JeroenS Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Hello all,  it's not a Work in Progress just yet, but I just want to get it out there so that I feel committed 😉  It will definitely help getting me started. It will probably be a long build for me, as it involves modifications and even some scratch building, which I've never done before. First time for everything and I do like a bit of a challenge. So here goes.  This is the kit, it's a "classic" that I bought second-hand for a nice price.   A little bit of work has been done on the chassis by the previous owner.   It's been painted gloss black so that's gotta go.  Now... as this is "already" my second build I felt that I should make some modifications. The plan is to lenghten the chassis and turn it into a 6x4. I have some extra stuff that I'm somehow going to put on.  I've got my air spring suspension:   And some extra wheels and chequer plate wings:   And, as if that's not going to keep me busy long enough, I'm going to convert it into a hook loader, complete with skip bin which I'm going to build myself. Oh boy. Of course I'm going to run into all sorts of trouble but I'm sure it's going to be fun.  Thanks for watching!   3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbdesignart Posted June 21, 2018 Share Posted June 21, 2018 Have fun with your truck modifications. I built one years ago and from memory it went together well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richellis Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 Hi, looks good, I’d use a steel spring rear end on that, would be more in keeping with the age of the truck, try an older Italeri 6x4 and use the back end off it. look forward to seeing it done I’ve done a hook loader this year also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted June 26, 2018 Author Share Posted June 26, 2018 That's a valid point you have there... I'll look into that and maybe save the air for a rainy day... Your hookloader made me want to have a go at one myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richellis Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 That are suspension is too modern for the Mercedes also, see if you can get an Italeri Mercedes (older) with a 6x4 chassis (eurocab kit 3904 is available widely) and use the back end off that, if you get the rigid it will give the long chassis rails you need but they are harder to get hold of! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted June 29, 2018 Author Share Posted June 29, 2018 This week, I found a couple of cheap and willing donors for the Benz! The one in the front has a double axle with leaf spring suspension so that's perfect. Also, I'm sure I can use the abundance of chassis I have at my disposal now to fabricate something that will carry a bin! Â 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted August 9, 2018 Author Share Posted August 9, 2018 It's been quite a while since I got any work done on the Benz. Been busy in my garden shed; I wanted to construct a spray booth in there but before that could happen a lot of other things had to be done first! That cost me a couple of weekends, but that's ok since it was too hot to do any modelling anyway. Better to work in the shed (it catches sun all day) in that kind of weather 😆  And after that it was time for some vacation.  So. Before I went I was able to take apart my donors and I was left with this: 2 chassis and a small pile of stuff that survived the demolition.   All I really needed was the back end off the chassis in front, but the various tanks and boxes will come in handy at some point I'm sure. I started by cutting the double axle off the chassis.    It looks OK from a distance (of about 10 meters), but as you can see here all the parts really need a lot of work. It's not been painted though (apart from the drive shaft) so that's a small bonus.   So I took and/or sawed off all the axle parts in the smallest pieces possible and put them in bags for later use.  This is the original chassis of the Benz as I purchased it.   I put it in a bath of IPA to strip the paint and all the parts fell off as well so that was rather convenient. I don't know what glue was used but I'm sure it was not one that bonds plastic. After I cleaned it I did some measuring, eyeballing and guessing and I made the cuts in both the chassis, keeping the front from the Benz and the back end from the other one (it's from Revell's Volvo F12 by the way).  After some more fiddling and re-attaching the front axle with some proper glue the result is a once again complete chassis; and I must say I'm not unhappy with it. First time hacking plastic and I'm having fun doing it.   The wheel base is now 14,5 centimeters (scale 1:25) which translates into 3,625 meters in real life, and that's about what I was going for (I was aiming at 3,624 😋).  I did a quick mock-up and it looks about right to me.   I'm now going to take the chassis and try to make it look like both ends really belong together. Then take the axle parts, clean them up and put everything back together. I think I will have to lower the rear suspension a bit because the chassis will otherwise not be horizontal once the wheels are in place. The plan is not to fiddle with the front end so I can hopefully add all the kit's parts in the correct place. I'm sure I'm going to have a bit of trouble at some point because of the cut I made in the original chassis, but as I'm not one for (much) planning ahead I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.  Thanks for watching!   2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richellis Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 Looks good, if it was me I’d pack the front axle, to give a high look that would suit this type of truck, it would probably be seen with a big waste tipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted August 9, 2018 Author Share Posted August 9, 2018 36 minutes ago, richellis said: Looks good, if it was me I’d pack the front axle, to give a high look that would suit this type of truck, it would probably be seen with a big waste tipper Thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted August 12, 2018 Author Share Posted August 12, 2018 Good evening all, I was able to get some more work done on the chassis today. I wasn't entirely happy with the way I joined the 2 parts earlier, so I took them apart again and made a new connection in a way that I'm much happier with. After some more cutting and fiddling, and then some filling I had version 2.0:   After sanding it down I applied a first coat of primer to check what more needs to be done.   It does need some more filling and sanding in places but overall I'm happy with the result.  Next, I wanted to build something from the kit so I made the engine. That was easy as it consist only of 5 or 6 parts. But, it has some nice detail on it. I put it in primer  and I coated it with some red brown as a first step to make a start with a rusty base layer. I've been watching a lot of "how to's" on how to make things dirty and rusty and there are as many ways to do it as there are modellers it seems. So I just picked a method that I thought would work for me and well, we'll see how that goes. Lots of "firsts" for me in this project. There's always the IPA to make a new start 🙂    1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiny Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 It's always brave doing lots of first, but I'm pleased to say that you seem to be making a good job of it. I think you're absolutely right to make sure you're 100% happy with the chassis as it's the sort of thing which will be very hard to fix later. Redoing it now as you have done should save you an awful lot of work later on and leave you with a better result. And based off the VW that 'better result' is likely to be very good indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share Posted August 19, 2018 Good evening all, haven't got that much to show but still, progress is progress. In my mind's eye, the finished Benz is not in too good a shape. I picture it as the one they send out when all the other, nice looking, trucks are busy... well something like that anyway. So I want rust, and lots of it. Because I've never done that before, I've been sort of practicing on some old H0 railroad cars I bought for next to nothing from the second-hand. I'm working with Tamiya XF paints and Vallejo washes and pigments and I find these go together very well. I'm currently working on the fuel tank, it's a nice simple object to start with. After spending some time sanding and filling I went to work with the paints. My goal was to create a rusty base layer that is to be covered with a bit of the original colour later. Been experimenting with that as well, I did some testing with the chipping fluid, but the result I get is not (yet) to my liking. I may try the "salt" method next, I have a railroad car standing by for that. In any case, I'm having fun trying out all these (for me at least) new things.  This is the tank, ready for the next layer of paint. I think it looks OK, I'm happy with the result. I'm still deciding on the primary colour for the truck body.    Cheers!  5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted September 3, 2018 Author Share Posted September 3, 2018 Hi all, I've been working on the engine as of late. Earlier on in the thread there's a couple of pics of it, but after some research I reconsidered the approach starting with the red-brown. I found some very nice reference material of what looks like the same engine, with a light green as the base colour.   I set out to try to get this worn and dirty look. I spent quite a bit of time mixing the green colour, but in the end I got near enough to be satisfied.   This is what I have now. I'm still not quite sure if it needs some more work and if so, what I should do. Then again, most of it will be hidden in the chassis and/or under the cab so perhaps I should just move on for now. I will be adding some wiring though.   I also decided on the body colour.   It's simply Tamiya's X-7 red. In the jar it looks quite bright but once applied it is a nice deep red.  So, next up, I really should return to the chassis. I have been doing some work on the axles I took of the second-hand Volvo. They were a mess. Glue everywhere, misaligned parts etc. Best get cracking with that.  Thanks for watching.  4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiny Posted September 3, 2018 Share Posted September 3, 2018 Looks pretty good to me, although I'm a complete non-starter when it comes to weathering. The only comment I have is that looking at the photo of the real engines the green caps on each cylinder (glow plugs?) son't appear to show any rust in real life. I'm not sure whether that means they are ceramic or just recently replaced in those engines, no soubt someone who knows engines better than me will advise. But that is only a minor niggle on a very impressive effort. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 Hi Spiny, you're right, they do look nice and clean on the real engine don't they? I have some other pics where they show (a lot of) grime and dirt but indeed, never rust. I'll replace the spots of rust with some darker stuff. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richellis Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 Don’t worry too much about the engine colours. An older truck that’s been re-painted 99% of the time the engine is the same colour as the chassis, or chances are it will be a second hand engine! It’s rare for a painter to mask an engine when he repaints a truck, unless it’s a show restoration! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpnuts Posted September 7, 2018 Share Posted September 7, 2018 That engines looking the business, i love the body colour too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted September 24, 2018 Author Share Posted September 24, 2018 Hi all, it basically rained all weekend long and as I had no other plans I spent a cosy weekend at the bench with the Benz's chassis. It still needed a lot of work and thanks to the weather I got most of it done.  I still needed to fit the 2 rear axles from the donor kit. As I said earlier, they were a mess and as I kept being unhappy with them despite cleaning them up as best I could, I finally decided to bin them and go to work installing the axles from the air suspension kit I bought earlier, minus the air. Also, I purchased extra wheels to match the ones I got for the one extra axle, as, on second thought, I also didn't like the wheels that came with the kit.  I had to do a lot of measuring, cutting, sawing etc, and I had to add some bits and pieces of white plastic but it looks much better and more consistent now. First I installed the new axles, including all the connecting rods and stuff. Then I lowered the front axle to bring the front of the chassis up because it tilted forward. And I also changed the front axle steering position to make it look a bit more interesting. I may add a bit more angle to the steering position but I also may leave well enough alone. Finally I increased the front track width to match the rear axle width, which I reduced some before fitting the axles.   It was quite a bit of work but I'm happy with the results.    I dry fitted the wheels and the cab (which is taped together, apart from the engine I haven't yet built anything from the kit itself 🙂) and that made me even happier. This matches the images I had in my mind quite well.    Finally I created a mockup for the bin it's going to carry, to see what size the bin should be to match the cab, which is rather small compared to those of modern trucks. I think this should be about it:   So, a job that I was a bit anxious about is done. Next steps are adding some basic wiring to the chassis, and installing all the various tanks etc. I can get started on the cab now, paint the wheels, all fun stuff. And I have to figure out how to make the hookloader chassis. I have collected a large heap of reference photo's and I already have a pretty good idea how it should look. In short: this will keep me going for a while yet 🙂  Thanks for watching!   5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiny Posted September 24, 2018 Share Posted September 24, 2018 Looks as though it's well on the road to a good result. Funny how most of the builds seem to have at least one bit which cause some anxiety in the planning, then work out fine. Unfortunately, most of mine also have bits which I expect to be smooth and turn out to be a right PITA. Happily it looks as though you got rid of that bit on here with the axles 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted November 11, 2018 Author Share Posted November 11, 2018 It's been a good while since I posted anything on the Benz. I completed the 2003 WRX, while at the same time making some progress with the truck, but nothing really worth mentioning. Last week I was able to spend some more time on it. Earlier on I had put together most of the parts that still need to be fitted to the chassis. I took advantage of some nice weather and was able to paint the lot in various shades of brown, plus coat them in chipping fluid. Now they're waiting for some black, and I'm hoping that with a bit of chipping I can get some wear and tear on the parts. For now, it's just a pile of parts really.   Painting wasn't happening this weekend, way too wet so no trips to the shed to get some spraying done. I had a go at the hookloader frame, after some false starts I think I have a rough outline of the inner parts of the frame, that will actually do the hooking and loading. It's ready for (a lot of) sand, fill, repeat.   Yesterday I was actually able to finish a part of the cab: the seats. I looked at a lot of pictures of '80s truck interiors and I really liked the brown ones I came across, finished off with some nice, colourful, checkered patterns. So I got all creative and was able to fabricate a lovely pattern if I say so myself. My mother will be proud when she sees this. I simply printed the pattern on regular paper and used white glue to make it stick to the seats:   Must be a really comfy seat 🙂  Thanks for watching!  (by the way I changed the title of the topic now that I've actually started the hookloader thing and didn't chicken out of that one 😉) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted November 14, 2018 Author Share Posted November 14, 2018 Some progress on my first ever scratchbuild project... using this as my reference   after some shaping and sanding of last weekend's production, I was able to create something I'm happy with:   So far so good I think. The join of the horizontal and the vertical parts needs more work of course, but I feel I can use this as a base and start adding bits and pieces to it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richellis Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Looking good, nice to see some real scrachbuild modelling! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted December 2, 2018 Author Share Posted December 2, 2018 (edited) Hello all,  I managed to do a fair bit of painting over the weekend. As airbrushing in the (unheated) shed is not an option right now I planned on brushing without air, and in the comfort of my home. I also wanted to try out Vallejo's Model Colour, a (for me) new type of paint so I went out and got some. Turns out I'm pleasantly surprised by the stuff. I'm a long way from a brush painting expert but I must say I found the paint a pleasure to work with. I was even able to create a finish with virtually no visible brush strokes. I thinned with a 50/50 mix of Vallejo's thinner and water (it was recommended somewhere) and I also added a drop of Vallejo's retarder. It worked like a charm really. The stuff dries like nothing else so you can apply a new coat in no time which suits me just fine. However, you can leave the mixture in an open jar or something and it will not dry at all, you can keep using that same batch for the second coat and up.  So, my pile of brown parts to add to the chassis is now "black grey" (hmm... the fuel tank has now been "rusty", red (not shown in the thread but not to my liking), and finally black... and black it will stay!! 🙂   I even had a go at making the radiator look a bit scuffed (sorry, it's not brilliantly focused).   I also painted the rear wheels. For those, I used Vallejo's Metal Colour dull aluminium which I had used before. Those are really nice paints as well. I painted all of the double rims and managed to get one pair to look very close to what I had in mind. Well, exactly like I had in mind even.  The base colour is red brown, then some of Vallejo's chipping fluid, then the dull alu. The alu paint came off nicely when some water and a stiff brush were carefully applied. Finally I used a dark wash to take the shine away. I'm quite pleased with the result I must say. I hope I'm able to reproduce this result another 3 times 🙂   I'm really happy that the hand brushing thing worked out like this, as I said I hadn't used Model Colour before but it's my favourite paint of the weekend now.  Thanks for watching!  By the way I watched this video made by @PlaStix about brush painting and it helped me a lot!    Edited December 3, 2018 by JeroenS Added link to Plastix's brush painting video 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy vd M. Posted December 3, 2018 Share Posted December 3, 2018 This looks really neat, love how you are transforming this truck into something so radically different.  I think this Mercedes was my first ‘finished’ scale model back in the 80s when I was a kid... be it the white ‘Spedition Laabs’ version. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codger Posted December 3, 2018 Share Posted December 3, 2018 Very cool little truck Jeroen ! Please build a bigger bench and translate it to 1/8 scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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