Search the Community

Mirror Models 1/35 Diamond T 968A Cargo Truck What a surprise when the postman delivered this yesterday... this is the brand new kit from Mirror Models of the Diamond T 968A Cargo truck with Hard Top Cab. Obviously, most of the kit is based on the Wrecker, which I am also building here on LSM, but don't fear. I don't intend to show only the differences between the two kits, but also cover the whole build in detail. I will discuss the little changes I have made to the kit learned from the Wrecker build and show how I've done these changes. There aren't many required, but you may be interested to see them? If you follow the instructions, the first stage in the assembly is to build the wheels. There are a couple of changes made here, 1. I haven't added the Brake drums to the wheels at this stage, preferring to add them to each axle as I go and 2. As with the wrecker, shim is required between the wheel rim halves if you're fussy like me. here's how I went about doing this..... Basically, when the wheel halves are put together there is a small gap at the join of the two wheel rim halves when the tyre join is good. The flat side of the tyre could be sanded, but I have chosen to shim the gap using 0.010" card, (Actually I have used two pieces of 0.005" card as I ran out of 0.010" sheet). I first cut the sheet into 12 off 18mm squares then glued them to the wheel halves with no hub. Once the glue has dried, I had to use superglue BTW, I roughly cut out the centre of the card. Then the two halves are glued together and clamped for a few hours to dry. I should mention that the best glue to use on this kit is Tamiya Extra thin Cement. Some other popular glues don't touch this plastic?? Here are three wheels ready for finishing. Then the excess sheet is sanded down to give a straight and cylindrical seamless join just like the real thing. So, just the twelve wheels to do, then it's time to move onto the engine, or chassis, or axles.....?????