Egilman

Just ordered up some Mr Surfacer 500 & 1000 and the matching thinner from Sprue Bro's. Should be here in the next couple of days. Meanwhile I will start setting up the tandem unit. (the wheels and tires should arrive in the next couple of weeks) But I also received my replacement wheels and tires for the tractor and the suspension parts I've been told are on the way.... so If I run out of things to do with the trailer, I'll switch back to the Tractor.... Solid resin and solid rubber tires, with the correct tread pattern as well! They actually look the part and will not disintegrate, split apart or go flat....

Well I just thought I would ask, I mean going through and doing a fantastic dio of a WWII collapsed/destroyed stone church somewhere in France/Germany would look strange with a late '60's jeep. The m-60 is what stuck in my mind.... Not trying to be a rivet counter and an M-16 and M-151 are entirely believable in the right context, but your builds are too gorgeous to make that kind of anachronism my friend.... (so I figured I should mention it)

I'm very familiar with Verlinden, his items were always pricey, but well worth it.... The reason I asked was I was wondering the setting with a classic late '44 M-16 which is very well built and an also very well built M-151A2 MUTT complete with wading kit, and M-60 all fitting in the same diorama....... M-16's were extensively used in Vietnam one of the best local defoliators around, so the MUTT isn't unusual in that respect, just wondering about the WWII setting... Beautiful work on both I may add...

Just a question, is this an old stone church in Vietnam?

It looks absolutely beautiful.... Nothing done at this point is going to change that....

Already got one on the back side OC, too much detail on the front side that has to show on the finished model is the issue here.... Thank you for the suggestion... EG

Another Wow!!! Mr Surfacer looks to be the ticket in this specific application no sanding needed at all. The vallejo plastic putty could also work and would be fairly easy to remove if it goes wrong..... Thank you for the suggestion ken and thank you Lou for the videos, I went ahead and found a few more video/demonstrations of both Mr Surfacer and plastic putty.... I can see uses for the plastic putty, but to be honest what Mr surfacer is showing is exactly the ticket. all the rest eventually drag out the sanding sticks which I have to avoid here, I do have needle sanders for getting in those real real tight places, but I don't even want to go to those with this... Going to give Mr Surfacer a try and see what I can do with it.... Now to order it and wait for it to get here... The real issue here is the huge decal that has to go over it. If the surface has issues larger than the beading detail it will show up like a waving flag. no amount of clear flat will hide it........ Thank you Ken..... Thank you Lou.... I"m going to test all of them and see what I can do with them....

WOW! that is an idea I never thought of it would work wonders in many applications. I'm going to throw together some scrap and test it out.... Thank you, I can think of several situations where this will come in handy....

The back side has a strip of .020 backing the joint for reinforcement and leveling the joint so there is no access to the back side..... But thank you it was a thought...

Primered parts..... The reefer unit came out nice, all that is left is detailing and painting.... The side panels I"m not so sure about.... The gap shows, but then again, this is why we use Tamiya ultra fine primer. To show the defects. You can clearly see some gaps.... Horizontal joints...... It measures out at 1/64th to 1/32nd inch. Not very much, but enough for microsol to pull the decal into it. Vertical joints... Measures less than a 64th but it's there..... So the issue is, I need a way to fill those gaps without effecting the surface detail. As you can see the detail is fine and very close to where the fill needs to be applied. This rules out most hardening putty's that need to be sanded. I was thinking about a self leveling filling primer. (if there is such a thing) Or, in the alternative, successive coats of future, which dries very thin and build up the joints over the gaps... It will need a coat of Tamiya fine white primer & Future before the decal gets applied. I don't think gap filling CA is the answer, a little too much or an unsteady hand and you have to sand.... Any suggestions? Maybe someone has dealt with this before.... Thank you in advance, any ideas welcome

Blue deck stain was not used when there wasn't any to be had. In that case they went ahead and painted the decks 20B Deck Blue.... I'm assuming that you deck location is not in an area where they landed or launched aircraft. So no black streaks and wear marks down to the wood would be appropriate.... so you have a temporary storage or standby area of the deck, solid blue would be appropo.... The only thing I could suggest would be if you want a more combat used look, oil stains, tire marks through oil stains footprints, etc, etc... and maybe a bit of assorted patches of whitening/lightening to represent a faded deck... but otherwise, outstanding job..... oh and a storage area would have tie downs. So call it a standby area.....

That was a guy hauling construction machinery on a flatbed. Thing is they still don't know what happened. Yes he struck the bridge knocking out a small crossmember in the last bay of the truss. He actually cleared 85% of the bridge including the approaches into and out of.... He exited the bridge and continued on his way not realizing what had happened. Several cars that were following also crossed the bridge before it collapsed... Then all of a sudden it let go..... Based upon the measured height of the load he should have cleared by 6" but they do not know if that particular piece had been damaged earlier and was hanging lower than the others... Also, he has already passed under at least six overpasses and two other similar bridges on his trip from where he loaded up..... They still do not understand what caused him to strike that one piece after clearing all the other cross members..... There was nothing in the roadway to cause the trailer to jump. One of the strangest things the engineers had ever seen with no explanation... The bridge was scheduled to be replaced anyway but they figured that it would last a few more years..... So yeah it is not all driver stupidity....

Yeah, I wonder what gets in their heads at times. We have a bridge here in Tacoma over the Puyallup river and the lead in to the UP rail yard about a half mile long multi-span truss girder type, all along it you can see where the riveted girders are bent and deformed from where the trucks have repeatedly hit it... Happens all the time around here especially around the Port of Tacoma. Never hit a bridge in my short career of driving (three years) but then again I always checked the rig's height with a telltale and parked my butt right behind another rig, if he made it, I would.... (I didn't get paid enough to take such risks especially going somewhere I was unfamiliar with)

Thanks, but a potential problem might make it all for naught, I forgot to check the decals. I have the SATB decal set for the truck and trailer from Modeltruckin' (moebius trailer version) I can't use the mural cause it is low grade and besides it is hopelessly out of scale, but the rest of the decals are perfect. I scaled the reefer to the images from the movie and what I could find of the real thing to get the proportions right... but before I can paint it I should have checked the decals to see if they fit. Now I may have to alter the decals to fit cause the reefer is correctly proportioned which is probably the way I'll go. (matching the movie rig comes first) But, I got in so all fired a hurry to get it made that I forgot a basic step.... Slippin' in my old age...

Take care of you and the family my friend, this will have it's day, I'm sure....

Welp, that was quick and easy..... Ready for primer In fact I will primer everything at this point to make sure all the joints are ok....

Thank you Mark.....

Just plain speechless.....

Here Here! It reminded me of the time my father decided to recount some of his experiences during WWII. (he didn't do that very often) In particular the time he was telling about the relief of the 7th division by the Marines in from from the Shuri line.... He spent three months in and around the Shuri Line and this video sounded a LOT like his depictions of what it was like.... When they brought the Marines up (in trucks) the relieved troops had to march back... in one such truck were a bunch of kids who were throwing catcalls and other less than respectful things. (of course marines/army you get the picture) there was a gunnery Sgt in one of the truck and my father recounted how he brought his charges up short with a few choice words, and then stood on the forward corner of the bed rails of the truck and threw a perfect parade ground salute to the troops marching..... My father said that made his day, someone who understood what he was seeing, showed them the respect they deserved, No army/marines issues after that with him it was respect for those who made it through and remembering those who didn't, many good friends.... All of you boys, Thank you, for your service, (and your sacrifices)......

Why thank you Denis! It is appreciated That was a lot of sawing.... My first driving job was for a carnival show, everything was tagged "Circus Load" cause everytime we went down the road it was the same, but different... never the same from trip to trip... WE were well familiar with where we could drive and had to plan each trip so there were no "incidents" of trying to go under things we shouldn't..... We didn't have any conventional trucks all cabovers mostly CO 70 series international single axles and a couple of K-123 LWB's. Still there were several times where the driver took a shortcut to the repair shop.... (and the unemployment line) Why they do that I've never been able to figure out.... (and there are plenty of videos on the 'net of drivers that insert their heads in dark places when it comes to bridges & tunnels) "Oh I thought I could just sneak under it" or "I got caught in the wrong lane and couldn't get out" Excuse me? Stop the Truck! there will be a officer along shortly to assist you in correcting your inability to heed the warning signs.... My biggest worry was something that someone threw on the trailer after I've checked the load and it falling off somewhere in the middle of nowhere...... that was known to happen quite a bit.... Only memories now, thing I can chuckle over.... Thank you for the complement and words of encouragement.... EG

So when is the test run going to take place? I think we all would like to hear them run..... Absolutely gorgeous!!!!

Scaling in the vertical..... Well the last time I was dealing with the sides of the trailer I was lengthening them to a scale 48 feet..... Top, Bottom & Sides at correct scale length.... Unfortunately we also need to increase their height. By 1977 most semi trailers in the country had evolved into a taller profile going from 12'6" in the mid '60's to 13'6" standard height in the '70's to early '80's. (todays trailers can be as much as 14'6" in height) This means I have to add a half an inch to the side panels 23 & 1/16th inch length.... Another issue that has to be dealt with also, the molded in, operable door hinges. Adding a half inch to the height throws off the hinge pattern. Three hinges, equidistant apart, centered on the door jamb. The hinges are molded into the end of the side panel and measure .080 wide and .120 deep with brackets and pins that act as the hinge pin when the door panel is trapped around them. Cutting them off results in shortening the side by .080 so after I've raised the height I will have to glue a piece of stock to the tail end of each side to replace the door jamb. This also means that I will have to scratch build new doors for the rear of the trailer as that is much much easier than trying to adjust the existing doors. Hence, the doors will no longer open. (given the amounts of reinforcement being used to support the long glue joints inside the trailer this in not a loss, in fact it is a good thing) I will wind up using resin aftermarket details to recreate the door hinges and jamb locks. Now on to cutting my extensions...... (or, giving the micro saw a workout) The remaining sides wound up being 13 9/16ths inch long after the lengthening section was removed. The sections removed to increase the height have to come off the top as it is the only way to add it without destroying the details. (the bottom edge of the sides carried the flat channel details that show the attachment to the floor beams so I cannot add anything there. The pic above shows the razor saw being used to first score along one of the bead channels, and once a groove is started for the saw to track in, using the saw to cut almost through the side panel. Once your about 3/4ths of the way through the panel, you snap it along the cut groove. you then take the edge of a #11 blade and scrape the tiny residual edge off being careful not to gouge the cut in any small location... With a little luck, it leave you with a nice straight edge to join to the top edge of the side panel. in the pic above you can see I've cut the second strip off the old side panel. Two strips are required to span the longer length of the rescaled longer side. Making a total of four long tedious cuts by hand..... Once those four strips are cut and cleaned, they need to be indexed to each other to preserve the spacing of the vertical rivet details. This is done by matching the rivet pattern to the side panels rivet pattern, marking an index mark on the strips, and then cutting them off making sure the resultant full length strip is still longer than the side panel.... Once the strips are marked they are cut at the same time so the saw cut has the identical angle of cut on both pieces..... And the end result is a nice clean joint..... (I put the joint in the middle of the side panels to avoid the issue of multiple joints forming a weak spot in one spot) Glueing the strips onto the top of the side panels took the same form as the length extensions, a .020 reinforcing strip is glued the length of the side just short of each end on the inside. Then the strips are glued to the the reinforcing strip from the back side to prevent any liquid glue splurge into the bead detail on the front side. The following sequence of shots shows the process..... once done, a small tab of .020 is glued over the center joint on the strips. it is then allowed to cure overnight.... The final results all glued and solid.... So how did the Bead/Rivet detail on the outside finally wind up? Looks good from here..... I will know better once there is some primer throw on it... but I've always had pretty good results when the photo doesn't show the joint.... (there will probably be some residuals to this procedure but for now, I just want to set the sides to one side and look at something else for a while, like the freezer unit I've got to scratch build, the doors will have to wait until the van body is assembled) Anyway, that should conclude our expedition into re-scaling well at least most of it.... Thank you for coming along for the trip, and I hope you enjoyed it.... EG

Thank you, I like researching the details.... (at least try and get it right) Single handed unloading... Wow, now that is what I call work.....

Next Step, The Trailer Bullnose.... The kit part...... Pretty standard for a '60's period Van trailer, The corners are radiused 12" and the structural beading wraps around and crosses the width of it. So what did the Trailer in the movie have? Smooth corners, so the beading detail has to come off.... Both sides... now the question all the way to the top? Yes all the way to the top.... But, notice another thing, the beading does not go all the way to the top on the face of the bullnose either... so we count the beads up the front. 46 corrugated beads up the face of the trailer. This is assuming that they are the correct size. So we need to count the beads on the kit part... 50 beads lines, so we eliminate the detail around the corners and four lines from the top...... But wait a sec, the area at the top of the bullnose is flat, for at least a foot and a half above the last bead line..... what's going on here... Obviously the Trailer Height is too short. So I take a shot from the movie showing the height and width of the trailer and calculate the aspect ratio. Guess what? the Trailer is a foot too short. Doing my research, I discover that most trailers from the early '50's to mid '60's were 12'6" tall and measuring the bullnose added to the trailer deck height of four feet comes out to a perfect scale 12'6" where the aspect ratio of the trailer in the movie shows the trailer needs to be 13'6" in height. I need to add a half an inch to the height of the bullnose..... (which means I need to add a half an inch to the height of the sides also) Razor saw to the rescue..... I cut a half inch off the other kits bullnose and mate it to the standard bullnose after sanding off the bead detail..... Now it looks the proper aspect ratio...... So now I have to raise the trailer panel sides this extra height...... I have enough detailed plastic from the remaining kit sides to do this, but have to figure out how to make that long long straight cut and still be able to match the beading detail. It would look awful funny with the beading only going up the sides part way..... So, the prior step was scaling in the horizontal, the next step, scaling in the vertical..... Beginning to think I would have been better off scratchbuilding the thing..... Onwards, and thank you for reading....... I hope you enjoy... EG

Nice recovery!