Mack RW rebuild

Dogfish7 - thanks again! Let's see what you'll say to this following update:

Vincent - Thanks a lot, good to have you aboard!

So I had a little time and I used it to put the radiator in - but it was, by no means, a drop-in. As I wrote before, it took some serious surgery to squeeze it under the hood, and now I also had to fight with the fan and the lower radiator hose. The hoses, btw, were made out of 2mm soldering wire.

I painted the radiator Humbrol 85 (black, satin) and dry brushed it with Humbrol 32 (dark grey). After installation it looks like this:

I hope you like it, thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Stunning detailed work here, just stunning!

Your attention to details is astounding!

Steve, Dogfish7 - thanks a lot for your comments, and for your kind words! As you can see, not many people comment this one - it has many views, awright, but I sure heartly welcome a comment between two updates . So thanks again, please stay tuned and have a nice day

Paweł

Incredible detail work!

Pawel

Just to let you know, because of your fine work and the amout to time it has taken- the amount of pop corn I have had to eat has made me gain, **** lbs ( thats ++++ kgs to you).

But dont worry about me I'll stick it out with you......... no matter how fat I get

p.s. Out Standing work so far. A real pleasure to watch, Thank You.

Yeah, Karl, from what I see on the forum, you're on business trips a lot, too! But, as you see, I'm not letting go. That fan clutch sure is one mean little detail, and I'm glad you like it. It will be pretty visible when the hood is open. Thanks for your comment, have a nice day!

Paweł

Pawel,

Trust me, when I tell you that I feel your pain. I"ve been away for a long time due to business and travel, and have missed the bench severely. But the important thing is to do what you can WHEN you can--and what you're doing is pure magic.

That fan is just pure genius!

Hello everybody!

This had been slow due to my business trips, and the next business trip is just around the corner, but I tried to use what little time I have and am working on an objective to put a radiator on this one. Well, the radiator is scratchbuilt in this model and it took some serious tweaking to get it to fit under the hood, but now it's done. I also did some scratchbuilding on the bottom of the radiator. I also scratchbuilt the fan clutch and made the lower radiator hose out of 2mm soldering wire. Here's what I got before painting:

Next thing will be painting it all. Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

Steve - thanks for your kind words! If I can help you, or somebody else, with this WIP, it's a good feeling.

John - good to know that! Thanks for your continued interest!

Unfortunately they sent me for another business trip to Germany, so it's a little slow now, but I'll be back! Thanks for checking this one out, have a nice day

Paweł

I'm keeping up too, Pawel.  Good looking driveshaft.

Heck Yeah,  I keep up with this one.

 it's a

You have the skill to both produce a great model and discribe how you did it so, I can learn lots of neat stuff

.....now get back to work;  I'm ready to watch

Thanks a lot for your comment, Carl! Lack of comments won't get me down, but seeing some interest sure makes it more fun. So thanks a lot for your kind words and have a nice day

Paweł

PS. Also thanks a lot for reading for the people who didn't decide to leave a comment - it's been viewed over 30 000 times now! I appreciate your interest!

The work you're doing on this model is truly epic, Pavel. Don't feel bad about not getting comments in the middle of the build here--a lot more people tend to comment on the finished product. And you're building a rather obscure subject--not many people can give advice, I'm sure. But not that you need any--you're giving a true master's class here!

Well thanks a lot, Lee! I don't get too much comments on this one lately... So thanks again, have a nice day

Paweł

Beautiful work, Pawel!

Well, allright...

I went on to build the drive shaft. Before painting it looked like this:

Then I painted the parts, glued them in place and after two layers of black wash, they now look like this:

Hope you like it - thanks for stopping by, have a nice day

Paweł

And some more updates - this time I finally managed to install the engine on the frame. Before that, I put on the battery boxes and the air tanks slung under them. And now the pictures:

And the front motor mount:

How do you like it?

Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

Anthony - thanks for stopping by, BTW, what happened to all of your posts?

TheWildChild - thanks for your kind words. The leaf spring is a resin part from AITM (American Industrial Truck Models), cleaned up a little by me (you can see that on previous pages).

Thanks a lot for your comments, have a nice day

Paweł

Great work! that "grease" is a nice touch! i have never seen leaf spring like that either.... rather interesting.

-

Hello again!

Today I wanted to show you, how I did the fifth wheel. First I painted the mount in the frame colour, then I painted the areas where the paint would wear off in Humbrol 53 - gun metal:

Then I applied black artist oil to simulate the grease. To spraed it, I used a purpose-built tool (pictured):

Next I went to do the fifth wheel itself. On the bottom of it I built parts of the locking mechanism and its release:

I painted the bottom side gloss black (Humbrol 21), dry brushed with dark gray (Humbrol 32):

For the top of the fifth wheel again I used Humbrol gun-metal, sparsely brushed over a coat of gloss black:

Finally I applied the "grease" - again, a black artist oil. To spread it I took a piece of sheet plastic with a pin to work as a trailer's king pin, and made several circular movements with it to spread the "grease":

The oil paint took some five days to dry, then I put everything together. The air line to the actuator is made out of soldering wire painted with Gunze paint. the whole subassembly now looks like this:

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Hope you like it, thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

I'm still workin' on the chassis. Here's the rear suspension with the flexible lines and other details painted:

Then I begun to tackle the complicated task of the fuel tank installation. First I glued them to the supports, that had to be supplemented with some white styrene strip:

Later I painted the support details:

Next, the time ccame for the fuel tank straps. They were made from silver self-adhesive foil. On the photo below you see a 2,5mm strip of the foil, cut from a sheet, a "tee" soldered using two pieces of 0,8mm silver plated copper wire, and a strap already awaiting installation:

After installing six such straps, the fuel tanks now look like on the following photos:

Unfortunately, on the bottom of the tanks, the "Alclad" has become somewhat spotty, that is worrying me. I'm contemplating putting some clear flat on the bottom of the tanks to simulate them just a little dirty, other means might also be necessary to correct that. Anyway, thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

And another one. I built the locking mechanism on the fifth wheel bracket:

I also added the air dryer on the frame:

And finally I'm ready to paint the frame. Lika one well known celebrity says it - take a look at it, it's the last time you see it in this condition:

First I painted all the recesses black:

Then I lightly sprayed on some gold color - I wanted some of the black to be visible, to simulate the shadows and light dirt:

I wanted to have a "mostly clean, but used" look. What do you say?

Have a nice day

Paweł

Truckin' on!

I added those small little bumpers (rubber on the real thing), that prevent the axles from striking the frame when suspension flexes really hard:

Then I moved on to the fifth wheel. I decided, after spending two years on this model, the OOB Italeri fifth wheel isn't good enough:

What we got here is some european-looking fifth wheel on a Holland air-slide bracket circa 1980. I decided to build it again, re-using what is practical from the Italeri parts. I started with the backplate:

On a truck with such unusually heavy rear suspension likeI have the plate needs some cut-outs to mount on the frame. I also started working on the bracket and correcting the shape of the fifth wheel:

I finished the backplate:

And I'm movin'on with the bracket:

I cleaned up the fifth wheel on it's underside and added the bracket-mounts:

Of course it has yet to be sanded and so on. I will also try to add the lock and the release linkage to it. I also need to add the slide release mechanism to the bracket, so the work isn't finished yet. To give you an idea what it all is going to look like, let me show you this photo:

And that would be it for now - thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

I went on and finished plumbing the brakes. There are still some airlines to be added (sliding fifth wheel, trailer lines), but the painting of the frame gets closer and closer. Here's what the rear suspension looks like right now:

To be continued...

And I'm movin' on - I rebuilt the turn indicator lights from my old model:

They both had a rather large sinkhole in them, so as puttying a clear part rather is not practicable, I drilled the center of each light out and put a clear sprue peg in each hole. The silver paint is Gunze, the clear orange is Tamiya.

As the cab is coming together nicely, I decided to work on the frame, so it can meet the cab in the right shape. I finally glued the rear suspension to the frame and put on the suspension bars. I also started working on the air brake plumbing:

The flexible airlines are made from soldering wire. Lots of valves, fittings and such will have to be scratchbuilt. As always - if you have any photos of that area of this truck, that would help me greatly - please post them here. Thanks in advance, have a nice day

Paweł

OctaneOrange - thanks a lot for your kind words! I put in too much work to skip some minor things now!

But the good thing is I've got another update!

I installed the glass:

The windshield had to be narrowed together with the rest of the cab. Because the old side windows were not so usable, and the driver's side window was shown as open in the kit, and I didn't want that so as not to let the dust in, I made new windows out of an old casette box (anybody here remember MCs? That's for Magnetophone Casettes, look it up on wikipedia ). I also made the silver frames for the vent windows and painted the weatherstriping.

After putting on the inner roof, the cab interior now looks like this:

even built the CB radio in - it just had to be.

Finally, I wanted to show you just how nice the test-fit of the headlights looked like:

And that'd be it for now, I hope for another update soon. Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

You sure have a good attention to detail. the model is all the more impressive because of it.

And here I go again!

Finally I'm ready with the toolboxes. Here's one photo from when they were almost done alcladding:

One of the toolboxes has it's door not yet clearcoated, and the slam lock not yet covered with BMF - I wonder if you can spot this on this photo...

But then I completed it and I put on some PE from a UK company called KFS:

The boxes are alcladded, clear-coated, slam locks covered with BMF. The PE, Fuel Tank Steps, had to be cut down to fit, but that wasn't so hard. I have a second set that will go on the tanks, so that the steps match.

I also alcladded the bumper:

In the bottom of the photo you can see the Italeri kit part for comparison. There are also the headlight mounts I scratchbuilt.

I also noted how "empty" the bottoms of the cab and the sleeper looked like, so I browsed through some reference and added reinforcements. Here's what it looks like now:

And that would be it for now, but I hope for a next update soon! Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł