Volvo F12-20 and (absolutely no) logging trailer in 1/32

[JeroenS]

Final result of the day (a very satisfying day). The engine, dry-fitted in the chassis, with the air intake pipes connected on the engine side, but not yet to the intercooler. Not perfect, but I dare say this has far exceeded my own expectations. For next time (...) I'd like to incorporate the air pipes into the sides of the intercooler in a better way. Now that I have more knowledge of what's what I should be able to improve on this, especially in a slightly larger scale. 

 

 

 

Tomorrow: more work on the exhaust and the kit part containing the battery box, catwalk etc. Also, airbrushing season has started with this nice weather. I have a new primer, from the Mr. Surfacer range, with which I plan to do some test runs (not on the engine itself 😉) when the shed has warmed up sufficiently. 

[reini]

Test runs? Yeah, I've been waiting when you get around starting that engine up. 

[Pete in Lincs]

Jeroen, that is a great looking engine. Especially in this scale.

[trickyrich]

3 hours ago, reini said:

Test runs? Yeah, I've been waiting when you get around starting that engine up. 

he's probably been running around the house all day with the chassis making brrrrummm brrrrummmm noises all day! 

 

Gosh what a huge difference from the kit "engine" to the finished product. Awesome job! 

[cherry268]

I have only just discovered this thread.

I will be able to help you as I worked on Volvos mainly F10s but some F12s

As for braking system it starts with compressor that you have on front right hand side on engine

A steel pipe will run to the air tanks. Pipes from there will run back up to foot valve in cab and from there to front of air chambers

The pipe at rear of air chambers will run back up to handbrake hand valve in cab which will feed  from air tanks

The chambers have springs in them and work backward from the footbrake. 

Foot brake works by putting air down and applying brakes

Hand brake works by letting air out of system and letting spring put brakes on

Which is why dead trucks don't move

The fuel system is there is a pipe that runs from fuel tank to a small pump on side of injector pump. 

From there it goes to a couple of filters which I think are at the front of engine near top

Then goes back to injector pump. There is also a leak of pipe which runs off top of injectors down to pump and back to fuel tank  

The cannisters on right side of engine are two oil filters and an oil cooler which will have coolant pipes running to it 

 

Sorry if this too late to help but please let me know if you need any more information

 

And you are doing a cracking job so far 

[JeroenS]

@cherry268 Thanks a lot! I really like to learn stuff about engines in general, and the F12's engine in particular for this project. So your information is helpful, it makes me understand more about it. I don't know what I'll be able to do with it at this point, but there will be other trucks to build! The trouble with the reference photo's you can find online (truck engines for sale, mostly) is that most of these engines are messy, photo's are shot at bad angles or show only parts of the engine, or the engines are of different types etc. As I said earlier, it's hard to find out what goes where, but having an understanding of the systems involved helps a lot. I found schematics of the air system which helped as well. 

 

I do think I'll still be able to do something with your info about the air system. You said the compressor is on the front right hand side of the engine, would that be the encircled part on this photo? 

 

 

If so, my guess is that the black pipe running up and over the engine is the one leading to the air tanks? I did model (well, sort of) that part on my engine, not having any clue on what it was at the time 🙂 

 

As for the rest of the truck, time is getting short so I'll not be able to model everything down to the last detail but I had made a start on air running to the rear brakes and I was waiting  for engine and air tanks to be able to finish that. More information should make it more convincing so thanks!

[cherry268]

If so, my guess is that the black pipe running up and over the engine is the one leading to the air tanks? I did model (well, sort of) that part on my engine, not having any clue on what it was at the time  

 

Yes that is the compressor and pipe

If you look on front there is a coolant pipe to it and another at back somewhere, the cylinder head of compressor is water cooled

If you need any more info just ask, I'll keep looking at this thread

Just sorry I didn't see it before  

[JeroenS]

3 hours ago, cherry268 said:

Just sorry I didn't see it before  

Thanks and please don't be sorry, you just can't follow everything that's going on at BM can you?

[cherry268]

That's a fact!!

[HoolioPaulio]

Just catching up on this thread.  Excellent work on the engine J, its looking great already.  Can't wait to see it painted

[JeroenS]

11 minutes ago, HoolioPaulio said:

Just catching up on this thread.  Excellent work on the engine J, its looking great already.  Can't wait to see it painted

Thanks H, me too 😉

[JeroenS]

OK, so, an update on all the stuff I DIDN'T do for the build will take forever, updating you on stuff I did do should take much less time because... I haven't actually done anything really. 

 

I got distracted... again... But in this case I'm sure it was useful. I ended up watching both video's posted in this thread: 

 

 

and since I'm quite keen to improve my skills in this department I found them very very interesting. Of course, after that I watched a whole bunch of other video's, and some of those weren't useful at all, thanks Youtube algorithm 🙄

 

Anyway, this guy in the video's really knows his stuff and after watching I spent ... some... time online scouring for materials. Successfully too, stuff is on the way over as we speak. Some of it from Finland, even! Yaay, Nordic all the way! Also, during lunch break I went to my LHS today and got some more stuff there. In my LHS, you can buy online but seeing things with your own eyes is sometimes better than a photo. Luckily they are still open, but have a "max 2 customers inside" policy. Well, since almost nobody is out and about this is not a problem, I was the only one there. I told the owner I was there to support him and help him through this crisis, which he was very happy about. A couple of jars of paint, some alu and brass tubing, a display case, new pair of tweezers... well you know how it is... I certainly did my best for him. 

 

On the way back I went past the DIY shop, and picked up some nice mini bending pliers for only €5. Surely the scale model hobby version would cost at least 4 times that. These pliers are really neat and will certainly help improve the look of the scratchbuilt additions. Too late for the engine, but there will be more work like that, if not on the Volvo then surely on other projects. 

 

I used to bend the wire with my PE bending pliers. It works, and you get a consistent bend but it's rather square. The bends you can make with these new pliers are way more realistic. Of course, for a lot of you this is old news but for me, still very much a beginner in this respect, it's an improvement. 

 

This is what I mean. The left side is bent with the PE pliers, the right side with the new pair. Way, way better!

 

 

Right... Tonight, I finally shot some paint out of the airbrush, that's been a while! Shed is dry and warm, perfect. Compressor and tank retrieved from their winter hideout and set up. I set out to try a new primer that I purchased recently. I usually shoot Tamiya's fine grey primer from a rattle can, it's great stuff... but it's a rattle can and as such has its disadvantages. I got some Mr. Surfacer 1200 and 1500 and painted a couple of spoons to test it. It's beautiful stuff, really smooth and I like it a lot. I'll shoot some colour on it tomorrow and see whether black or grey will be the better base for my blue. 

 

 

However, still nothing done on the truck itself. The last picture is about what I'm going to do in the near future, and that's try to make something of this collection of parts: 

 

 

The goal is to make them look less like Duplo and more like kit parts. Some thinning will be required and new airtanks will need to be made in any case. But I think this could amount to something adequate. 

 

If you're still here, thanks for bearing with me! 

[JeroenS]

Just shot some colour on my spoons. Partly to check the colour, and partly to see if the paint and primer like eachother. I'm going for a simple colour scheme here, I don't know where I got the idea but this is it: 

 

 

These are just Tamiya's plain flat yellow and dark blue. Cab will be yellow, everything else blue, all over grey primer. Except the tyres of course, which will be tyre colour. And maybe the rims, I might go for alu there, or otherwise yellow.

[trickyrich]

gosh that colour scheme looks so familiar? 

[dbostream]

Blue and yellow the best color combo.  

[srkirad]

Hmmm... having seen these colors for the cab.... trailer could be filled up with some woody things with engraved letters I, K, E & A...? And some small Draken/Viggen roundel somewhere on driver's door or on the roof top?  

[JeroenS]

Some progress has been made on the airtank/battery box/exhaust combo. First, all Duplo connectors were discarded and general cleanup was done. 

 

 

Also, one of the first things I did was cut off the mounting step, shown below in the picture. It will be remade with wire in a more realistic thickness. Airtanks were discarded as well, new ones are in the making as you can see. The exhaust got some new parts as well. Battery box was a little airy so it got a much needed back wall. Some holes still need to be plugged, airtanks finished, but this should all be fairly straightforward. 

 

I'm hoping to get a lot done this weekend. However, the backyard is beckoning as well with this lovely weather so I'm guessing most modelling will need to be done in the mornings!

[JeroenS]

With 2 brand new airtanks, a step made out of brass wire and some styrene to plug holes and such, this combo is now finished. The airtanks will receive some small detail on the front, and I'm going to see whether I can make a connection from the compressor on the engine to these tanks in a nice way. 

 

[trickyrich]

that looks so good!

[Hockeyboy76]

Nice work. 

[JeroenS]

Quite strange... this is the second time this week that I seem to have "lost" an update. I was sure I'd made another update (and this was before I went outside to drink a couple of beers, so it couldn't have been that) but I don't see it. Must have forgotten to press "submit"... again... 

 

Ah well, I'm always "Hmm did I just lock my car or not?" 5 seconds after I apparently locked it... must be the same thing. 

 

Anyway, like I said, I went outside and had a couple of beers, but before that I had decided to cut off the kit's remaining exhaust pipe and make my own. The kit part was incorrectly shaped and its diameter was larger then the pipe I had used. So, I did that and this was after I had bent some pipe and stuck it to the ... whatever it's called. 

 

 

The vertical piece needed to be trimmed down. 

 

Which is what I did after I came back inside and had a bite to eat. So now it's this: 

 

 

The sloping bit is not yet attached to the engine side, I still need to be able to take out the engine for paint. 

 

This is now the combined catwalk / airtanks / battery box / exhaust. I'm pleased with it, in any case I think I've improved on the kit parts. 

 

 

Edit: I was curious to see where we're at: 

 

 

It is starting to look like a truck. 

Edited April 11, 2020 by JeroenS
Added picture

[Hockeyboy76]

Looking very good with the cab on too dude. 

[trickyrich]

wow, it's nice to see the whole thing altogether!

 

It's going to be amazing when done.

[JeroenS]

I decided to do one last piece of pipe from the compressor, up and over the engine, down the other side. This pipe leads to the air tanks (well, in real life anyway). 

 

Using my new bending pliers I managed to get a pretty decent piece. 

 

 

I drilled into the compressor and stuck in the brass wire, this time using a small piece of alu tube as a fitting. I got this from the video's I watched earlier this week. I like this method, the alu tube has a nice look to it. 

 

 

The pipe goes the lenght of the engine, filling out this side of it some more. Then over the engine and down the other side, where I just glued it under the support. 

 

 

More pipe will be place on the inside of the chassis beams, but I won't be actually connecting the pieces, it will never be seen. However, I like the addition of this piece to the engine. The bends are also much nicer now. 

[JeroenS]

Last result of the day... more pipework, in this case air to the rear air tank and the brake system. I'm reasonably happy with it, towards the last couple of lengths I was getting a bit better at it, but since this was my first time doing this much pipework in this manner I'm cutting myself some slack. It will be better on the next model 😋

 

 

The pipework is leading to a spot which will be hidden by the catwalk. Tomorrow I'll add some more for the front brakes, and I'll try to add some electrical wiring, probably just a cable loom inside the other chassis beam to make things look busy.