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

[trickyrich]

......and next you'll be adding some diesel and starting it up!!!

[JeroenS]

6 hours ago, trickyrich said:

......and next you'll be adding some diesel and starting it up!!!

Yup, just went out and siphoned some out of my car

[JeroenS]

Wow... this little hose arrangement just took me over an hour... Let's see whether I can improve on that for the other side 🙂 

 

[JeroenS]

No more brass wire, please... I'm fed up with it for now. I'll do some electrical cables and then that's it 🙂 

 

Today, hoses for the front breaks. 

 

 

The left side did go a little faster. I like how these have turned out. I managed to get hold of some EZ Line and this is what I've used to tie up the hoses. Really nice stuff. It's thin elastic wire, easy to knot and it makes nice cable ties. 

 

On the inside of the chassis, some air pipes. 

 

 

These go all the way around, using the crossmember as support. This time around, I made some guiding thingies, which I should have done yesterday as well, but such is the learning process isn't it. I'll make them like this for all my following builds 😉 

 

 

Same two air lines leading from the brakes on the left side. All the lines lead here, to this ... well... not so good looking piece of the chassis. 

 

 

In real life, there should be all kinds of connectors and distributors and whatnot... But I just seem to have made a rail yard... Luckily, this will never be seen because the catwalk will hide it and this was also my state of mind when I started this. 

 

However, I hadn't realized there would be this many coming together, and now I think it kind of sucks. Three options, as I see it. 

 

1) Hey, this will never be seen because the catwalk will hide it

2) I can make some kind of a cover for it

3) Maybe, if I'm not fed up with brass wire anymore, I'll cut some of the wire away and have a look in my bag of resin air connectors and distributors, and make something which is nicer to look at. Even if it will be hidden!

 

[cherry268]

Looks good, very realistic

[trickyrich]

It does take time to get perfection and bot you're nailing it here!

 

That pipework is superb! It might never be seen again...but so is most of the detailing stuff we do on models! Least you know it's there and has been done right....we too now via those photos! 

[Col.]

Never let perfection be the enemy of good Jeroen. I'm concerned a desire to add hidden detail that will never be seen again could rob your mojo  

[JeroenS]

39 minutes ago, Col. said:

Never let perfection be the enemy of good Jeroen. I'm concerned a desire to add hidden detail that will never be seen again could rob your mojo  

Thanks for looking out for me Col 🙂 Mojo is still in good order, chassis nearing completion and working towards primer and paint. 

 

I think option 3 has the least chance of making the cut. I think it will be a mix of option 2 and 3; cover up the train yard and add some nice thingies with a few bits bit of pipe leading into the cover. That should be relatively easy to do. 

 

[JeroenS]

OK I can definitely live with this. I made some kind of cover plate by glueing in a slightly smaller channel strip. Then I went through my stash of resin thingies, got out the smallest ones (as they are 1/24 scale) and made them even smaller by cutting of protruding bits. Then added some wire and something that might resemble an air dryer. The rest is purely fictional but I think it looks quite nice. 

 

 

Final bit of work on the chassis for now: electrical wiring and the support for the spare wheel. After that it's time to start painting which will be hard enough as it is with al this stuff on it. Must remind myself to not try and paint it all in one go. 

[trickyrich]

that's some nice work with the brass tubing, don't know what they're meant to be but they look good.

[Col.]

Yip, as Rich says, it all looks 'right'.

[JeroenS]

The electrical wire has to wait, I'm going to add primer and one coat of colour first. Then add the wiring.

 

Spare wheel mount is in place. Easy decision to scratch one, as the kit part is moulded onto the chassis... 

 

 

Then I thought: paint!! But noooo I forgot: bolts. Crap! I punched a load of them (not enough, wayyy more to go) and glued some of them on various parts of the chassis. I'm not going to do them all over like in real life, but it adds to the build for sure. 

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

it just keeps getting better with each update.

[Col.]

All these fine details add so much life to the whole effect they're worth the effort

[cherry268]

It all looks very good and realistic but in terms of accuracy I am not sure a F12 had an air dryer unless it had air suspension. Ours didn't although we had mainly F10s and FL10s only a couple of F12s and it wasn't until the advent of air suspension that any of the Volvos we had, had air driers on. It may be that they were an optional extra for certain climates.

Certainly all looks good anyway. 

[JeroenS]

@cherry268 The stuff there has only one purpose and that is to fill out the space 🙂 ... But what you're saying is interesting for future builds, I'll certainly look into that.

[Gorby]

Wow, that's bloody amazing work there Jeroen! You're going to make the rest of us look like a load of amateurs (well, me anyway).   

[JeroenS]

2 hours ago, Gorby said:

Wow, that's bloody amazing work there Jeroen! You're going to make the rest of us look like a load of amateurs (well, me anyway).   

Naaah, I don't think so! But thanks 🙂 

[Hockeyboy76]

Great work dude. Love this build. 

[JeroenS]

These are the final pics of the chassis before primer! Finally... My first pictures of the chassis-to-be date from January 27th, so that's a good 2,5 months for the chassis and engine... and not a single drop of paint yet!

 

I've added a bunch of bolt heads which, although there are not as many as on a real chassis, do improve the look a lot. The tiny (0.7 mm x 0.25 mm) dots break the clean surface of the styrene and make the chassis just a little bit more interesting to look at. 

 

 

 

As you can see I've also added the final crossmember which runs under the transmission. 

 

 

Unfortunately, right now it's raining and it looks like it will last the rest of the day. Primer will have to wait until tomorrow, but luckily I still have lots of other things to do 😉 

[reini]

I'm sure you'll find something more to add...

 

Looking good!

[cherry268]

On 17/04/2020 at 17:05, JeroenS said:

@cherry268 The stuff there has only one purpose and that is to fill out the space 🙂 ... But what you're saying is interesting for future builds, I'll certainly look into that.

You could call it a trailer relay valve

All artics have one and they could be that sort of shape

But she looks very good, it was never a criticism😀

[trickyrich]

amazing as always!

 

i do hope the weather clears up for you to start painting, I suspect that's going to take a while!

[JeroenS]

7 hours ago, trickyrich said:

amazing as always!

 

i do hope the weather clears up for you to start painting, I suspect that's going to take a while!

Today for sure! Must... Go... Slow...

[JeroenS]

The shed is warming up nicely now that the sun is on it, so I'll be able to paint shortly. Meanwhile, I've returned to the cab. It's probably the kit's best match to reality but there are still some things not quite right about it. 

 

This is what came in the box: 

 

 

Pretty decent except for those blobs of plastic on the sides which are Heller's solution for the curved panels. In real life, these are rounded, thin and there's of course some space between the cab and those panels. Heller's version checks none of those boxes which is a shame, I feel they could have easily moulded them as separate parts and it would have looked a lot nicer. 

 

I already got rid of most of the excess plastic but there's still a lot to be desired. 

 

 

OK so let's have a look at how the kit will have us mount the grille to cover the opening in the front. 

 

 

The fit is awkward at best, there doesn't seem to be enough room and also it's set too deep inside the cab. You can see what I mean in this photo: 

 

 

It's not just on this one. You can see that the bottom of the grill is definitely positioned over the panel containing the lights, while the kit version is all the way inside the frame. 

 

Apart from that, there's another issue which is this rather large gap here: 

 

 

So, once more, let's cut some plastic. 

 

 

With some adjusting (not completely done yet) we can fit this piece inside and up the frame, which gives us this: 

 

 

It looks better, and should also decrease the size of the gap in the wheel well. I think, once I manage to make the curved panels, the overall look should have improved.