Zil 157 truck from Trumpeter kit 204 . Its 9-26 and Its finished ! Cutting edge pictures posted !

Neat trick with the door hinges Carl, going to add another dimension to it for sure with the interior.

Moving on from the chasis and unto other parts and places . This time the cab . No brass p.e., sorry . There's enough brass in Marc's M2A1 for now .......wow thats impressive Marc ! I want to display this with the doors open . Not sure what i'll put in the cab to busy it up . Since this a NVA vehicle mabe i'll probably want a AK-47 and some ammo clips .

Here's one door finished and mounted temporarily .

Because the hinges on the kit are very small i couldnt glue the doors open on them . I'm sure that would be very fragile . I wanted the door off for assembly and painting also .Besides that my fumbly fingers always break that kind of protruding plastic off in short time .

I used a .074 bit and drilled a hole to insert copper wire into . Getting the position correct took a couple of attempts and some bending of the wire .

Thanks Marc .

Now i'm hungry !!!!

Migs? Pigs?  Is this s dogfight or a barbecue?

Whatever... that chassis is looking sassy!

Pawel , thanks . I used the Mig "Vietnam soil" but it k looked too orange , more like a rust . I toned it down with Mig "industrial soil" . Like you say it gets worked into a matt finish and stays there well on its own . I'm having some problems gettting the cab -fenders-radiator cover combination to align correctly .I want to get that all figured out now before i paint them .There is some great detail in this kit as you know Pawel but for me it has been time consuming to get the fit of some parts to look correct , especially the suspension .

Howdy!

Once I used a "Red Vietnam soil" pigment from CMK. Now when you apply this stuff on matt paint (Humbrol in my case) it's permanent - no scrubbing nor washing seems to touch it. Clear-coating, on the other hand seems to make it a little less visible. Funny stuff. But your machine looks good Carl, keep it up and have a nice day

Paweł

Bill thanks and good to hear you liked the pigments .

Your welcome William and thanks for the tunes . I wonder how that tune would sound being sung in Vietnamese ?

I didnt "fix" the pigs . I mixed them with water and "painted " them on . Then i went back and touched up with dry Mig pigs .I also mixed in some powdered pastels for more variation in color . Still new at this Mig pigs stuff . Guess a thinner can be used to "fix" them ?

Andy thanks Sorry , i dont have a pic of my Zil next to a  Bud light I like the Mig powders .I agree they are pricey . I heard so much about them though so i went for it . Price was good though . I oerderd directly from Mig .

NIce work with the pigments Carl!

"Truckin' got my chips cashed in. keep truckin, like the do-dah man
Together, more or less in line, just keep truckin on."

Thank you Grateful Dead

Thank you Shell... she's lookin' great!   Did you 'fix' the pigs or put them on dry ?

tread

Dirt & dust look spot on.  How did you like MIG production?  I use them all the times and they work pretty good despite its pricey tags.  

I used some of my new Mig Pigments for the first time . I mixed Vietnam and Europe soil . I also added some light brown chalks to get a variation in tones .I applied black artist oils in areas that would leak oils .Such as the engine oil pan , differentials etc . Also i used the thinned artist oil to show gas overflow on the fuel tanks .The dry brushing with the light gray that i did on the drive train previousely is covered now with the pigments , thats a step i didnt need to do .

treadwell

.. Man o' man... that just looks so freekin sharp, Shell  .  Some times a few words are all that is needed.

tread

Thanks Bill

.. Man o' man... that just looks so freekin sharp, Shell  .  Some times a few words are all that is needed.

tread

Thanks for giving me a second chance to get it right Bill .......

Nice work on the wiring and detailing, up to the usual standard we've come to expect from you Carl, so we can forgive the radiator oversight for the time being...but just this once!

I'm not seeing the last 2 pics from photo bucket ....?.Not sure if this is FSM voodoo our Photo bucket poopoo .So here they are .

Hey Terry thanks for your coplement . 

I have the engine mounted and all of the plumbing done .........well , wxcept for the radiator .

Next the radiator and rear fenders .

Hi, Carl, just got a chance to browse through your progress, wow what progress, theh engine looks just brilliant and the paint work on the chassis so far would be theh kind of work for competition awards. Well done on another masterpiece WIP and I hope to drop back soon.

Terry.

Bill , thanks , glad you like it .

Tojo, the burnt umber wash really helped the Russian green . Thankyou .

Andy , thanks and thats a good question . I have a sequence of painting stages i go thru .....Primer , base color , lightened base color , dry brushing , several coats of Future , washs with artist oil paints , matt coat . The thing here is i still have the cab and fenders over the rear wheels to start on and that will involve all of the above stages again . Then there is the trailer , which i havent started on and finally the missile , someday . The trailer and missile wont be started till after i finish with Eric's Steel Cats G.B.

Clay , I think your right ......the wife would be main factor in our demise !

p.s. i should get the engine dropped in today .  

great work my friend and AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA i'm in the same boat. starting her motor would kill me. eather her or my wife.

Clay  

Looking good... it is starting to come together.  How many painting stages are you planning for this build?  Probably several...

That is really looking good,nice color on that green

Nice!

After some dry brushing with light gray i applied a coat of Future . When that cured i applied a couple of washes with burnt umber artist oils . Looks like the burnt umber is doing a good job of toning down the Russian green . Comming up soon i'll be able yo apply some Mig pigs .

Hey Clay ..........i'm too old to attempt to start her engine ...............Thanks for looking in

hey shellback did you try and start that engine yet? remember turn it by hand first.:) and then can you send her over i need my suv washed. HAHAHA. oops my wife would KILL me.:) buddy thats an OUTSTANDING BUILD.

Clay

Pawel , I was referring to North Vietnam Army . Thats where i'm going with the well weathered look on this . With the dirt roads and harsh weather (the roads over there in Nam were either 12 inches of dust or mud ...depending on the season (.at least in the south ) i figure the vehicle paint would be well faded . I dont think Miss Russia would be down there in Nam washing the Zil off ....   .About the aluminum engine(and other parts ) from what i've seen from Googling so far the engines all look to be an aluminum color . Bill (Tread) also made mention that the Russians used aluminum cast engine blocks back in WW 2 .So it dint seem like a stretch that the Russians would still be using aluminum in the 60's . I'm open for more info on the material used on engine blocks but i havent found it yet Pawel .

Thanks for you help and keep it comming .

Yeah, that's just the way to clean it! It's always a good feeleing when your girlfriend takes the initiative, yeah, and starts doing something, say, useful, like washing a car or truck for that matter.

As for the engine, I say cast iron, how did you figure it was aluminium? It's definitely not overdone with the weathering.

I also wanted to ask what you mean by NVA? Is it North Vietnam Army (they sure had them, I think I even seen a photo of one captured by the Special Forces and used by some American installation - was it Nankom Phanom - to calibrate the seismic sensors dropped on the Trail), or is it Nationale Volksarmee - meaning East Germany, also a very big fan of Soviet steel. If you say NVA in Germany, they always understand DDR (East Germany). Good luck with your project, have a nice day

Paweł