ERTL 1:25 International Pay Hauler 350

[Alan R]

Hi All,

This is my intended victim for the start of 2015...

The blurb on the instructions says:

"The 1/25 scale International Harvester PAY HAULER 359 heavy duty construction (Off Highway) truck is considered by many to be one of the to be the finest model kit vehicles to ever be produced"

 

Hmm, I'll be the judge of that. Who are the "many" that they are talking about? Typical 1970's USA hyperbole, I think...

On the whole. the moulding seems OK, and the fit reasonable, especially give the time (1970's) it was made. I guess that I wasn't as critical of such things in my late teens/early 20's...

 

I think that I bought this when I was at university. The copyright date on it is 1974... Over 40 years ago.

 

 

I started on this about that time, but didn't really get that far. I had built (?) the engine and badly painted it. In the intervening years, bits have fallen off. None lost though. All the bits were still in the huge box... Some other parts have also been started, and will need some remedial work. Such as stripping of the paint, seam removal, filling of badly fitted parts, etc. I think that the worst made bits were the hydraulic rams that lift the tipper body. I seem to have made a complete pig's ear of them. However, nothing I can't rescue.

I have started by immersing the engine and other ancillary bits in a mild caustic soda solution and leaving it for a couple of hours. I had painted it with Humbrol enamels, and so far it has all been removed. I'll get some more photos posted later.

I am also hoping to add some small details, like brake lines and some electrical wiring where possible. We'll see how that goes...

This is going to be a slow build, as my work-shop, for want of a better description, is in the (unheated) conservatory, and it's a bit chilly here in Bristol at present. Only about 2C, but damp. I lived in Toronto for a year, where -15C to -20C in winter wasn't unusual, but it didn't seem as cold as 2C here. Better insulation and dry cold maybe? A little off-topic, I was watching Winter Watch on Monday on BBC2, and they said that -4C without gloves can lead to frost-bite. Bit scary that...

Anyway, please comment as I go along. I'm big and ugly enough to take constructive criticism. If anyone has any images of the engine bay and chassis, I would be extremely grateful.

Alan.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Alan R

[S.Tasker]

now that looks cool, would love to build one of those!

Sam

[stevfire2]

i"m very interested in this, i built it as a lad many years ago. i dont recall any issues, just built it literally out of the box. fancy doing it again, so will see how this goes! good luck.

[shood23]

Looks like a very interesting project. What size is it roughly when built in cms/inches

Shaun

[Jockster]

Likewise, I too would love to build this baby, look forward to your build!

[richellis]

Im watching, its a kit Ive wanted but never got!

[Alan R]

All,

It's pretty big.According to the box lid it's 14.5" long 6.5" wide and 5.2 " high. Gonna struggle to find a shelf for that...

[Alan R]

Anyway. More pictures.

After its dip in caustic soda, a few ancillaries fell off, but no damage done. I present to you:

1. The engine:

2. The ancillaries:

The enamel paint has been completely removed, and the smaller parts don't seem to have suffered from the scrubbing to remove the residue.

The next stage is to clean up all the other part-assembled components. The plan is to prime the engine in white first, then cover that wit ha suitable yellow satin finish. Scale wise it'll look better than high gloss. Then, I'm going to attempt some weathering of it. Even straight out of the factory engines would have some dust... wouldn't they?

The hydraulic rams have been cleaned up, and minor repairs done. They look so much better, even though half the paint is missing. I didn't take any 'before' pictures, so you can't see the improvement.

All the best, Alan.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Alan R

[Alan R]

Well, some more slight progress.

One of the consequences of starting a build many eons ago, and then leaving it is that the plastic becomes fragile...

While this was living in isolation in my loft, parts of the engine had fallen off. The biggest casualty was the fan assembly. It had broken off, and needed a new spindle. Using my pin vice, and the largest drill I could find at the time, I re-drilled the hole in the fan, and the pulley on the engine. The fan blades had ejector pin holes on the backs. It's likely that they wouldn't be see, but I know that they are there...

So, with some wonderful Squadron Green putty, I filled the holes, and sanded it smooth. This will all disappear once painted.

The white bit is some evergreen 1/16th" rod cemented into the hole. The fan will fit on this. Voilà repaired...

Sorry about the blurry images. I should use my tripod to steady the camera.

I have also tidied up the hydraulic rams, thus:

There were some sink marks on the top pivots that needed attention.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to do some more this weekend.

Off topic, I took a walk about my village early this morning and took this:

Well, with a little help from Microsoft ICE...

Edited October 3, 2021 by Alan R

[lordairgtar]

Waiting for the rest of the build. I think this only was released by Ertl once and never seen again. I guess AMT chose not to re release the kit. If they did, I'm not aware of it. Ertl designed kits are very well done. Easy enough to build if you follow the instructions. They concentrated on International Harvestor trucks and farm tractors and John Deere farm equipment. I had a cab over IH truck in light blue plastic and a IH farm wagon in red plastic, which by the way was also released as a John Deere wagon in green plastic.

Edited January 29, 2015 by lordairgtar

[Richard E]

One of the first rules of modelling:

The fan blades had ejector pin holes on the backs. It's likely that they wouldn't be see, but I know that they are there...

So, with some wonderful Squadron Green putty, I filled the holes, and sanded it smooth.:

Looks like an interesting build, there are a number of part-built kits in my dim-and-distant past I now wish I'd kept so I could resurrect them.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Richard E

[Alan R]

I wanted to give an idea of scale to this beastie. Here is the engine of the Pay Hauler next to my half completed Mini Cooper:

There is a minor difference in scale, the Pay Hauler is 1:25 and the Mini 1:24, but the difference is small enough to ignore. I estimate that in the real world, the engine alone is about 9 feet long! That's not including the transmission unit, which must be nearly 3 feet long as well...

Anyhow, more images. All the other bits that I painted badly in the past have been stripped in caustic soda, and are ready for more prep:

Some of the parts need a bit of fettling, especially the fuel tanks and reservoirs. Once that have been cleaned up, onto the painting.

I think that the images are a bit sharper since I put my SLR on the tripod. These were taken at 3200 ISO, F14 1:100th second, and are an improvement, I think.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Alan R

[Alan R]

Afternoon chaps.

...and on nearly seven years!

I did state in one of my earlier posts, way back in 2015, that my plan was to spray all these bits with white primer, then yellow.

Well, finally, after a long hiatus, I did just that.

I  used Zero Paints White filler primer, thinned down a bit further with Mr Color Levelling thinners.

And this is the result:

Slightly overexposed. It is solid white.

White is always a blighter to cover, and I made the problem worse by thinning it.

However, it's good enough. Now, I need to do the same to the engine ancillaries. Which I have started to do. More pictures soon (Not another seven years, I promise! )

 

Cheers,

Alan.