Paul,
Looking nice. That truck sure is small, but then again it is designed to drive arounf Tokyo!

Dave,
An autoparts store truck (like NAPA or Auto Zone) would work fine. If you do NAPA, are you going to put the hat on top of the cab?

Jim

Thanks Jim, but I rooted about in the stash cabinets last night and found an AMT 1/25th Star Truk that I picked up at a yardsale a couple years ago. It was poorly assembled but for only $1.00 I figured I could attempt to salvage it.

I began stripping off the paint and trying to seperate the parts. The person that started it didn't clean any of the mold separation lines or sprue attachment points. Every part was stuck together with a seriously thick layer of tube. I'm not sure what kind of paint was used, but it is on there but good. If Castrol Superclean doesn't work, out comes the Easy Off and the brake fluid.

I plan on scratching a bed for this, either as a welding truck or another type of flat bed/stake bed.

Going to sign up for this one now.

PS. The Lightning would have been done as a speed shop parts hauler, so I decided that the F350 would be better. Besides a truck shouldn't wear a hat.


Dave

Somebody suggested putting the kit in the fridge or freezer for a while to help ease glued parts off. Any one tried that method and know how it might work ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, if it does that is?

Nige

@ Nige, I don't have any experience with the freezer method, so I can't tell you if that works or not. The only thing you can do to know for sure is to try it with some plastic test parts glued together (like pieces of sprue, or non used parts of a kit).

I airbrushed the van today and painted the rubber of the windows, the underside and the front grille and bumber. The yellow parts were sprayed over with Johnsons Future (called Johnsons Parket Plus here in The Netherlands).




Also painted the interior walls grey and worked on the interior. I'm very happy with my boxes and scratched a little orderbook (or how do you call that).



Tomorrow (or tonight, when I can find some time) I focus on the lights and details. Than I can also place the lower part of the backdoor in place.

Paul

This morning I checked the parts I put in the Castrol SC Monday night. Not even a scratch in the paint when I tried taking a toothbrush to them. I'm out of brake fluid, so I'll try oven cleaner tonight if I have time.

I've never tried using the freezer method either. On this one, the tube glue was so thick and brittle I was able to separate the parts by slipping an X-Acto blade in somewhere that the previous builder didn't mate the parts correctly and pry gently apart. The pieces popped apart fairly easily. No damage or broken bits, but I have a lot of sanding and cleanup to do.

Paul, that is coming along nicely. Were the boxes part of the kit or did you print them yourself? Are there going to be any graphics on the outside?

Dave

Hi Dave!

Was the badly glued AMT 1/25th Star Truck kit you mentioned allready completed totally? If so, did you have to put apart all parts of it? Man, that is hard work! Good luck with the oven cleaner; perhaps it will weaken some parts of it too...
I printed the boxes myself using the ink-fish decals as example for the logo on the boxes. The ink-fish logo decals come on both sides of the van.

Putting the kit together tonight. A very big gap shows up on the back side (see red circle). I have to fill it wit a strip of styrene I guess...



Rest of it is going on steady:





Some vague paint marks on the front I dont succeed getting rid off however...

Because the original clear parts are even thicker than the plastic of the rest of the kit it looked bad on the back door, so I cutted a thin clear styreen part to present as a back window.

Yeah, the It was just about assembled and horribly painted. The body and bed were not attached to the chassis, other than that it was completely built. It has been sitting in Castrol SuperClean for a couple days now, I've been working late and haven't had a chance to touch it since Monday. I'll use oven cleaner this weekend. I've never had OC do any damage to parts, but the EasyOff I use tends to leave a residue that I have to scrub off with more Castrol.

That little Japanese truck is really looking good. Too bad about the internal gap. The shape of it reminds me of a US Postal Service truck.

Dave

It looks like the cartoon Postman Pat's red van. Very cartoonish looking motor but obviously does the job.

Would get a few stares going if they sold these in UK.

Nige

Ok, folks, it's coming down to the wire here. Got about a month & a half to go. There are some great trucks posted here (Nige, Paul, Sabot), and a very happy three year old! Let's see if we can get some of your pics into the Campaign Gallery so I can keep track of who has completed trucks. Sabot, I understand your situation, so your post here will count.

Those who have completed trucks so far are:
Sabot
Old-Dragon
007

WIP:
jimb
okdoky
Old-Dragon

Does that sound right?

Jim

Almost sounds right
The little van is almost finished: still need the decals on the sides and some small things.

Also I started with my second entry: the old Revell Chevy stake truck (about 1:45 scale):

This shows the age of the kit: 1955!!!!



And how do you like those marks to be cleaned? They are about 3 - 4 mm. high!!!!



But it is comming along just fine. My greatest challange will be the front window; as mentioned before the kit does not have any clear parts...



Paul

Good luck with that Chevy. I don't think I've ever seen injector pins that high. What did you use, a chisel? As for your windshield, other that clear plastic I really have no ideas. That stuff is usually pretty thin, so maybe if you warm it up it will bend better.

Jim

I'm in process too with the F350 flatbed. Got most of the subassemblies of the original parts of the kit painted. Needs detail painting and assembly. I will be starting to scratchbuild the flatbed as soon as the rest of the truck is complete so I can get accurate measurements for the bed.

Not confident that this is going to be a stellar work, the original builder of this kit really messed it up good.

Pics coming, as soon as I get new batteries for the camera.
Dave

Hey gents{and any females who may be here}, how about you other guys showing where your at on your builds...we need more trucks going on...can't make a decent convoy with the few we have.......need more - lots more!

Sabot, the look on your son's face is just like my 3yr olds when he gets down here and sees the truck kits, done or boxed...."mine Tucks DaDa?!"

Hi Guys/gals
Shawn here I finally got started on the kenworth.Revell 07549,t-900 but I am making it into a north american w-900.Sad to say its my first non armour kit in about 20 years and wow its bad.The fits not great and the details are so so but thats what we build for right?. At least I am having a blast scratch building some stuff on it.Its about 30% done so soon as I figure out how to upload my photos you all can view and hopefully point out the obvious mistakes I am sure I missed lol. .

1)...so you'venever built old tamiya, glencoa, or italeria kits?!
2)...nobody's counting rivets here or anything...you'll be fine! Let's see what ya got so far-

Hi Bob
Glad nobodys counting because I am looking more for fun then perfection.I will try to load them up and put them up on thursday.Sad to say but work calls and since I work in the oilfield trade and oil being 130$ a barrel,yeah were are very busy.I have not built anything except dragon and tamiya since I got back into modelling a couple years ago so yes I have been very spoiled.

Ok, we've got about a month left. Does anyone (other than me) need more time? I'll extend the deadline if necessary.

Let me know.

Jim

-Jim,
Define more time...I'd do better{more} if I had less yard work to do the last few weeks!


-Shawn, I can imagine your busy up there....cracks me up how most folks around/down here blame saudi arabia's gas prices on how little they seem to want to up they're production...why should they, we{USA} get over 70% of our gas from you! The rest is from mexico as I recall....so we should blame you!..hahaha....just joking!!! Hope to see those pics soon{have some of my own to do as well...sorry slodder!}

Hi folks

More time would be a help. Life and work getting in the way big style.

Nige

Right now we're scheduled to complete on 30 JUN 08. Now, I'm not suggesting that we extend this for another year, but how about until the end of the Summer. Say 1 SEP 08? That will give us all of June, July, & August to finish our trucks, do yardwork, go on vacation with the kids, etc. Sound like a plan?

Jim

sept sounds good here.Thanks Bob blame Canada eh?lol I think south park did that one already .I wont tell you what my buddies make in the oilsands as mechanics its just nasty the coin up there.I might be done by june James but sept does work better for me,how about everyone else?.

Shawn...I saw that episode! I was just pullin your leg too! Hey, your up there in the birth place of skidoo{my old 72' TNT 440}! And remember, I'm not a rivet counter......I'm actually a rivet maker!

Jim...alittle extra time to finish the L700 stakebed and the B-61 wrecker would be nice. A vacation from the kids....Oops , I mean with the kids would be nice, cept they're 3 and 6{thank good both vans have cd players...mine even has a vhs player too}. I got 3 rigs up already, so I could stand with those........your show - your call sir.

Ok, the official end date for the Keep on Truckin' campaign is now 1 SEP 08. That should give everyone (including your Fearless Leader) plenty of time to complete their trucks.

Jim