2019 KW T800 twin steer tri axle rotator wrecker

[busnproplinerfan]

Here's the underside stabilizers. The one on the left is the forward one and is mostly done. The other is not finished. I left it that way to show how I made the small structure parts. There will be more mounting parts added to it. I started with parts being larger and then trimming them down. The black parts are the feet or pads.

[busnproplinerfan]

Not as much done as I want in the past few weeks. Started some house renos, so this has stopped for a bit, not for long I hope.  Here's the bottom of the body taped up for test fitting. I remembered I had to make notches to the front of the center section for the vertical hydraulics of the front outriggers.

I realized my drawing I did was a bit off when I put everything on my mockup chassis. The outrigger stabalizers were about 13 mm to wide. I had section out the areas I could and make it all fit again. I did it to the front cabinet compartments to. The cut square parts is some of what I took out of them.

Here's a better view with the outrigger parts installed, that's the long square parts at the front. I had to notch out the front compartments to. The triangular part is a shroud that covers the hydraulics for the rear underlift, it's now fitted. The black piece on top is sand paper to represent the grit in the paint on the actual truck.

I just have to make two belly drag winches and the body will be done. I then want to set the parts up to attempt to make molds from it all. Hoping the renovations don't take to long, want to get back on this.

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by busnproplinerfan

[JeroenS]

I want you to get back on this as well 🙂 

[busnproplinerfan]

Thanks Jeroen.

[busnproplinerfan]

It's been awhile but I'm back on this project. I built most of the engine, It's the Cummins X-15 from A&n model trucks, Beautiful little model by itself. I have to also cut the hood shorter. After a lot of measure and checking notes from the truck I made before I did the cuts.

Cuts' mostly done and the sub fenders made. If you have an underhood air cleaner then the fenders remain uncut from the hood. The air cleaner is from Mo-luminum.

 

The hood work is mostly done, still have to trim the rear under where the air cleaner piping goes. The rear portion of the cab is lengthened with some 1x 4.8mm strip. I still have to modify the doors and make a new non sunroof roof.

 

[JeroenS]

Good to see you back on this one! Nice work, some delicate cutting there. 

[busnproplinerfan]

8 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Good to see you back on this one! Nice work, some delicate cutting there. 

Thanks. Had the past year mostly off and counting. Been doing and learning house renovations, still more to go but don’t have a lot of cash so back to this truck. Need this done anyway, my buddy at Champion has waited long enough.

[busnproplinerfan]

Here's a picture of the rotator base made. I had to modify it a bit for casting, yes I'm going to cast the wrecker parts. I had to remove the black lines and tape off the open spaces. Hopefully it'll help later one if and when I have to make another one. I don't even have a wrecker for myself.

Here's some of the pieces in molds. Also I picked up a lot of mold rubber. This thing sure eats it up. Good thing a pack in just $33, still adds up, need a few more yet and only two stores sell it here. one wants three times the cost for the same thing. Not sure if recycling will take the open empty bottles. No way to wash them out. Oh, yes I need my nails done.

A few of the molds that did turn out good. Learned a lot from watching "David Tolone" on YT. He's been doing resin work for 30 something years. Learned a few tricks from his videos, but I'm going to mostly resort to how I did this before. The boom and frame base didn't work out good in the mold so I have to remake the molds, wasted mold rubber isn't good.

I tried Smooth-on's Sorta-clear 37. It's nice that you can see through it, but it's very hard and very hard to cut. Also it needs to be degassed and I don't have a degasser, they are around7-$800. If it was degassed you would be able to see throught it.Had a "bluddy" time (I'll be nice here) cutting the rotator out, still have more to do but need a new knife.

[busnproplinerfan]

Finally got some parts made now that I got some resin and mold rubber. I have parts for three short hood T800s, two sets of wrecker parts. A Ford grill and a DC-10 nose that is meant to replace the Revell and Airfix ones. Still more to make. Resin and mold rubber get expensive with shipping, so hopefully I got enough and hoping I have it mostly dialed in. Had problems at first with the resin as shown in the link.

[busnproplinerfan]

A few more parts casted up. I was really surprised the boom and side turned out. The two sure eat up resin. Some air spots in them but ok. The clear mold rubber is the sorta-clear. It's a good mold rubber because you can see what's happening. The big problem with it is, it's very rigid, best for thinner one piece casts, not big things. I ran out of the Oomoo and used the clear to fill in. Works ok together but there's a noticeable new body line near the bottom of the side, you can see it in the second picture. All I can do is fill it with filler and blend it in. The other side mold didn't get this problem. I don't have enough mold rubber to make a whole new mold.  The back corner of the left fender had problems in the mold. The mold ripped a bit and it doesn't sit quite right. It won't be much to fix, just fill it in with some resin when it starts getting goopy, the putty. The underlift parts turned out pretty good, they are very complex but had to massage the mold before the resin set up. I'm nowhere near as good as some casters and shouldn't be showing my fails but it is what it is. Casting can be very frustrating and rewarding when it works. I was using a hand sander, the kind for wood working to vibrate the resin before mixing as it was in the mixing cups, seemed to help. I also used it a bit after the resin was mixed before pouring it into the mold. Saw a few air bubbles pop out.

 

[busnproplinerfan]

Finally doing something again. Just been so busy, work started up again so I don't get much time in the day and some burnt outness to. Anyway I have most of the parts I casted cleaned up and repaired, just a few to go, that took awhile. Here I fitted the rims on the axles. I found out that although these are copies of the Revell parts, the wheels stuck out past the fender sides. I'm certain all the parts are 1/25. I had to narrow it all by 8 mm. I was going to narrow the axles then thought it would be easier to remove the builtin wheel spacer on the backside of the inner rim. This gave me 4 mm each side. I also had to cut the spindles down and notch into the outer wheel a bit. I just did that in case I didn't cut the axle enough. I left one on the rear axle uncut for the picture. The yellow tape is masking tape. I did that make up a shim so the wheels would fit snug on the spindles. I don't have the original revell wheel retainers and they'd have to cut down anyway so this works better. Depending how the wheels fit after, they will just be placed one or maybe glued.

[busnproplinerfan]

After all the test fitting and prepping to make the parts fit and good to be casted, I still had to modify the fit on everything. Start with the small sub fenders, they needed better mountings. I wanted them to be able to just go on once painted. I can't install these first because they may need final adjusting after the truck's built. The hood's fenders have a tendency to curl up slightly so I made a brace to go across much like the actual hood brace. Hopefully that and the grill will keep it behaved. I cut out the doghouse because it was hitting the engine, now I can put it back to how it was because of the many adjustments to the cab mounting and alignment. I made improved and more accurate cab mounts so the cab only sits in one place now. I started by lining up the rear axle to the back of the cab and going forward. Turns out I had to move the front crossmemeber just over 2 mm forward. I think I should have left the front axles off until after the cab/hood was set up, not sure. Might have had the same result. The rear fenders slide into the black glove like pieces so they can be adjusted as needed and still have a solid mounting that can be done after painting. The tubing on the hood behind the grill is for mounting the brass rod that will be the hinges. I also removed the stack mounts and the rad so they can be adjusted better. So far this is the biggest hurdle in the truck, if these parts are off, nothing will fit. These parts are still kind of floating around. I want to add everything going from the front to the back, this way spacing everything down the length will be accurate. Glad I'm not making two right now.

 

 

[JeroenS]

Good to see you're back working on this one!

[busnproplinerfan]

35 minutes ago, JeroenS said:

Good to see you're back working on this one!

Thanks, need to get it done, the real ones getting older.

[busnproplinerfan]

Here I finally got everything to fit, I hope. Made the hinges from brass rod and it took some figuring to get the hood to sit at the correct height to the cab and sub fenders after separating the two from the day before, even though I marked everything. You have to tack everything in and then glue it all on. After that add a bit more glue just in case. I cut one layer of the layered .040 on the front crossmember thinking it stuck out to far and moved if to the rear of the same part.

Here is the platform for the sleeper to attach. The sleeper has to be flush with the bottom of the cab or the rear fender don't work..

The sleeper is a solid mass of resin and quite heavy. I should have cast it in pieces like the kit parts were.

[klubman01]

Great work, as usual.  BTW, how long will the finished model be?

Trevor

[busnproplinerfan]

47 minutes ago, klubman01 said:

Great work, as usual.  BTW, how long will the finished model be?

Trevor

Thanks Trevor. It should be 20 1/2", the real one is 41'.

[klubman01]

Not small then?  Keep up the great work.

Trevor

[busnproplinerfan]

5 hours ago, klubman01 said:

Not small then?  Keep up the great work.

Trevor

Definitely have to be careful moving it around. 

[phildagreek]

Wow, I’ve just stumbled across this. Absolutely fantastic work, some real model making!

[busnproplinerfan]

17 hours ago, phildagreek said:

Wow, I’ve just stumbled across this. Absolutely fantastic work, some real model making!

Thanks Phil. The frame and engine are painted now, just need to take pictures.

[busnproplinerfan]

Have the engine's basic wiring and line done. I'm not going to put every wire on, just to many but want to make it look a little cluttered. The wires are now painted black. I used Tamiya satin black but it turned out gloss black so I redid them in Humbrol flat black since it's all I have right now. The ECM was repainted red, I thought it was black. I'll get better pictures soon when the wiring is plumbed.

[busnproplinerfan]

Some more done, trying hard to stay on this. Some burn out, some just daily stuff gets in the way. Here's a look at the engine with most of the detail work done. I added the fuel lines(white plastic) just to give it a bit of life and painted the wires black.

Here is the engine installed, it does run(just kidding). Made a coolant tank on top of the rad and had to modify some of the plumbing to fit. This engine was meant for a cabover. I also made the mufflers and exhaust pipe. It's in two pieces to make it easier to install later. Remounted the stack mounts and had to spread out the exhaust shield a little. I made the mufflers from Stripstyrene tubing 212, 227, 230 and 232. The yellow is some masking tape I used to shim the parts. Now to finish and mount it all.

Also you can see the 3d printed DEF tank and air cleaner. The air cleaner has rubber hose ends and a fine brass mesh for a screen. I had to make all the intake plumbing from sprue.

 

 

[busnproplinerfan]

Have the exhaust system done, just need to paint it now and make the upper stacks. Found this reference picture online, very hard to find good pictures of the different exhaust systems these trucks use.

Here's a more in focus picture of the parts. Bent tubing, filled curves a bit. The mesh is that same brass mesh I used on the air cleaners. The larger horizontal piece is the DPF. I also added 1 mm spacers to help mount the mufflers to the mounts.

[JeroenS]

That is some neat work!