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Hi all, I posted some pics of this kit in the box a few weeks ago, and I've been quietly fiddling with the parts since. I picked it up at our local model railway show from a stall with a huge pile of exciting yellow machines in HO scale. I was a bit wary as model railway kits aren't always the best (and often the tooling is ancient) but it wasn't too expensive so I took a punt. It's actually quite a nice kit - simplified but good lines, although it was let down by tooling that hadn't been cleaned up very well, huge attachment pins, and lots of ejector pin marks. I started off by building some sub-assemblies - the chassis and forward superstructure. It's a bit hard to see against the yellow, but I've done various bits of filling and cleaning where e.g. the hole for a part was bigger than the pin where I attached the cab safety brace thing. The equipment boxes on the chassis also needed some gaps filling, and then I had to remove the ends of their mounting pins where they came through the chassis rails, and clean up after. Similarly, I've trimmed and filled a mix of peg-ends and ejector pin holes under the superstructure as the wheel arches are huge and there's a chance they'll be visible. The best bit is obviously the dump body, provided as one big piece in the box. It was obviously slide moulded so I had to hunt the mould lines quite carefully, and it needed a lot of ejector pin holes filling on and between the ribs underneath. That's most of the parts cleaned up and fitted, except for the exhaust (it's not very good) and the cab which I'll build up separately. I also need to decide about the railings - the kit provides them but they're heavy on the flash and will probably be difficult to clean up well. On the other hand the complex shapes mean making them out of rod will be difficult too. I need to add some detail now, hydraulic and electrical lines and whatever else I can think of which will enhance the appearance. Oh, and make some new steps for the ones I removed under the bumper and up the front of the superstructure, as the kit ones are very thick and clunky. I'm probably going to weather it to look like this: Komatsu PC2000 & HD785-5 by Jose Sarmiento, on Flickr because it looks awesome Cheers, Will

I'm really not sure what category to put this in , but it is a civilian vehicle of sorts... Earlier this month I attended a railway modelling show near Maidenhead and managed to pick up an interesting kit: The box says this is HO scale which makes it 1:87 and it struck me as being something nicely unusual, particularly as my model club has a special competition in March for models that fall into the "miscellaneous" class, ie its not an aircraft, military or civilian vehicle, figure, ship, diorama or sci-fi. So long as I don't make a base and lots of extra details, this doesn't fit as a diorama Its a small box but its packed full of plastic - these are the sprues and there are 3 missing which have already been used int he assembly so far. I am positive I took photos before I started building but I can't find them anywhere so I've had to rephotograph everything. That is an A2 size backboard by the way to give it scale. and these are the other 2 pages of instructions Sadly the 'decals' are actually stickers that you need to cut up yourself. Last night I started building the base and got this far, there are 32 pieces assembled so far I've left two of the support braces off as I'll need to add the 'concrete' ballast blocks later which in the kit are plastic boxes but they supply 4 steel weights to put in them as you can see here Do once the glue is dry I'll seal those up and paint them appropriate concrete colours. So the next part is to assemble the first of three tower gantries. Each piece is self-contained on one sprue so you can make the crane as tall as you wish, just like the real thing! This is the sprue, you get 3 of them in the kit and this assembled into this Now I'm beginnign to think that I need to paint these BEFORE I assemble them anymore. They will all be getting some weathering and appropriate chipping and I reckon it might be easier to do it before final assembly. So for a final dry fitting for now, here is where it stands, it is already 9" tall... Thats alll for now, need to decide how to proceed...

Just for fun was my credo to built this little truc! The name Kibri was the first model brand wich I came in contact as little boy. My father built this kits. And now I was thinking, what`s going on, If I would challenge one with my expieriences today?! Well here it is. Pls don`t be to harsh with your criticism about my weathering as this model was built only as a joke and for testing my weathering skills on 1:87!