Hello gents,

D and Michael, well, funny story about the "on-line" ripper....it finally arrived - longer story about how Paypal (didn't) handle it (I can't be too annoyed about this, trying to keep in perspective) but for now - the parts. Michael, you were right - my scratch work is better, as the quality is just ok, even a bit sloppy, and some of the resin parts are wet with some sort of mould release agent! Almost ready to send these long awaited parts to the junk box!

Hi Charles, thanks, I appreciate it. Knowing, your work, I hope some bits or ideas from this make it into one of your builds some day!

OK, on to the update - before talking models, check these out:



This is looking south on Columbus Avenue in San Francisco - at 10 AM!!! taken by a friend on Wednesday morning - how's that for a weird image?? and below:



Above, from my brother's house, about 8:30 AM, about an hour north of San Francisco! I live about 10 miles due east of SF and experienced the same - it stayed like this all day. In brief, there was the typical fog layer, staying low, and above it, a layer of dense smoke above, very effectively blocking most sunlight all day. This could be a dust storm in the ME, smoke in the Philippines, or dense smog in China - quite an uncommon sight for here.

Wow - between being stuck at home because of COVID, and this, very odd!! The air quality today is very poor, even though the air either no longer smells like smoke, or, I can no longer smell it!! We've had poor quality air for the last 28 days, which is not typical. In addition to smoke smell and effects, the humidity has stayed high, though now, it dropped to 60%, so I decided to do some painting.

OK, enough about local climate, and on to model building.

A guy had to take a minute away from the CAT, and think about finishing the Peterbilt - and today, back to the CAT. First up, it's big and needs paint, so, take a look:





As you can see, the dozer is BIG! So, a guy cut up a wine box, and strung it up on wires for painting, above pre-prime, and below, with primer:



No idea why the photo's look fuzzy - maybe the weird ambient light - as noted above, or a smudge on the lens? who knows - anyway, progress.

For paint, the base coat will be a Tamiya, "ornagy" yellow, which looks a lot like CASE yellow, and not like CAT yellow, but it's what I've got. Next will dust it with Vallejo chrome yellow via airbrush and hope to knock it back to what it's supposed to look like.

Ok, that's it - take care, and stay well -

Cheers
Nick

Nick, hope you enjoyed the contents - I am not sure my photos would look that good after a few bottles of Californian wine - and nice improvisation on the paint stand. Though photos remind me of Australia when they have the big fires there. Damian would know for sure but when I lived in Sydney they had some amazing skys during the bushfire season.

cheers
Michael

Yeah, the California skies are looking eerily weird this week.

However, the progress on the CAT looks good. I like that part of the build when you get the first base coat of primer to see if it's all coming together.

Loving the progress on this build Nick, it's looking amazing! Great way to support such an unwieldy beast for painting as well, improvisation and use of resources!




Yeah, we had that for weeks on end earlier this year, didn't see the sun for days on end when the wind died down. Very eerie and a lot of health issues for those with lung problems or other breathing difficulties like asthma.

Stay safe there mate.

Cheers, D

Hi gents,

Thanks for having a look - the sky here is no longer orange, but the weather report calls the air "very unhealthy". D, we've seen the stories on the news of the big fires there. This phenomenon was not typical here, but since about 2016 it seems to be another "magical" part of the new normal and not a good one.

On one hand, between covid and bad air, no reason at all to go out - which is healthy for everyone - but, it does get old...work from home, cook at home, visit family, friends via internet and so on, from home. Walking out for a coffee has become a rogue activity!

An alternative/diversion to this mess is of course, model building. That said, this has been going on since mid March (thankfully not the fires - that's "only" been happening for the last month!) so even model building needs to be regulated as to not burn out on it too!

OK - enough whining, and a few updates. I kept the dozer strung up in the improvised rack, and went about painting it.

CAT yellow is quite distinctive - a really interesting shade that's not straight yellow, but not too deep/orang-ish either.

I mixed up my own version using vallejo Chrome Yellow, US Interior Yellow, a few shots of Ferrari red, and vallejo thinner. I think the results are pretty good.

The greater peril came with the airbrush. I used old paint that has been sitting here for quite a while - the US Yellow Interior yellow has been here for a few years (really smart keeping it around eh???) and was pretty chunky. Blend and reblend, there was at least one little air brush clogging nugget with each filling of the airbrush, and a slow painting session.

So, spray a while, fool around with air brush, make it shoot, fool around more, empty the cup, clean airbrush, and do over and over - Per above, stuck at home anyway, what else could I do? The blade and dozer took 8 or 9 cups of paint.

Anyway, I like the results:









Happily, while this took a while to get finished, when all was said and done, there was no need to add another coat and no streaks or drips etc. You can also see, the driver area dry fit - and about done.

Next up the blade - I want this to look used but still relatively new. Interestingly, even with lots and lots more use, these units seem to stay relatively clean - blades, tracks and rails get scraped up, not the rest, and there's rarely any big dirt buildup. Thinking about building the fenders on the Peterbilt, I reminded myself to look at reference pictures for this, and to not rely on what I thought it "should" look like.

The blade started with yellow, then brush on layer of anthracite grey, then gunmetal, then my blend for rust:









This and the rest of the dozer will get a wash of Lifecolor Dust 1 before it's called done. The tracks received the same. So far so good.

I'm still working on the dozer.

Also - Tamiya rattle can black on the cabin and grill:





WOw! this needs the dust wash!! It is very strong, dark black!

The windows are cut out, and I sprayed a layer of grey on the edges to represent trim, just haven't installed them yet.

OK, stay well gents -

Cheers

Nick

Looking great Nick.

I'm hoping to try something like what you did on the dozer blade when I do the inside of the dump body on the Mack.

Hi guys,

calling this one done!

David, looking forward to seeing your truck! I find the dirty bare metal finish is a bit tricky, but like the results!

OK, here we go:





Finally a non smoky or foggy day here! so, out for some photos!





Not so many pictures for this build - it's big and is what it is:





So, nothing like my recent string of F1 cars, but an interesting build none the less.

I'm not sure about what's next, likely another F1! lol

Cheers and stay well!

Nick

Looks great Nick!

Now you need a lowboy trailer and a semi to pull it.

Wow Nick, you're on a roll mate! This looks great, another nicely weathered but well maintained work unit. The rubbed paint and rust patches came up beautifully, and the sag on the tracks looks spot on.

You must be burnt out with two big scratch-build projects, how about an OOB build now

Cheers, D

The people at the park, even socially distant, have had a treat today with both the CAT and the Peterbilt.
This build is also amazing and I think I am out of superlatives so a thought instead. I think it would look go with some logos, did the base kit have some? I know that the DR7 might be hard to come by but a CAT or two would work.

cheers
Michael

Hi guys,

Well, I'm glad some of you were willing to indulge my strange entry with this one! This was a funny build. I almost gave up a few times, as I was getting nervous this would turn out like a big toy!

David, your house must be a lot bigger than mine! A tractor and lowboy would be lots of fun - but can you imagine how big that would be?? I already feel like I'm running a mini car incubator over here! lol -

D - I'm so glad you spotted the sag!! really! lol - I fooled around with the tracks for quite a while to find the right fit - including modifying a link on each to fit. The problem, take out one track way too loose - leave as is, tight as a guitar string...crap! So, I went about making what was more or less, a custom, half track link! what a joy! The only good, if not surprising news was that the exact same fi worked on each side! And, yes, next will be OOB. Back to F1 trying a full 1/20 scale Studio27 car. Looks nice! in fact, better than I thought...and I'm looking forward to tackling the pile of resin, metal, etch and so on -

Michael, I agree - the logos would be perfect. I found some non-scale decals from a farm toy shop that look nice - alas, laziness won the day - this needed to get out of the shop!

OK gents, stay well -

Cheers
Nick

Totally amazing results. you always keep amazing me with your broad knowledge and amazing scratch building skills. you are definitely the MAN!!!!!!!!!