Kenworth T900 Australia

[popeye]

Glad to hear your both doing ok, and congrats on the wins at the show, keep up the good work and lets have some pics when you can ;D

[popeye]

Got a bit more done on the truck, i made up some mudguards, the pics show how i did it, i was going to either make them from thin alloy or bmf them but decided the painted looks ok, i used some "GrandT line" rivets for some added detail and led tail lights, also mage some "bezels" for the leds from solder wire bent round and glued, fiddley but with a bit of carefull scalpleing they dont look too bad, just fit with the join where you wont normally see it,








also got the roof markers rigged after the duff attempt wiht fibre-optic wire, still need to hollow out the chrome marker parts from the kit so the light will get through to the clear plastic bits,
started on the sleeper interior detail so more pics asap, cheer's all, ian

[santeras]

This is looking fantastic Ian, the level of detail in these kits is great and with all the extra work you've put in, it's going to be a showstopper. Your usual LED expertise is the icing on the cake.

[popeye]

Thanks mate, much apprecieated, it'll be nice to get started on the trailers, there's going to be a lot of led's in this "train"
one thing i would like to do is find out how to make led's all flash at the same time, like haveing the hazzards on, i did ask a guy on the hilux site as he's knowlagable regarding led's but apparantly i'll need a driver to do that as each flashing led has it's own flash chip imbedded in it so i'll need regular amber or orange leds and a sort of maplins build it yourself kit to drive them and make em flash hopefully with a flash speed adjustment, need to have a word with the guys at maplins as i'm sure they do a kit that would suit,
cheer's again, ian

[monaro]

You can buy a flashing led then hook them up in relay and they will all flash. I think the only colour available is red but you can hide that and just use it as the flasher unit.

[popeye]

Cheer's mate, actually i was told the opposite, that they would all flash at randon and not together!! still i found some flashing orange ones on eblag so i might get them and try it out, i'll let ya know, it would make things a lot easier

[BUCKY]

Very smart looking work going on here! Incredible detail, and of course.....LIGHTS, LIGHTS, AND MORE LIGHTS!!!!!!!!

[popeye]

Thanks Keith, good to hear from you, has work eased up a bit?

[BUCKY]

Work is still hectic, but some of the other junk has thinned out. Maybe one of these days, I'll get back to building! Meanwhile, I'll just drool over this fine truck!!!!!

[popeye]

Just think of all that money Keith!! i have a few days of general work and some plumbing for an indian guy i know, it's the only reason i could afford to get a few truck kits lately,
i did manage to bid sucessfully on a AMT Autocar dump truck from the seventys, bugga cost me near £50 plus post but what the heck it's only money, its a kit i built back then when it came out and the one kit i built that i made a real good job of, some time back i gave it to one of my grandsons thinking i'd never do modeling again and that was the last i saw of it just wish i'd stored all the old trucks and cars i made (and the ships),
all water under the bridge i guess!!

[popeye]

few more pics, and happy new year to all!
nearly there with the build, had a blond moment with the cab marker lights and managed to blow all five led's but i managed to cut a hole in the cab roof and get access to remove the duff ones and wire some more plus some for indicator lights for the air con unit (which covers the hole nicely) and some cab interior roof lights, resin spyder wheels all painted up and fitted plus a load of pe bits, (seem to have spent more on resin and photo-etch than the kits cost in the first place) still i think it really adds to the look, kit detail is always a bit too thick to be scale,
all thats left really is a resin truck mounted crane from KFS (when i get a spare £35,
hope you guys are still looking in,

right !! i cant seem to use photo bucket even after switching back to the old site, so hopefully this link to my pics will work, the password if you need it is "parky" bloody pain in the butt, wtf cant they leave stuff alone?
s63.beta.photobucket.com/user/ian619/library/#/user/ian619/library/?&_suid=135695483664003416741141807253

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

First Rate!

[popeye]

Thanks Bruce, getting there, got the three trailers glued together and about ready for paint, this thing is getting LONG! ;D
i just cant get on with this photobucket now, i cant seem to copy and paste the pics on here but i think you can see them in the link on my last post,

[santeras]

Thats a work of art Ian, beautifully executed. Talk about spectacular with all those lamps fired up! Can't wait to see the whole train completed and ready to roll... just brilliant mate.

[popeye]

Thanks Sant, much apprecieated mate, it's getting there, paint is next and then have a go at some DIY decals for the trailers, my son got me a copy of Adobe illustrator but i'm buggered if i can work out how to use it ;D neither can he and he works in IT, still i have been messing about with word and you can do some fancy text, (which is mostly what i need anyway)
also going to have a go at making my own resin wheel parts and the "bought" one are £8.50 an axel and i need a heck of a lot for these trailers, (18 axels plus two dollys with two axels eash)
the kit wheels are pretty duff, casting is poor and chrome too heavy, if i did use them i'd strip off the chrome and paint them but i'll see how my resin attemps go first, anyone else still building? i look in now and then and very little "action"
i go on the scale auto mag forums quite a bit, it's not quite so informal and homely as here but it's ok,
anyway thanks forthe reply and i'll get some more pics up as and whem, (hate the new photo bucket, i cant get on with it, why do they have to mess with things?

[santeras]

I have similar probs with my 'Bucket account, not letting me post any pics for some reason.

Let us know how you go with the resin work, i'd be curious to see how it all works out.
As for building anything, I just finished a tiny Titanic kit as a warm up for getting back into some serious work on some 'proper' kits. In between the guitar work and rehearsals for this years festival season I haven't found much time for the paint and glue but i'm looking to get to the bench more often from now on.

Keep up the good work fella!

[popeye]

Well mate, as for the resin i have managed to make some molds for the wheel parts, i did make some a few weeks back but made them with the walls of the old too thin and my first attempt at a cast resulted in one spyder center comeing out not too bad but the rest were still runny and sticky, i think my mistake was not shaking the fastcast containers first and possibley not enough of a through mix, the stuff aint cheap so i had to wait to get some more, same with the paint, i seem to be constantly skint and when i do get my money (what little there is of it being on a pension) ti goes bloody nowhere still these ollds look much better, and i also had enought RTV to do a mold of an oil drum,
i'll try that dam PB with some pics as soon as i can,
i did try (signed up to) Fotiki or whatever it called but that was even worse, could,'t figure how to use that at all!!!
anyway maye, nowt wrong with small Titanics, or ships in any scale come to that,
i have seen latley theres some excellent 1/200th ship kits from Trumpeter and i am also tempted by a large scale Boeing B17G WW11 bomber, money, money, money (and time) ;D

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Hang in there Popeye! Can't wait to see some more progress on this great build!

[popeye]

I'm still making the dollys mate, there comeing on ok, doing three 3 x axel dollys, some pics as soon as i can figure out this soddin new photobucket,
doing ok (ish) with the resin as well, made a load of wheel parts, these are just moulds that ya pour the resing straight in, (not the two part mold, ) my first go at that (trying to copy some air brake axel cylinder things) went wrong when i forgot to stray mold release on the first half!, the whole thing was welded together ;D second go was not too bad, not great tho, bubbles in it and the small arms broke off, still they'll be used with some work on em, got the hang of the mix now tho, the trick seems to be speed, weigh out the two parts in two small containers (i used old 35mm roll film containers) then add one to the other, stick the lid on and shake vigoursly and only for a second or two, then suck some up in the srynge and pump it in the mold quick, you only get a minuit or two before it starts to gell,

glad to see some posts on here, keep em comeing and hows Bucky?

[popeye]

hi! just messing about with photobucket and think i found how to load a pic on here, these two seem to have worked ;D