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Revell 1/25 Mercedes-Benz 1628s #1: Chassis Truck


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Hi all, I've been looking forward to this GB, I'd like to set myself a little challenge, and that is to build three of these 1628s trucks. I've built one before, it was my first truck build and I've loved this kit ever since and couldn't help myself every time I saw one appear on the second hand site I purchase kits from. Which is why I have 3 to build now, because I'm not a collector 🙂 

 

I have 3 different boxings actually, this is the original 1981 new tool version: 

 

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It's moulded in blue, but the only thing the previous owner did was paint the cab... orange!

 

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Not too badly either, although it's a bit thick in places, with some runners. But I like the colour so I'm keeping it. I will just weather it a lot, because I will build it as a used chassis truck which my fictitious trucking company Van Dordt has just bought off an auction. The guys in the shop will certainly do some work on it when they get it. The build will be a barebones truck, with an extended chassis. This should be the easiest one of the three to build. 

 

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When I think of Revell, I think of it as a US company. The European side of Revell is completely new to me, so your builds are going to be very fresh and informative for me. Good luck with all three.

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44 minutes ago, TonyW said:

When I think of Revell, I think of it as a US company. The European side of Revell is completely new to me, so your builds are going to be very fresh and informative for me. Good luck with all three.

Thanks. This series of trucks is done in the "American" 1/25 scale, while later on they did do some trucks in 1/24 scale. 

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1 hour ago, CliffB said:

Good luck with your ambitious plans Jeroen :popcorn:

Thanks Cliff... I'll probably need it 🙂 

 

 

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Maaann, I am so ready for this! I cleared (and cleaned :think:) my bench and surrounding area and got my kits out. 

 

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I made some sprue shots for you all. They're the same for all three kits, with one moulded in blue where the others have red sprues. These kits don't have that many parts, but the building in itself wasn't going to be the problem here. It's everything else I intend to do with them. This build will be the simplest in terms of mods, as I've mentioned before. But, since it will be a very used truck I intend to do a lot of weathering, and since it's a chassis truck it will have lots of open areas so it will need wiring. 

 

Anyway, sprues. Chassis stuff first. The rails will need modifying but that's easy enough. 

 

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Engine, wheels, fuel tank and cab interior. 

 

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And that's all the sprues. Nice and simple. 

 

The cab is nicely moulded as one piece. 

 

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Clear parts. Bit of flash on them. The front window is moulded together with the small side windows. There are no clear parts for the larger side windows. Maybe I'll make half windows for some, but I also like that you can look directly into the cab without the windows in. 

 

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Decals. I'll be using the Dutch plates because they actually make sense. The rest of the decals will be going in the spares box. 

 

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The other 2, earlier, boxings (these are sprues from the later one) have just one measly plate which is supposed to be German. I guess I'll be making my own for those. 

 

These are the tyres which go with the kit, they're ok in the detail compartment but they're rather soft and squishy. 

 

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The wheels themselves (on the red sprue) are not something to write home about either, so I think I'll be using wheels from this box here, along with standard Italeri tyres. The difference in scale is negligible.

 

Edit: I just checked and the circumference of the Revell 1/25 and the Italeri 1/24 tyres is actually the same! The Italeri tyres are just a little wider which looks better anyway. So I'll definitely be losing the Revells.

 

When I found out that the owner of Kitform Services was retiring and had sold his shop, I bought a ... truck load... of wheels and hubs because at that point he didn't know what was going to happen and when the new shop would be open for business. Luckily, the new owners seem to have things up and running nicely. But, always nice to have a good stock of wheels 🙂 

 

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OK so now I'm going to sit at my bench and wait for tomorrow 🙂 

Edited by JeroenS
Tyre size
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1 hour ago, psdavidson said:

or pretend you are in NZ for a few hours?

Hm, why not, I have family down there somewhere! 🙂

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5 hours ago, JeroenS said:

OK so now I'm going to sit at my bench and wait for tomorrow 🙂 

Me too - I'll be getting out the nippers at midnight and cutting plastic 🤪

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36 minutes ago, Jinxman said:

Me too - I'll be getting out the nippers at midnight and cutting plastic 🤪

I couldn't wait, I started another kit! I want to build stuff!

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So I actually did start on another kit, the original 1983 boxing of the Italeri DAF 3300, it builds really well actually. But! The fun has started in earnest now. 

 

I'll be building the generic stuff for all three Benzes first, getting that out of the way. Engine, cab interior, battery box and such. I really don't like doing the same thing multiple times so better to get that out of the way first! Then focus on the actual builds. 

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That's a box of completed parts. Some cleanup of seams still required when the time comes. 

 

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And an engine. Lots of moulded on detail, it's looking a bit flat in places. But it's fine, I'll see what I'll do with it on this build. Paint it, that's for sure 🙂 

 

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Right, so I have done the boring work for all three builds. Time to get serious with this one! 

 

The goal is something like this. 

 

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Barebones, straight chassis, that's why it's called a chassis truck 🙂 .... You can buy one and put whatever you want on it. It could become a flatbed, the bed will have a chassis of its own which will be bolted on top of the truck's chassis.

 

Anyway, the problem here is that the kit's chassis is anything but straight. These are the 2 rails. 

 

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We do need the front end, because of the engine mounts, cab mounts etc. So I've put in the front crossmember and the transmission support. 

 

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From above, you can see that the chassis narrows toward the rear. Also not what we want. 

 

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So let's make a cut just before the point where it starts to taper. 

 

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This leaves us with the front end with all the mount points for engine, cab and front leaf springs. And one mount point each for fuel tank and battery box. I'm saving the parts that I removed, I'll need those hook type things, they're supports for the rear stabilizer bar. The mounts for the leaf springs I'll have to figure out. 

 

First, I'm adding the front leaf springs and axle. 

 

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I can make a jig to hold the chassis. For now, only the front end. 

 

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But now, I can figure out what kind of wheelbase I want and thus where the rear axle should be. It will get a spot somewhere on that center line, where I'll put the supports for it so the axle is in the right place on the right height. 

 

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I can then start filling in the rear part of the chassis using Evergreen strips and such. 

 

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Work on the chassis continues. I've decided my wheelbase will be 4,50 meters, which is considerably longer than the original 3,15 meters but not too long. It should still be a compact looking rig. It will have to fit on the beavertail so I couldn't go too crazy.

 

So first, 11 mm strip (all 1 mm thickness) to fit inside the chassis. Some initial crossmembers at the correct width. 

 

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Then, 3 mm wide strip on top and bottom of the inside strip. 

 

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It's nice and straight. 

 

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Then, 13 mm strip on the sides, covering all the joins. 

 

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Filling in the crossmembers, cutting it to length and sanding. 

 

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A little bit of filler is needed here and there, mainly at the join to the kit's chassis and the top of the rails of course. I'm not worried about the bottom. 

 

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Now, because the chassis is wider, I'll need to move the leaf springs out first, after which I can figure out where they need to mount to get a level chassis. 

 

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12 hours ago, Jinxman said:

Tidy work indeed - do you knock up a fresh jig for each build?

Thanks! I have this 2 mm piece of sheet that I really don't use for anything else. It's easy to glue on a couple of supports in the places where they're needed. I've used it for every build where I modified or built the chassis, after struggling with the first time I did that! To be honest, it hasn't been that often but it has come in handy. This is my neatest chassis update so far I must say. Methods improve 🙂 

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Time to get those leaf springs and rear axle on. I cut the chassis to make room for the axle, more or less matching the original chassis. 

 

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The angle is slighty steeper on the rear because there's a crossmember in the way. 

 

A piece of card was added to the jig to make sure the chassis is square and level when getting those springs on. 

 

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And after a bit of fiddling, they're now glued in place. 

 

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I had them glued a little higher at the rear, but it didn't look right so I moved them down a bit. The chassis actually needs to be sloping up towards the rear because there's no weight on the springs so these are pushing the chassis up. 

 

It all lines up nicely. 

 

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Because the chassis is very much visible for this build it will need some extra detailing. I thought I'd start with these corner pieces for the crossmembers. 

 

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I usually struggle quite a bit when cutting small pieces like this with the knife, and then to get 8 of the same... I must have a really good day for that to happen. 

 

But, since some time I've owned a Silhouette cutter which I've used so far for stencils and masks. Works like a charm. It can also cut styrene, I just had to figure out the settings for that. Today I looked into it and came across a YT video explaining how to set the cutter for .25 mm styrene. So I took the plunge. 

 

It's really easy to create the shapes you'd like to cut, using the standard software. Make 1, copy paste and you have 8. The cutting also works really well, you can just pop them out of the sheet afterwards. 

 

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I will be using this a whole lot more from now on!

 

Add some bolt heads and it looks a lot more lively. 

 

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I have a punch but I'm using Meng bolts now, there's different sizes on a sheet. You just have to slice them off, make sure they stay in your sights, and glue them on. Some will get away, it's in their nature. 

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18 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Very impressive detailing, I have to say I couldn't be that patient to do all these little bits. 

It's not my favourite part either but a truck chassis looks really odd without any bolts on! 

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