M911 & M747 on Civvie street

[Beekster]

I've taken a few liberties with the structural bits, mostly to ensure that it is solid, but here is the first ramp:



There's still detail work and some seam sanding to be done, but it's all in one piece and can be set aside for the dozens of glue joints to fully cure. Now I can start on the second one...

[JCON]

That looks very good!!!

[JED]

Great work Beekster

[Beekster]

It's been a slow, tedious, somewhat frustrating week so far. Behold one completed trailer ramp:






Why only one? Because the other one is giving me trouble. The hinge block on that one locked itself in place when I glued the axle shaft through the ramp, and it must pivot. I had to cut the hinge block out and drill out the axle, which entailed ripping the top off the block to slice it out from the inside and re-drill. That didn't work as I had hoped, so I've punched discs to fill the holes and added blocks inside for strength and will drill again when it has fully cured. Then make a new top and sand smooth once again. It will be several days before the other ramp is done.

On the upside, I have had a couple of short windows in the afternoons this week when it was warm enough to paint in the garage. So, the wheels have come off the trailer and paint work has started. Today they sit, though another pass with black is needed to get all the nooks and crannies of the tires covered. Rain all day and too chilly to be out there, so I'll just let yesterday's coat cure for another day or two. And the next thing to do for the trailer is also better done without wheels fitted, and that will be to get the D-rings on the sides. A while back I had a bunch of them cast up from masters I made using the rings from the Tamiya Dragon Wagon. There's cleanup to do on those parts, and I also have thinking and fabricating to do. If their placement is going to be regularized on both sides, I need to figure out where I want them to go and build a fixture to guide my placement. More later...

[JCON]

Slowly comes together!!!

[Dukemaddog]

Yeah, I know how you feel. I've always wondered why; when you have two exact steps to complete, the second one always gives you more trouble than the first one which goes together perfectly. I'm sure you'll get this fixed.

[JED]

Nice work Beekster

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Some excellent fabrication and engineering, Beek!

[Beekster]

Thanks, gentlemen! Despite the aggravations, I really do enjoy the fabrication aspect of a project like this. And I have wrestled that second ramp into submission; still some trimming, sanding, and addition of axle caps to do but the axle and hinge block are in and the block rotates as it ought to. Meanwhile, I've also been dealing with the D-rings on the side of the trailer. I built up a fixture to positively locate them, space them evenly, and keep them in place while the superglue sets up:





Not half bad! The fixture can be mirror-imaged on the other side of the trailer to do that side, too. There will be two or three more D-rings added in the area of the wheels and behind them, and I will build additional fixtures for those. I might even see if I can attach them to this existing fixture so that the other side can be done all at once. That is, once I have enough D-rings cleaned up to accomplish that.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

That's precision!

[Dukemaddog]

Wow! Brilliant use of that jig! Way to go!

[JED]

Superb work

[Beekster]

More progress, slow though it may be. I got tired of looking at the structural members, and decided to plate in the gaps for a smoother look. I rather doubt anyone is going to shove a dental mirror under the finished model but you never know. The D-rings are all on both sides now. Up front, I also plated in the gooseneck. The horizontal shelf in the third photo is where the parking stands will go.





Said parking stands haven't been fabricated yet. The sales brochure says that the parking stands are the "pin-drop" type. I'm hoping that one of our members with experience of the full-scale rigs will set me straight about that. My assumption is that "pin-drop" means that the stand is pinned in place, up or down. Removing the pin causes the stand to drop by gravity, and it's length of drop can be adjusted by pinning it at one of several heights. Presumably the drop portion of the stand can be lifted by one person and pinned back in the travel position. If my assumption is correct, this is the simplest method of raising & lowering the park stands, though the operator has to drop one then go over or around the trailer to the other side to drop the second stand. Other versions I've seen have a gearbox and crank handle on one side, with a shaft running under the trailer to the other side to raise or lower both sides simultaneously. If my interpretation is correct, a pin-drop version will be the easiest to fabricate. I've done the gear and crank type before, though, so going that route wouldn't be terribly difficult.

[JCON]

Looking good as usual!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Any Flat Bed Construction Hauler, would be proud to have this set up.

[Beekster]

Things are still happening with this, albeit slowly. The ramps are complete and on the trailer:


I have also built simple park stands, using the M747 feet and styrene tube & brass wire and P/E chain for the rest. I added handles to the feet from the spares box, since it appears that this style drops by gravity and is raised & pinned by muscle:






I am also tinkering with how to fake up the gladhands for the air brake lines. The M747 kit parts are molded for showing the trailer not hooked up to air or electricity. What I have to do is cobble something together that looks about right, has a shaft that can be inserted into a hole in the front of the trailer, and has a drilled hole on the other end for the fine wire that is used to replicate the air hoses. I have a concept in mind that will probably work, but my first effort this morning is a bust for the usual reason: It gets too large as pieces are added together. So back to The Chopper II and the disc punch set to cut new, smaller parts. This will be tedious and slow work. And speaking of fine wire, that's something else I have to buy. Hobby Boss gives you fine insulated wire in red and blue for the air hoses (but nothing for the electrical line), but only a couple of inches of each. That isn't going to be enough, especially if I coil it like so many trucks are equipped with. Looks like Amazon to the rescue there. The ultimate plan is to affix the lines to the tractor, and insert them into the front of the trailer for display. That approach worked for my Chilean Mack combination, so it ought to work here too.

[JCON]

Nice work Beeks!!!

[ogrejohn]

Truely imperssive work Beeks! 

[JED]

Great work

[ARMORGUY]

Absolutely stunning scratch work!