1/24 Italeri Iveco Stralis Hi-Way and 20' container trailer build

[The_Rascal]

Evening all,

This will be my first proper build thread, so go easy 😅

A bit of background,  my boss really likes trucks, the Stralis in particular, so with his birthday coming up and some big changes at work next year that mean he won't be around so much for us, I thought I would make him a model of his favourite truck. We import some products from China and these come in 20 foot containers, I thought it apt to include one of those in my build too.

 Following on from Ukmodeller's fantastic build of the Revell Stralis, in which he added lights, I thought I would attempt to do the same. I'm now at the stage where I need to start planning where to cut holes to run wires and LEDs so am researching rather than building tonight...

 

Apologies for the photo quality, I'm using my phone and it doesn't like the low light levels...

 

Here's some of my progress to date 

 

Spruce primed before gluing... not sure if that was a good idea or not tbh...

 

 

The instructions called for some weight to be added to the air tanks at the back of the chassis... I used deluxe materials liquid gravity for this... it's like lead shot, but made from steel. 

I filled each half of the air tanks with the liquid gravity and then topped up with thin CA and left to set.

 

 

Once dry I test fitted the halves together to see if I needed to remove any 'shot'. I glued them together, primed and then sprayed them with Vallejo Aluminium.

Chassis halves were primed with vallejo grey primer, then sprayed with Vallejo Model air black. 

I'm still getting used to airbrushing, but think the results are pretty good. Definitely more practice required tho!

 

 

Next up is the rear suspension unit... same drill, prime grey, spray black... added detail on the rubber shock absorbers (?) instructions call for all black, I went metal top (aluminium) and Tamiya XF-85 Rubber black for the sides... Some seam lines present in those air tanks :$

 

 

Bit more suspension added, wheel chock added and weathered. whole frame given a quick wash over to make it look less 'new'

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by The_Rascal
Added images... finally

[JeroenS]

Hey Mr Rascal, I'd like to see this come together, should be interesting. About the priming, everyone has their own method of course. Usually though, the parts need cleaning up after they come from the sprue (some flash here, some mould lines there) so it may be a good idea to take care of that first. Also, glue does not work so well on primer (or any paint) so make sure to remove it from the surfaces you're glueing together. The advantage of priming first is that it makes it easy to see where you need to clean up the parts. You can do another round of priming when you've made some larger sub-assemblies. Have fun!

[The_Rascal]

Thanks Jeroen... 

 

More pics coming right up - I was struggling with Flickr on my tablet and phone last night - using my work laptop now so all should be fine.

 

Re: Priming... the issues you describe are exactly why I said that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, lol - all sorted now.

[The_Rascal]

Will post more pics tomorrow... Had a night trying to mix a metallic red for the cab... Failed haha... If anyone knows how to mix a 'Renault Flame Red' using vallejo model Air and metal colour I would be very pleased to hear your suggestions... 

[JeroenS]

You'd probably be better off buying a rattle can, if you're in the UK I think Halfords sells those... I use Vallejo paints as well but not for car (or truck) bodies. I don't think the finish you get suits them much. If you do get a rattle can, also get some primer to go with that paint.

[The_Rascal]

On 10/30/2019 at 6:36 AM, JeroenS said:

You'd probably be better off buying a rattle can, if you're in the UK I think Halfords sells those... I use Vallejo paints as well but not for car (or truck) bodies. I don't think the finish you get suits them much. If you do get a rattle can, also get some primer to go with that paint.

Thanks for the idea... There is a Halfords just up the road, so may pop in there on Saturday and pick some up... I assume that the paint is plastic safe? (I just have to decant it first - done that before with Tamiya rattle cans).

 

My other option was Alclad II Candy red, which looks quite nice from the pictures I've seen on the internets... it will probably work out the same price too.

[The_Rascal]

On 10/30/2019 at 6:36 AM, JeroenS said:

You'd probably be better off buying a rattle can, if you're in the UK I think Halfords sells those... I use Vallejo paints as well but not for car (or truck) bodies. I don't think the finish you get suits them much. If you do get a rattle can, also get some primer to go with that paint.

Thanks for the idea... There is a Halfords just up the road, so may pop in there on Saturday and pick some up... I assume that the paint is plastic safe? (I just have to decant it first - done that before with Tamiya rattle cans).

 

My other option was Alclad II Candy red, which looks quite nice from the pictures I've seen on the internets... it will probably work out the same price too.

 

Anyway, on with some more pictures...

 

Engine build started... glued together... 

 

 

Primed along with relevant attaching pieces

 

 

First coat of Vallejo Metal Colour Dark Aluminium - was really pleased with this paint - no thinning, just pour and spray - my kind of paint!

 

 

Engine was then masked and the rocker cover sprayed matt black... additional parts fitted.

 

 

Finished article, added some black wash to 'dirty it up a bit

 

 

Radiator, washed

 

 

 

 

[richellis]

It’s a cracking kit, I would recommend drilling out the holes in the chassis rails for a realistic look. I also removed all the bolt heads, drilled holes and used masterclub parts for the extra detail. This kit has one of the best chassis done by italeri.

have a look here for some pics 

 

[busnproplinerfan]

Never thought of adding weight to a truck. I guess the model is a bit nose heavy? I'm curious to see what you come up with for lights.

[richellis]

40 minutes ago, busnproplinerfan said:

Never thought of adding weight to a truck. 

It’s only needed if you plan to display with the cab tilted 

[busnproplinerfan]

47 minutes ago, richellis said:

It’s only needed if you plan to display with the cab tilted 

Ok, ya makes sense. The cabovers I have ten to be borderline tippy unless you have a trailer on.

[Spiny]

4 hours ago, The_Rascal said:

Thanks for the idea... There is a Halfords just up the road, so may pop in there on Saturday and pick some up... I assume that the paint is plastic safe? (I just have to decant it first - done that before with Tamiya rattle cans).

Yes, it is. I always use either the white or grey primer on mine and no issues yet, but always a good idea to do a mist coat first. As for the colour coat, I haven't had any issues with that either, and you get much more paint to the pound from Halfords than using model paint (for example, both my Corvette and the current Stratos build are out of the same can, model cans usually want a couple of cans to be sure of not running out in my hands). The only thing to be aware of is with metallics as some models I've seen using car paint have a flake which looks way too large - that said one of my upcoming projects was painted in Halfords metallic over summer and looks fine to my eyes. As a bonus, if you know the code for that Renault red, they can usually mix you up the correct shade (in theory they can do it from the name, but the colour match isn't guaranteed in that case).

 

While I'm on writing, good work so far

[Alan R]

Hi Rascal,

 

I have used Halfords rattlecans in the past and would advise you to prime the plastic first. I found that the solvent in the top-coat seems to be a bit 'hot',

The Halfords primer is really good. You get a really smooth finish once it's hardened after about 24/48 hours.

I have safely sprayed the Halfords clear coat over decals, but cannot vouch for all brands of decal.

 

Anyway, good progress so far.

 

Keep up the good work... mine seems to have stalled (cold conservatory the main problem!)

 

Cheers, Alan.

[The_Rascal]

Thanks for the replies guys

 

I went into my local model shop at the weekend all set to pick up some of the Alclad Candy Red... came out with two pots of the Tamiya Lacquer paints instead... reason being is that the candy paint probably wouldn't give the effect I was looking for...  LP46 Metallic red looks like it will be perfect.

 

Couldn't resist a cheeky test fit with the wheels on... (I've since realised that I had the rear wheels the wrong way around...) the more I look at these photos tho, I see so many seam lines that I really should have taken more care over! oh well, lesson learned for the next build

 

 

Cab parts assembled and ready for priming - dash board was a particularly nasty fit tho... 

 

 

Anoyed with myself here - extra thin seeped onto my thumb whilst hold the top in place and I ended up melting off the airvent detail in the centre console, grrr... I used some vallejo platic putty to fill the seam, rubbed it down, rescribed and then primed it...

 

 

Painted it up in Tamiya X85 Rubber black and added the decals - quite pleased with the end result. Note: - the steering wheel was broken in the box  I have a new one coming from Italeri, but is going to take 3 weeks (I refused to pay the 4 euro postage being as I'd just spent over £100 on the truck and trailer!!) so it looks a bit rough where I had to keep gluing it back together.

 

 

The rest of the cab pieces all primed and painted with Tamiya IJN brown - random colour but seemed the closet match to my reference image. Fuel tank added to chassis and weathered - several times - too much to start with, so toned it down after thinking about how dirty it would actually get...

 

 

and on with cab assembly... yep, that's a dark finger print from the wash in the seat belt area... 😕

 

 

The seat is painted in wooden deck tan, with a coat of X22 clear, washed with vallejo brown wash and decaled... Had a disaster with the driver seat and had to re-do it

 

 

Driver seat resprayed...

 

 

Then cleared, washed and decaled...

 

 

Bunk bed and ladder added...

 

 

and finally the driver seat and dash added...

 

 

I fixed the gap under the 'thing' in the centre of the dash earlier this evening... A test fit of the front of the cab revealed that the window will be right down to the edge of the dash and wont be hiding anything so it needed some attention.

 

 

This is now bang upto date, I struggle copying and pasting images from flickr into the forum on my tablet, so have to use my PC hence why there's a big gap between my posts

 

I will add a bit of weathering to the cab before I seal it up.

 

All the electronic components have now arrived so can start putting the LEDs into place and continue with the build... and start thinking about the diorama and control panel for the lights...

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by The_Rascal
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