Freightliner FLD WIP

I built the base chassis 25 years ago. Checking it I don't see any major alignment issues. Had to clean many moulding lines - past me was a bit sloppy. I decided to move the stacks behind the sleeper so I scratch-built new stack mounts using Plastruct strips, 1mm brass rod, brass stripes from the fret of a used PE set and various Meng bolts 

The front axle looks acceptable. I think that it is mounted at very slight angle to the chassis but I don't think (hope) this will cause major issues 

Like many Italeri trucks this model also suffers from the floating sleeper bunk syndrome. I cured it with some 0.5mm plastic card. 

The engine is Cummins NTC from the FLC kit that was modified a little to look more like a Cummins N14. Checking some on-line photos shows that these engines are usually painted in some dark grey color so I used Number5 Anthracite Grey (RAL7016). The belts were painted with a black POSCA marker. I got the filters painted too but ran out of bench time 

I want to use Zero Paints Silver for this model so I tried it first on the inside of the air-foil, hood and side-skirts. Had some trouble airbrushing it - It seems to be too thick, had to use very high pressure (over 30PSI, usually I use around 10-15 PSI) and it came out a bit gritty. Used Tamiya 3000 grit sponge to fix this but will probably thin the paint a little in the future 

The rear wheels from the Moebius set. Cleaning the mounting locations caused some damaged to the chrome which I painted with Molotow chrome. Not a perfect match but close enough. I let them dry for several week before airbrushing them with Valllejo Satin varnish. The front tire is from the kit and the rear is a rear super single tire from the Moebius set 

There is a major difference is diameter between the kit tires (about 42.7mm) and the Moebius tires (about 40.3mm). At first I hoped to use the kit tires for the steering wheels but I think I will have to use to wheels from the Moebius set otherwise the truck will sit in a angle. The lettering on Moebius tire reads "455/55 R22.5" and on the Italeri tire "12.00 R20" 

The hood didn't fit at all. Test fitting it left over a 1mm gap between it and the cab. To try and improve the fit I enlarged the mounting holes, filed the hood mounts (red arrow) and the radiator mounts on the chassis and extended the hood mounts with 1.3mm thick piece of plastic I implanted in them (blue arrow) 

I used the back of a hobby knife to scribe and separate the fan from the radiator rear section. Make it much easier to paint - I choose Tamiya XF57 Bus 

For the front bumper and the lower parts of the side skirts I used MRP173 Tyre - Rubber and instead of the kit supplied decals for the silvery sections (stainless steel flat inserts on the actual truck) I masked and sprayed with Tamiya LP48 Sparkling Silver which is a little bit too sparkling but it will do. After the paint dried I used Black Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color in the panel lines. 

After dry-fitting the cab and sleeper I noticed that the holes for the top air foil on the roof of the sleeper are in the wrong place (I drilled them in the right location but glued the roof in reverse - the holes are not in the middle line of the roof but slightly to the rear). A bit annoying but I measured and drilled new holes and than used Plastruct styrene rod and Tamiya Extra Thin to plug the old holes. Once dry and sanded smooth I gave it a coat of Mr. Surfacer and once happy with the fix I recreated the missing rivets with Quinta Studio 0.5mm rivets 

Since I relocated the exhausts from the sides of the cab to the rear of the sleeper I also needed to modified the piping from the engine to the mufflers. Took me some time to find the right replacement but from all places found flexible drinking straws at my office (no idea why we have a 100 package of these things at the office). To glue them to the kit front pipe section and to build the transition from the kit pipe to the bit larger diameter drinking straws I used Tamiya Epoxy Putty Smooth Surface - easily formed with a silicone brush and a little water