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Scissors cut out the plastic rectangles, then
fine sanding film and files cleaned the edges.
With the windshield cut out it was ready for
dry-fitting.I mounted the truck in my trusty Tamiya
revolving paint stand before airbrushing the
seat with leather. I wanted to make new win-
dows out of clear sheet plastic, so I first ...Now that everything fit, I added the white-
metal details and PE to the crane. The jack and
shovel are from Tamiya. The storage box cover
is made from resin flooring I found in my
spares box.I got a break with the crane assembly; it went
together easily and featured a lot of detail.
Everything was pinned together with remov-
able pieces of brass rod to ease the painting
process.Once the tape was removed, all of the subas-
semblies were washed and dried in prepara-
tion for painting! I used Testors Model Master
paints throughout.Here, the headlights and their mounting
brackets have been added. The front bumper
is very fragile, so I was careful when drilling
holes for Aber brass width indicators.
I stuck my tape template on the sheet plastic,
which has been marked with a silver arrow
here. I dry-fitted the cab and storage box one
more time to double check the fit.... masked the window opening with Tamiya
tape. Then I removed the cab and painted the
interior desert yellow. Now I had the exact
shape of the windows stamped on the tape.
All major parts are dry-fitted together here. I
checked several times that all the wheels were
straight and rested on the ground
simultaneously.I held the cable in place with a jig made from a
bent thin metal rod. I froze the cable in this
stretched state with super glue, making sure to
get rid of the fuzzy bits that would be a dead
giveaway it wasn’t made of steel.
Nothing could be done to permanently
unbend the warped chassis — even a heat gun
proved ineffective! In the end, I glued brass
strips to the sides to force things into proper
alignment. Here, everything is on straight.Construction began with the main parts taped
together on a jig to check the fit. I spent a long
time and quite a bit of my patience attempting
to get the chassis parts and running gear
straightened out.