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28 October 2001:
I constructed the rear outer panel by a straight styrene sheet at the center and filled the corners with polyester putty. The pic shows the cab before the putty application.
Putty mess after the application.
View after the first sanding. The rear overhang seemed too bulky and reduced the ramp angle, so I marked a cut-off line.
21 November 2001:
For the rear lamps, the
housings had to be carved in the plastic. I did the job with Dremel,
and
applied polyester putty around the lens to take the exact contours. To
prevent the putty from sticking to the lens, I applied Humbrol's Maskol
on the lens prior to putty application.
Here, you see
the putty with the lens taken out and sanded. The fender bulge upper
contour
had a wobbly profile, and it would be corrected as shown next.
This is the
restoring putty application for the fender bulge. Also, note the
filling
styrene pieces at the remaining gap from the rear window and the rear
bumper
panel.
Now the floor
panel. Since the chassis members were protruding in the cabin, a
beveled
panel was tailored on the floor. Also, a recess in the firewall was
made
to make room for the rear part of the engine.
I tailor-cut the side panels, and filled the rear parts with putty after shaving the armrests and rear door pockets.
As for the
rear bumper, I found a chromed part from my parts box and gave the same
curvature with the body. I drilled two holes to house the bumper
supports.
The first primer coat. I had to apply putty and sanding to the bed to get a smooth finish.
For locating
the tent, I buried two pins into the plastic with heating by solder
gun.
I then applied super glue over them to finalize the fixing. The small
pin
you see at the very right is a broken one, with the embedded part being
impossible to remove.
On the mating part of the cab, I drilled two holes to house the locating pins.
Meanwhile,
I painted the car with metallic dark green. I fabricated the peripheral
bars from brass rod and applied bare metal on it for chromed look. I
also
applied bare metal to the lens housings for a brighter lens finish. I
was
too fast even for myself, I forgot to take pics during these steps!
Returning to
the wooden bed floor again; I cut strips from the painted and now dry
wood.
As in the following pics, I first laid them on a sticky paper, and
glued
the bed profile from a card on its back. (Old business cards are good
for
such jobs). Then I cut the whole thing out, accordingly. To make the
wood
grain stand out more in contrast, I sanded a little from the surface,
so
that the parts that absorbed paint seemed darker. Then I applied
another
coat, that resulted in lighter and darker shades of the same grain in
more
contrast.
I painted the
dashboard and side panels, and the seats. I applied carpeting on the
floor
with cutting from self-sticking black velvet.
Since the chassis
was interfering with the snap-tite kit's lens and reflector parts, I
cut
them all into individual parts.
I assembled
the lenses with Testors Clear Parts Cement as shown, and also the
reflectors
the same way.
Then I located the engine in accordance with the internal tub, and glued it in place.
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