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 

Used a rear bumper from my spare parts box. I think it came from Revell Kenworth. Painted the bumper the chassis color (SMS Chassis Black PL178) and used HIQ Parts pre-cut circle masks to mask the lights. The remaining spaces were masked with various Tamiya masking tape. Painted a layer of Tamiya LP70 Gloss Aluminum and than Tamiya Clear Orange X26 and Clear Red X27 

Got this after removing the masking. Happy with the results and the very pleased with the HIQ Parts masks. Shame they are only available in 0.2mm step 

Mounted the stacks in their new location and connected the new piping using the kit part for the front and drinking straws for the rear. Painted them with Vallejo Black 71.057 and than Vallejo Chrome 71.064 since I was worried that lacquer paints may attack the plastic of the straws 

When the mounting surfaces of a part, that I think will be a challenge to properly glue, will be hard to clean from paint I try to remember to mask the bare plastic before starting to paint them. I think it will help to maximize the chance of getting a decent attachment during assembly. Need to remember to remove the masking tape before gluing the part in place though... 

The rolling chassis. Replace the kit wheels and tires with Moebius super singles. Pretty straight forward replacement and really like this look. Moebius tires do look nice 

The can interior. Went with the instructions and mounted the seats with the raised hand rests to the outside even though I think they should be the other way around 

Painted the model with Zero Paint Silver (ZP1120). Very happy with the results. Only got very little crazing of the plastic and the surface is mostly smooth and nice. Didn't even bothered with gloss coat 

The hosing between the engine and the radiators fitted very well but the big pipe between the air filter canister and the turbo compressor didn't fit at all and had to be modified - see next image. Only used Tamiya Weathering Powders sets to lightly weather the engine and the chassis 

The make this pipe fit in its place I had to remove around 1.5mm discs from two locations as I marked on the instruction. 

The front bumper also didn't want to fit in place and I had to cut a 2x2mm squares from the top of the bumper mounts - see the shaded area (need to remove an identical section from the mount on the other side too). Used JLC fine tooth saw blade held in my hand (without a handle). Being the last part to attach to the model with everything already painted and decaled having to do this type of surgery is a little nerve-wracking but luckily it went without any collateral damage