SPA Modeler

Stikpusher wrote:

mustang1989 wrote:Thanks Bruce and Kari.

Kari:This is going to be what’s called a “Day 2” build which means it’ll be built as a truck that is brand new on the second day of ownership. That’ll be the factory oil filter that’s on the engine. The only upgrades to this truck will be a wheel and tire swap.

Are you sure? No other changes?

LOL! Yes Carlos. I've got a lot of love for these trucks in stock form. I promise.

mustang1989 wrote:Thanks Bruce and Kari.

Kari:This is going to be what’s called a “Day 2” build which means it’ll be built as a truck that is brand new on the second day of ownership. That’ll be the factory oil filter that’s on the engine. The only upgrades to this truck will be a wheel and tire swap.

Aah, got it, cool!

- Kari

I've been working on the chassis as time allows for the last couple of weeks. Having acquired this kit on Ebay, it was missing one of the front molded coil springs. After looking at the one remaining spring and noting how horrible it looked, I thought it best to up the ante a little bit and make it a little bit more realistic looking. I opted for a set of steel coils that I had in the parts bin. Other than that it has been a rather labor intense seam and injector pin mark clean up. I shot almost all of the chassis parts in a coat of semi gloss black lacquer followed up by a thin shot of semi gloss acrylic paint which resulted in a more life like color to me. Not completed by any means but I thought I'd show a shot of progress to let you all know that I am in fact alive, well and building.



and for all of you who are curious....this will be my only modification to this build. I have too much love for this truck in stock form to do anything else to it. Still have some clean up left on the rear tires to get totally rid of the raised white lettering and then matching both sets of tires up color wise but here's what we're going with.

Great to see an update of this build!

- Kari

Sensational work Joe! that does look perfect. You really know how to make these models look so realistic. I bow to the Master!

Joe, you are indeed a master modeler. Wowser.

You forgot to add that “Needs wings!” I miss those aircraft builds of yore. Mainly the Arado.

Happy New Year to you and your family, Mustang!

You guys are way too kind. I do sincerely thank you for your comments.

Lyle....it's really good to see you back around.

Chassis is now complete. I painted it all different shades and textures of black with some of the highlights/ raised areas brought out with a very subtle touch of silver lead pencil. The exhaust, even though it's hard to make out in the photos, was one of the hardest paint wise I've had to do yet. For starters it was LACED with seam lines down both sides of the exhaust pipes, converters and mufflers so I first had to remove all of that. I black based the complete exhaust system and shot it all with a coat of Metalizing Aluminum through an airbrush. Next I drilled out both tail pipe ends. After that I lightly coated both converters with a coat of Tamiya Titanium gold and after that dried a light dry brushing of Tamiya Burnt Blue powder from their engine weathering kit. Both mufflers got a treatment of Matte Aluminum Bare Metal Foil for an added effect. The fuel tank was also flat black based and shot with a very light coat of Alclad Polished Aluminum. After that dried I dry brushed a light coat of ground up black pastel onto it to dull it down.
For the front suspension I did make the front wheels steerable as I've always wanted a model with posable front wheels. It was a lot easier to do with this kit than it has been with some of the builds that I've done. The ones in the past and really delicate and finicky parts or they had no option for steering at all. As a matter of fact this whole kit has been a true breath of fresh air in comparison to some of the older crap Revell kits that I've built where I had to do a TON of work just to get them to look even half decent.