Another big one, Matchbox Caterpillar DH8
This is a kit i first layed eyes on somewhere in the early 80's, and I wanted it! About 5 years ago I found it on ebay!
It always seemed a little intimidating to me, and turns out, it is. A less experienced builder would probably have a lot of trouble with it. Instructions are not always very clear on where to place parts.
Overall fit is ok, but very loose on the moving parts so far. Some figures (in early painting stages) for scale reference.
The blade assembly. Very fiddly! I Drilled out the holes for the attachement of the blade to the arms and made some pins, since the kitpins where way to short.
Dry fitting
Some added detail.
Priming the cabine parts
I replaced all of the controlhandles with scratchbuild ones from steelwire
More priming and dryfitting
Coming together very nicely!
The grill is a decal, which doesn't look very good. So I started to drill the holes. The first one allready went wrong!
So, rather than trying to drill almost 1200 holes in the right place I decided to replace it with some fine mesh.
I made a frame from plastic strip and card
The frame in place
And glued with the mesh. Will add some bolts later.
The grill primed and in place. Much better than that decal! The paint clogged up some of the holes, I'll deal with that later.
Tracks!
Not very high tech driver protection cage.
Some lights from the spare parts box, I think from a Revell Unimog
Wiring always works great for bringing a model to life, although I haven't got a clue af where they are supposed to go. I'm pretty technical, just not with engines. But hey, as long as it looks good...
The big hook contraption that goes on the back
Starting to look like a dozer. Tracks in black basecoat, not properly fitted yet.
The blade construction
Engine in early weathering stage
Subassemblies, still some oarts to paint yellow
Engine in early weathering stage, part 2
Started weathering and detailpainting this monster. Think i'll need at least a week for that.
It is going to look like it had a good couple of years hard labour. Lots of dirt, grime and rust.
Kommentit
15 April 2017, 18:26
Daan BaarsThnx. The detail is ok, but outdated. All the bolts are too shallow and too small, and panel lines are all raised. So i'm rescribing and replacing some of them, which is a first for me.
19 April 2017, 08:07
Roger PothierWow! I built it 30 yrs ago and will hopefully again soon. Great Job! I will be keeping an eye on this build. I work as a heavy duty tech and love to see these types of builds. Keep up the great work.
20 April 2017, 14:43
Markus Kutsch The Plastic BenchWhen I was still a child (well I'm still one), I wanted to have just about all AMT kits and this one was one of them. I see the picture in the matchbox catalog still before my eyes.Very nice to see it building!👍👍
22 April 2017, 04:26