playing Billy big rig! ๐Ÿ˜„ "Real" work was slow for the last few days, so deeper into this I went. Hi Jeroen, I appreciate your optimism! They are coming together. I find I have to be really careful with restraint, that is, to know when to stop sanding, if it is "exactly" right or not - lol Hi Vesa, appreciate it! It's also turning into some serious head scratching - - ๐Ÿคจ ๐Ÿ˜„ Hi Houston, well, thanks very much! I also appreciate your optimism, will be useful as we keep after it! Hi Andy, appreciate that comment, but - you know - you think it's just right - and alas, well, it's not - lol - I can live with it! First up, I walked out for lunch about an hour ago, and this happened: A nice comparison of two different Peterbilt tractors! the key differences being the hood and fenders - I am trying to do something like the red version - Looking at this, and thinking about the comments above, I don't think my fenders have enough swoop/big curve high on the side of hood sides - again, I'll live with it! - or not, maybe keep adding to the fenders? not sure just yet. But, other areas are coming along - first up, the front spring pack and attachment to the axle: As you can see - lots of different materials going into this - the springs look tiny compared to the tires and axle, but are about 50" (scale) inches long! and that's 7 leafs! if will ride like an ox-cart! And - what to do about the chassis? The chassis is the laser cut kit from KFS - and you can see the black kit chassis in the foreground. This is turning into a big model!! I went with the shorter version - only because it's shorter and I might be able to get it to sit nicely on a shelf somewhere when it's done. So - this suspension, is a challenge. The axle leaf pads are just wider than the chassis rails, so the brackets are mounted projecting from the chassis - but, hidden within is a cross member to mount the engine near the oil pan, and the engine mounts toward the bell housing, need to be slightly lifted inside the frame rail to work. Getting this more or less correct will allow the cab to fit, and the hood to tilt. The kit includes a giant CAT engine, and huge radiator. The truck I'm building uses a smaller Paccar engine...and different radiator. So - nothing fits as is. Also, the hood hinges are mounted on the outermost part of the horns, above the front leaf spring hangers.....good times. As you can see the engine is only taped in, and I'll need to modify the kit fan, make a new shroud, and save what I can of the radiator. But, it works! happily for me, the front axle is indeed centered on the fender well opening! I shot these two for scale - this is a big model - long and tall. With the front end installed - less steering etc, I decided it was time to start thinking about the rear end - challenge 1, axle width.....: And above, the lower axle is the front with leaf springs attached, and the upper, the rear axle on the left you can see the tires I'm using - and the hubs required, but, they don't fit and are too narrow on the axle. In the upper right, well, the axle and hubs that fit - but, of course, don't fit the wheel. So, these will be spliced together, and the obvious goal, to get the front and rear axle/wheels to be about the same width. Then to get after the walking beam suspension. Ok, that's all for today - thanks for having a look and happy model building, Cheers Nick
  21. HI Jeroen, this looks great! I spent last week in remote parts of Pennsylvania and New York, and could easily image seeing this car racing along those wet country roads, or parked along side an old shed! I like the light dusting of road grime, like driven right after the first light rains of the season. And, the engine and bay looks great! Nice build! Cheers Nick
  22. Hi Model builders, Jeroen, I thought you might like this one, as you too like making the big rigs! Not too much to share, but I have made some progress on the hood. First up, some framing: Unhappily, there is not much contrast in these photos, but hoping you can make out that I added some styrene to get the basis for the bigger fenders found on these tractors - And yes, I eliminated the flat spot on the arc in the image on the upper left. What you can also see is a .025" segment of rod which curves along the side of the hood side. This is used to mount the thin sheet used to make the fender inner arc. It turns out the overall form of the top of the fender is concentric, so the kit parts are modified to achieve the right look: Again, unhappily, there is not much contrast evident, but you can see the fenders taking shape. There is a sheet of .010" sheet laid over the previously shown frame work. I've added putty and will sand to get a uniform surface. As the hood and cab don't have a uniform base height (ie I've tried to "test" tilt, but can't really achieve the alignment/movement), I am not sure of exactly how the hood will tilt without hitting the cab? But, I did angle outward the edges of the fender framing, to allow for some clearance - we'll see.... Next up, the frame and suspension. I'm using an old set of KFS laser cut styrene channel to make this. I'm not sure of how long to make it but, will figure something out. Then, will start with the front leaf spring packs and axle. With that built, I'll be able to set the rear suspension height. Thanks for having a look - Cheers Nick
  23. I really like this build! nice attention to detail -adding the right things in the right places! Cheers Nick
  24. HI Keith, Thanks, and I hope so! Check back in a week or two, hopefully will have an update - Cheers Nick
  25. Hi Jeroen, your engine bay looks great - you really nailed it! You mentioned the orange peel, from the photos it doesn't look too bad. I saw your note on the previous page that you didn't wet sand etc. Aside from being a bit brighter, I wouldn't be surprised if the paint might look like what you'd see on a 1:1 after so many years? a daily driver? Slotted wheels look nice too! I'm looking forward to seeing this when you're done! Cheers Nick
×
×
  • Create New...