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Freightliner FL60 Take Me Home Huey hauler


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Since this is a vehicle as opposed to an aircraft, I figured I should put this here. A brief backround. This is a Freightliner  FL60 with a Crew Chief RV body. This truck is what's called a toter. This one pulls the Take Me Home Huey around the U.S. here's the link to the build of the Huey. On the first page is a link to the Huey's story or just look up https://lighthorselegacy.org/

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235032875-124-uh-1d-huey-conversion-take-me-home-huey/&page=3

The truck's cab is resin from Plaskit in Quebec. The frame will be the single axle Revell fire truck frame. I'm using this one because the actual truck does have rear air suspension. and it's a parts frame. I do want to add the front axle and springs from the AMT Ford Louisville. The RV body(or sleeper I guess) is being scratchbuilt. The floor is .080 and the walls are .060. The corner tubing is Strip styrene 234 11.1mm (7/16")

TMHH_F_liner_wip_July_27_2018_1.jpg

 

TMHH_F_liner_wip_July_27_2018_2.jpg

The red portions are from a Revell sleeper air deflector. The cab was grafted to the sleeper as precisely as I could, then the rear wall was cut out. A lot of fich plates to hold the two floors together to so they don't break. The roof will be cut out after more of the top is made. The green sprue or runner is just there to support the roof for now.

TMHH_F_liner_wip_July_28_2018_1.jpg

 

TMHH_F_liner_wip_July_28_2018_2.jpg

 

 

Edited by busnproplinerfan
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Here I added some bits to the roof to sides area. The red airfoil parts did fit nice until the glue sat and went it's own way. Now I have to add the fillers on the side front areas. The area between the front wall and the airfoil is strips of plastic glued together, Wood could've worked to.

Tmhh_WIP_Aug_1_2018.jpg

 

Here's the roof roughed in, some bodywork done. Now the fun part, sling some mud on it and make it look good. Took about ten hours to make the roof parts. The walls are 0.060 and the horizontal parts are all 0.040. The strips between the cab roof and rv roof are 2.5 mm square strips. I had to bevel the center one to help make the curve. At the tops of the cab's doors, there's a poiny rounded shape, hard to see in these pictures. I made those from the front tips of an 1/72 S-3A fuel tank. The curved sheet behind it was supposed to go there but would hold the curve. Make sure to scratch up any gluing surfaces or it will fall apart, didn't happen yet but it did before. It's just sitting on the frame. The front suspension won't be put on till everything else is lined up on the frame. This is to make sure the wheelbase is exact since I have no measurements.

Tmhh_WIP_Aug_4_2018_1.jpg

 

Here's the inside view showing all the structure that was added. I want to make the body so it's separate from the floor like a regular kit to make it easier for painting. The tape on the sides is to protect the walls when I'm sanding the filler since I already scribed out the windows.

Tmhh_WIP_Aug_4_2018_2.jpg

 

 

Edited by busnproplinerfan
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  • 1 month later...

Major body work done. The shapes on the roof are made from stretched sprue then carefully puttied up. It's just decorative. Also made the washroom vent on top.

Huey_hauler_Aug_16_2018_1.jpg

Here's the start of the air conditioner.

Huey_hauler_Aug_16_2018_2.jpg

Here's the start of the rear body and the mostly carved out a/c unit. The sheeting on the body is all 0.060" sheet. Wanted to have strength and no warping, plus be easy to cut. Lots of eyeballing. The plans I drew myself from various photos online of Crew Chief bodies. I do everything on paper to scale first. 

Huey_hauler_Sept_1_2018_1.jpg

I cut out the deck from flat sheet, then added the diamond plate. I should have left the rear longer because I wanted the rear panel to tuck underneath it for a better finish. Had to carefully add the little bit to make up the difference. Made up stairs the same and covered them in diamond plate. I had to also move the right side tail light opening over a little. The top corners are round tubing cut into about a quarter, not easy to do. 7.9 mm stock I think. Lay the tube in a piece of angle, hold it and start scribing and cutting slowly is what I did, even on the edge of your bench can work.

Huey_hauler_Sept_7_2018_1.jpg

The bottom side. Still lots of measuring. Measure once, cut twice. The wheel well openings were left until after the major body was made. I had to for some reason, realign the diff on one side by 1 mm. The fender flares are 2.5 mm 1/4 round carefully messaged into a round shape then glued on and left a bit long. They were trimmed off later.

Huey_hauler_Sept_7_2018_2.jpg

Here's the putty mostly flung on. Holes for the lights cut out. I made trim rings for the lights from aluminum tubing. I heard of a trick used for dash guages. You take an aluminum tube the size you want. make sure the end is square, polish it to the finish you want. Bevel and round the edge as you want, finish it in fine sandpaper then repolish the edge. Carefully cut the tube in a mitre box, you can leave it a bit long so you can handle it. Drill the hole so it's snug and slip it in to the depth you want. Fill it with epoxy, colour it with acrylic paint if you want for lights. I have yet to make up the epoxy but it should work. I'm sure you could put functional lighting in to. The lights will go in after it's all painted. The tops of the wheel wells are small lengths of diamond plate only on the top, glued in from the bottom. The bottom will be 0.020 sheet added after paint work underneath and some extra framing is added to hold them, as well as the storage box on the left side. The S-3 Viking tanks are there to hold the wheel wells level until the glue sets and I make the vertical parts.

Huey_hauler_Sept_14_2018_1.jpg

I cut the tail light holes after the panels were installed and crossed my fingers everything went straight. I pre marked and punched the marks before they were put on. The two inner lights are actually close together than the outer one, just by a tiny bit. Don't know why, but the picture I saw show it like this.

Huey_hauler_Sept_14_2018_2.jpg

Edited by busnproplinerfan
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8 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

There I was, thinking "It'll just be another truck" - how wrong I was!! This looks lovely so far: can't wait to see how it progresses.

Thanks, I just can't build from the box when it comes to trucks.

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On 9/16/2018 at 6:49 AM, phildagreek said:

This is very impressive stuff, is it 1/24? I've never heard heard of Plaskit but that moulding looks very nice, does it come with a resin cab interior or is that going to be scratched as well?

It’s 1/25, unfortunately the Huey is 1/24 so there will be a small difference. I hope to blend the two scales somewhat. Plaskit is in Granby Quebec. He has a photobucket page with his stuff. Search Plaskit and ask him for the link. It does have the full interior, bumper, tanks. Everything except the frame and drivetrain. It’s a beautiful casting.

Edited by busnproplinerfan
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  • 2 months later...

It's been awhile, but here's a bit more done. I just took on another commission job, a Kenworth K100, https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235047370-1970-kenworth-k100-restoration/&tab=comments#comment-3206942 Here I fitted the fenders, frame boxes and whatever else to make sure it all fits. The frame had a twist. Somehow, one rail went longer, so I cut out about 1/16" on the one side to bring it back. From the top view, it looked bad, now it's ok.

 

tmhh-FL-WIP-Oct-19-2018-1.jpg

I have another comission wrecker coming up soon, so I hope to get this done.

Edited by busnproplinerfan
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  • 1 month later...

tmhh-WIP-Jan-26-2019-3.jpg

Here's my finished decals for the Freightliner. The bottom row are stack guard holes for my KW. The top two are sleeper, below that is the cab and hood, mudflaps and air conditioner. I'll paint the feather black edge on the sleeper after they are put on and hope it works. These were printed on my laser printer. I used a thick card setting and discovered another slot for the thick paper. I changed the stars to proper ones, the real artwork was a white marker with stars kind of scribbled one. Looked kinda tacky to me. The bits of white are 5% black which is a very light shade of black. It took quite awhile to draw them. I used CorelDraw12 and have a Xerox 6280 printer if you want to know. This truck was just sold. The Huey needs a permanent home. They're still having problems with the artist guy.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Have some more done. I decided to put an engine in. I made up the hood hinges , bumper mounts and tank fairings. Also had to add a little to the front of the sub fenders. These also help with maintaining the hood height when closed. The bottom of the hood across the front had to be trimmed or beveled so it would clear the top of the bumper when tilting. The front crossmember is from the AMT Ford Louisville, I sheeted the top with plastic to look more like the original part. In theory it all works.

TMHH-WIP-FL-Feb-23-2019-1.jpg

TMHH-WIP-FL-Feb-23-2019-2.jpg

TMHH-WIP-FL-Feb-23-2019-3.jpg

The hood pins are plastic rod that are removable. I had to put a layer of Tamiya tape on to make them snug.

TMHH-WIP-FL-Feb-23-2019-4.jpg

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1 hour ago, TGA said:

Great work on those hinges! Those triangular shapes on the bottom act as a bump stop for the bonnet I imagine. Looking forward to seeing the rest. 

Thanks, the trianglular parts under the frame are the bumper mounts.

Edited by busnproplinerfan
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  • 1 month later...

Hello,

I just wanted to ask you a little question...

If you keep it as a secret, I can understand it !

So, how do you make your rubber tyres looking so realistic ?

I saw it in one of your previous build, the tyres look like they are used...

Some sanding ??

I hope that I did'nt disturb too much.

Sincerely.

CC

 

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On 3/29/2019 at 3:33 PM, corsaircorp said:

Hello,

I just wanted to ask you a little question...

If you keep it as a secret, I can understand it !

So, how do you make your rubber tyres looking so realistic ?

I saw it in one of your previous build, the tyres look like they are used...

Some sanding ??

I hope that I did'nt disturb too much.

Sincerely.

CC

 

Ask all you want, I don't mind.  Trying to remember. I think I did a couple of things. The KW tyres are a soft resin, so with normal handling they got a bit dirty. I also have taken a piece of sandstone or grey pastel chalk and sanded them on coarse sand paper then used an old brush and brushed the powder on the inner sidewalls and tread. I have tried lightly airbrushing the inner sidewalls and tread with a light grey acrylic. I'd then rub off the tread right away so only surface that touches the road is clean, if you miss a bit it's ok, it's a tyre. I usually like the outsides of the tyres cleaner since they get washed more.

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Decided to build an engine. Been in a bit of a hurry trying to get this done for the end of the month. My modelclub has their big contest. It's a Cat 3126, kind of a mix of all the versions of this engine. It later became the C7. The transmission, air compressor, fan shroud and oil pan came from the AMT Ford Louisville kit. The turbo is a piece I made before and the mesh detail on the rad in masking tape. Everything else is made. Luckily there is a lot of reference on this engine because it is still very common. Most of it is strips, half rounds, layers of sheet, tubing.

TMHH-WIP-Mar-25-2019-3.jpg

TMHH-WIP-Mar-25-2019-4.jpg

The springs and axle are from the Ford kit. Plastkit recommends the Ford kit as the donor for this cab as it is very close. The frame here is the single axle Peterbilt firetruck frame.  The white parts are all the ones I made. Lots of test fitting and taping everything in place. I decided to make a new open grill to replace the resin one because the hood is now openable you see so much of it when the hood is up. I had to build axles and shim them with tamiya tape to make the wheels fit tight. The exhaust pipe isn't very pretty but it's all hidden, should've used a rod instead of a tube but didn't want to go to the store to get some.

TMHH-WIP-Mar-25-2019-1.jpg

 

TMHH-WIP-Mar-25-2019-2.jpg

I made the mirriors from a few pieces of 0.75 mm rod. I had to tape them to the cab and use it as the jig. I usually glue these on now but because the mirriors cover the decals I can't.

TMHH-WIP-Mar-25-2019-5.jpg

I didn't want the engine to look new since it's a used truck. I airbrushed the engine flat black first, then light grey shooting mostly downwards and found some VIA rail yellow which I mixed up before. I couldn't find my can of Cat yellow.  Cat engines seem to loose paint and dull fairly quickly. I drybrushed some rust colour using Testors military brown.  The exhaust is a mix of steel and the military brown.  I predrilled all the holes I need for lines and hoses. I'm not adding everything, just a few to make it look busy but it does run.

TMHH-WIP-Mar-28-2019-1.jpg

 

TMHH-WIP-Mar-28-2019-2.jpg

Yay paint. All airbrushed, hard to paint with your fingers crossed. I started out with light grey Humbrol then Model Master Primer white. I painted it with Model master gloss white but it wen on satin, even after three coats and it wasn't very bright. I decided to airbrush it with decanted Testors gloss white which worked good. Decanting sprays works real good. Had to let it sit for a week, it's still sitting to make sure the paint is dry.

TMHH-WIP-Mar-30-2019-1.jpg

Because of the big windshield you see a lot of the interior. I was going to make the cabinets from wood but decided on using plastic. I found a picture of the same type of truck for sale with very good pictures so I copied it. This is all sheet plastic and strips. I then grinded a lot of it with the Dremel's sanding drum. The dash and front floor are the original resin parts. I later changed the steering wheel to a nicer one. The wood paint I started with brushing Humbrol 71 oak and the while it was still wet I lightly brushed on Humbrol dark earth. I'm sure any combination would work. The seats were built in sections according to the upholstery then finessed into something. I worked in auto upholstery before so I used the same method.

TMHH-WIP-Mar-30-2019-2.jpg

 

TMHH-WIP-Apl5-2019-1.jpg

The cabinets are still loose. I have to fit them into the cab first, well I think I have to.

TMHH-WIP-Apl5-2019-2.jpg

Now onto the trailer. I don't know what make it is, so eyeballing it as best I can. It's four small sheets of 0.080 black sheets. I couldn't get any of the large sheets ordered soon enough. I cut out and angle filed the sides down. The gooseneck is 10 mm wide strips of 0.060 sheet with 0.5 x 3 mm strips on the edges to make the I beam. I beam only goes up to 9.5mm. The fenders are 0.040 black sheet. The odd bits of white are pieces I had to replace where I cut away to fill back in. There will be a flat piece anlont the bottom of the angled section.

TMHH-WIP-trailer-Apl-4-2019-1.jpg

 

TMHH-WIP-trailer-Apl-4-2019-2.jpg

 

 

 

Edited by busnproplinerfan
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