Volvo FH2 + trailer (1:50, WSI, Tekno) - updated 2016-11-30

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In the Oscar's eve I'll start with DiCaprio's sentence from the movie Inception:

COBB: What's the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?

ARTHUR: What Mr. Cobb is trying to say-

COBB: An idea. Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea's taken hold in the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. A person can cover it up, ignore it- but it stays there.

SAITO: But surely-to forget...?

COBB: Information, yes. But an idea? Fully formed, understood? That sticks... In there, somewhere.

 

I'm not sure who implanted this into my head almost two months ago, but this is it:

http://russianplanes.net/id128629

 

While searching for a possibility to recreate this photo in scale, I concluded it could be possible by combining 1/50 scale diecast truck & trailer with new MiG-31 kit from AMK in 1/48 scale. This is a long shot and I came to the point when I need to seek for wider audience. Especially for modelers familiar working with diecast kits and civil trucks. Being an aerospace guy, forgive me my lack of proper English words and truck terminology, since English is not my native language.

I'll split this project in several phases and I will probably move it around this forum as I finish each stage:

 

1. Truck & Trailer

Following link has several more photos of Tovarish's Volvo.

http://forums.airforce.ru/foto-video/2911-mig-31-a-21/#post72998

This will be my first truck ever on the bench. I had no clue about trucks or truck kits before the start. The sum of my research says it's Volvo FH tractor unit, 2nd generation, 4x2 chassis. Some photos show it with white front bumper, while other have it black. Probably it's one the same Volvo, but while white bumper was original part, black is replacement (spare part), which was not painted in cabin color, rather preserved as "factory fresh". This could also be the reason why "black" Volvo has front registration plate moved upwards, from front bumper to lower air inlet.

The trailer looks like what we call "jumbo" trailer (local name in my country), with 3 axles, each with two doubled wheels on the axle, with air suspension. This seems not to be heavy haulage trailer or low loader trailer.

Website written on the trailer is not active anymore. In the following posts I will show my current WIP status with the tractor and trailer.

 

2. The MiG

This is MiG-31 izd. 01 (the very first production batch), factory number 69700135904, named after Nikolay Bokiy, Hero of Soviet Union. He was WWII ace pilot. The wreckage is shown in "transport mode" : without wings, tailplane, vertical tail, nose, with engines and wheel struts removed... At first I thought this fuselage was probably on the way to 514th ARZ, placed in Rzhev, Russia, where it was overhauled and upgraded to BSM variant. But since this is very old machine, it was probably cut into pieces. For now, I'm waiting for B/BS kit, with current launch date being April, 1st (?!) on Sincere Hobby website, and accompanying Begemot decals, which were also announced to be released after the MiG kit.

 

3. Scenery

Snow, snow and a little bit more of snow... That is ... Snow on the road, truck and the MiG... With weathered truck & trailer (mud) and heavy weathered MiG. Probably I will need to add 2-3 figures to call it diorama.

I have around 100 WIP pics to be uploaded, so stay tuned for more stuff in the upcoming evenings.

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OK, Leonardo won Oscar and just yesterday I was cut off from the web... Unbelievable !

 

Phase 1 - The mess with the truck...

 

First of all I want to say that plan was not to trouble myself with the truck and trailer too much, because I wanted to focus more on the MiG.

I found this Corgi on eBay - Volvo 4x2 chassis, white cabin, yellow warning lights... Despite numerous photos available BEFORE buying, I noticed it has the wheel on the right side, only when I started to remove parts from it.... It's says Scotland, with clear and big letters.. I don't know how big should it be for me to read it.

 

Level of details is very soft, with numerous bulky, one-piece casted parts... Regardless what you want to do with it, you need to remove several parts just to get access to one screw... You need to break parts or even worse... Be ready to drill them out!

One of the first things I did was to lower the 5th wheel by filing and with help of Dremel...

Next thing I did was to open rear mudguard - or better to say to remove rear wing top. I also sanded rear lights. Just a little bit too much of Dremel action ...

Parts were bagged...

 

The cabin... Uf... It was a nightmare to drill out cabin's top part. Mirrors are some cheap soft plastic and they were glued with some heavy glue - of course they broke! Cabin interior lacks any kind of serious detail and it's totally black so I just wanted to move the wheel to left side and stick it back into the metal cabin to forget about it!!!

 

I also ordered Russian civil registration decals from Begemot in 1/43 scale

 

And I also found leftovers from Volvo decals... This is Tekno I think... Maybe I'm wrong... Anyway I compared it to Corgi decals and they look oversized for 1/50 scale, more like 1/48 or 1/43. This is self adhesive foil, not true wateslide decals.

 

I also found spare wheel set on eBay. It turned out that the spare wheel carrier was also casted and in the end I was unhappy because it was not correctly formed - the wheel didn't stand horizontal to chassis,it was at 10-20 degrees bank. So, I made new from styrene sheets.

 

With help from 1.5 mm styrene I made a box with epoxy kit as support from inside. I rounded edges heavily, so only styrene wouldn't be enough. With a few details, I got my new fuel tank. I placed a piece of styrene between the tank and the mudguard as a spacer - it was planned to be removed after glueing the tank to chassis.

 

I was just about to start with scratchbuilding the silencer on starboard side, when a fellow modeler pointed out that I was on the wrong side of the Moon!

This GIF shows the difference between FM and FH cabin.

 

 

I needed new truck! More about it in my next post...

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New truck arrived within days from England...

 

 

Crappy instructions, but what a level of detail!

 

Ok, let's just try with the engine... And then you finish with dryfitting whole truck...

 

Plastic rear wing! Yes!

 

Cabin spoiler needs some Dremel cutting to remove it from support... I like this idea to preserve spoiler inside the box.

 

Wheel hubs are not the best... I think I'll use the one from Corgi...

 

On the downside... While WSI gives you numerous options like 2nd tank, water tank etc. to be placed on the chassis side... Tanks have holes and appropriate pins are provided, yet there are no holes on the chassis frame. Also, tank plastic parts have not the best fit to each other - gaps are very visible. Muffler ends with a curve and chamfered upwards. I shall replace this later on.

 

Even without cabin spoiler, it's an eye-catcher! Infill is also an option, but I shall not use it.

 

Here is almost complete WSI Volvo FH 4x2 with spare wheel. For the interior, you get both left side and right side wheel interior, to choose from. Cabin spoiler is already polished with Dremel and brass brush. The fit is excellent - there is some gap between the cabin and cabin spoiler, yet this is due to soft and thin links on the spoiler upper side. With a little glue in between there will be nothing to worry about. Enjoy!

 

 

Stay tuned for more action...

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Final post for this evening... A few more Volvo details...

The left side wheel interior... Enough detail for me, just need to separate all parts for little sanding and easier painting. One more details regarding left/right side... The kerb mirror is provided, but the hole on the cabin is drilled only on right side. On the cabin left side is a circular mark where to drill the hole for kerb mirror.

 

 

I shall be needing one fuel tank for this project, so I started with correcting one of them. I filled all joints and holes with epoxy putty and sanded away all the details to obtain basic shape.

 

I also scratched new tank support last night, while being offline.

 

One of the first corrections was to lengthen the cardan link - provided brass tube was 1 mm short.

 

Rear plastic suspension links were also 1 mm short. I scratchbuilt two new ones.

 

One fuel tank from 1/72 scale was used as base for scratchbuilt silencer. WSI gave 2-3 options for the silencer, but I needed the basic one, which looks like a cylinder.

 

When I was a kid, we used to place coins under the paper and then copy the face of the coin. This time, I copied Volvo sign on copper plate, using toothpick.

 

As said earlier, muffler's end was cut off, and new hole was drilled in muffler.

 

New styrene tube was bent and pressed inwards, to look as if survived a crash. The joint, when two separate exhaust pipes come together - this is where the silencer will be glued, once finished.

 

The cabin was also polished with brass brush (Dremel). Needless to say you need to protect your eyes with glasses!

 

That's all I have prepared for the truck for now. Next time I'll write more about the trailer.

Thanks for watching.

[richellis]

Looks good, glad you didn't use the corgi as it is an FM, not FH!

[Vince1159]

I collect Corgi 1:50th trucks and it's interesting to see one stripped down,can't wait to see the finished one....

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Phase 1.2 - Trailer

I searched eBay for weeks until I found cheap trailer in 1/50 scale. I got this orange from company called Tekno. It had no wheels, but it was flatbed with "a step" in front.

I compared Tovarish photos of truck and the trailer with scale drawings of both Su-27 and MiG-31. It seems like I need trailer around 17 m in length (34 cm in 1:50 scale). And this trailer was 26 cm only. I got lucky - same seller was selling one more trailer at the same time - same model from Tekno, only in black. Also without wheels.

Here is one trailer placed over another, to create effect of one trailer in 1/50 scale, still with Corgi Volvo in one piece.

As for wheels, which should be smaller in diameter, than the ones on the truck unit, I took this Nicholas boogie unit with doubled wheels.

Size test with black trailer

I decided to use original pins on the trailer to take measurements for scrachbuildig wheel suspension and struts.

A friend of a friend offered his milling machine to get parallel and clean cuts thru diecast - yes, the idea is to cut both trailers in several places and then to glue them in single piece.

Test fit

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To glue diecast parts back, I'm using this Epoxy 2-component glue with metal particles from Bison. It creates a strong bond within 24 hours it's stone hard and this epoxy can be easily sanded to desired shape or thickness. It's also very good to glue styrene and plastic parts to diecast. Only downside is grey color and its thickness. For assembly of painted parts I would like to use some clear glue which is more fluid. Any ideas?

Test rig for glueing process.

I'm using a piece of glass on a glass table to have perfectly flat surface for leveling, and ratchet clamps to remove any freedom of motion or rotation.

I assembled Volvo back for a dryfit test with the new trailer. The biggest part fro black trailer is bent in arc, which I noticed after taking this photo. Also, first two trailers parts (with forward step) are glued banked to the next orange part. I decided to fix all of this, so I broke two joints and I'm glueing them back again, as I write this.

This is a comparison to original photo. Looks promising, but still I want to correct those mistakes.

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx57/supergru/Red11/128629_2.jpg

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Seems like this one got a lot of views since last update.

 

All right. Let me show you there were some progress, too.

 

First cut after the step on the trailer - epoxy was not mixed in equal quantities, so it didn't become hard after 24 hours.

 

I needed a quick fix, since parts are heavy, and connection could crack. So this time I took some steel rods and mixed epoxy glue again.

 

 

I also needed one more cut-in to even the trailer somewhere in the middle (after the step)

 

 

And one more unplanned cut just in front of the step, since testing showed that mold was made tilted.

 

 

Rear wings on the Volvo were also cut or better to say, top cover was removed and mudguards were added.

 

 

Next thing was that I started with building the frame for wheels, axles, suspension...

 

 

 

I also made some other details, specific for truck trailers.

 

 

 

 

I also made rear lights, but I'm not happy with them.

 

 

Main frame part, with axles, air suspension links and vacuformed mudguards.

 

 

Front side.

 

 

Bare underside, ready for painting. I tried to use existing holes, as much as possible, otherwise they were filled. Where needed, I drilled new holes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On the upper side I added a small frame from styrene strips and started glueing pieces of venner. 

 

 

Front parts is finished, just to be cut according measurement.

 

 

 

Bottom side with all parts dryfitted. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, new decals for Nikolai Bokiy Red 11 arrived. 

 

 

 

 

Size comparison with GAZ-3302 (1:43) and early production KrAZ-260 (1:43)

 

 

 

That's all for this update.

[Schwarz-Brot]

Very cool project! And a lot for me to learn. Thank you for posting the detailed pictures.

 

Jan