RichO Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 Hey Everybody, I'm starting a new build. This build will be a very large scratchbuild 1/25 scale ex-military truck turned civilian crane truck. SO! ' you ever have one of those moments when the "New Model Syndrome" hit so hard you can't get anything else done. I never had until now. I have always finished a build before I start an other. Something happened I can't explain with this one tho. I found these two photos. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!! I never recovered, and have spent the last three or more months getting the references I need for this build. Crane KS-6571 + Maz-543! Seeing how my fascination with BIG Russian Trucks has taken over my build site, I might as well do something about this right now, and add another build to the insanity of the, "Insane Truckworks" of my build desk. As it turns out, I have found a ton of references and vector drawings for Maz man. However, I have only found photos so far for Crane Jane. Remember the Maz-357 build? I'm not sure if I posted this build here. This was built at 1/20 scale and measured 32cm. the Frog-7... measures 35cm at 1/25 scale. A smaller scale at 1/25 than the Maz at 1/20 scale. But a larger truck model. This new beast will be the biggest model I have ever built. At 1/25 scale, the naked frame alone, will measure at 46cm!! and another 15-20cm for all the overhang. That's bigly huge for my work desk. And I'm also hoping that Jane will reach about 90cm tall when fully extended. I'm really excited to start this scratch build, giant Work Truck. I'll build the most tedious parts first. Starting with... TIRES!!! I hope I get some interest, and maybe some of you guys will like another large truck amongst your aircraft. I'll be back shortly with tires. Rich 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted June 29, 2021 Author Share Posted June 29, 2021 Here We Go! First up are tires. Literally, building this from the ground up. I have had to hand make the tires for each one of my projects. I can purchase any number of after market parts at 1/25 scale, but not Maz tires. And each time, I have gone about it in slightly different ways. Now, I have a good working method at this point, and building a tire only takes a couple days of part time work. I start with cutting the parts out of thick card. I have always used card to build the large tires I use. Using card is much easier to bend, cut, and glue. I arrange these card "doughnuts" stacking each together to create the shape of the tire. While I was beginning to add the individual treads, I decided to "weight" the tires. I'm guessing this big truck weighs a pound or two, so a weight bulge was in order. I water/white glued separate strips of thin paper to build up the sides of the tires to create the bulge. When everything was dry, I sanded the tire flat on the side of the bulge. Here you can see how I arranged the card "doughnuts" and spaced everything to get the tire shape. Now it's a matter of adding the individual treads. The treads are a lazar cut package I have had for a while, just for this kind of situation. I got these from a Polish maker some years ago. With all the treads applied, I painted the master tire and sealed it for casting. Remember that I need eight of these, and one new extra for the spare. I'll hand build the spare tire for the top rack because I only need one new spare, with no bulge. The rest of these will get resin cast. I'll have eight new tires in an afternoon. The weight bulge is a little hard to see here, but looks good in person, and will show better as the build progresses. In this photo you can see the size difference between the tires of the Frog-7 build in the front, and the Maz man tires. Both are 1/25 scale. That's the first report for this build. I'll build molds for next posting and get wheels started. Thanks for tagging along, Rich. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaireckstadt Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 Great start Rich! Unbelievable how you created the master tyre! Will follow this as your last build! You can reserve a place for me in the 1st row in the middle. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HubertB Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 If you are excited about starting this new project, so are we Hubert PS: is it done yet ? 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harv Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 I'll be right next to Kai Rich . Looking forward to it.....harv 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 Rich, you are borderline genius, and EXTREMELY Talented, I will tag along as well.......................... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 More Russian scrap metal, presented the most entertaining way, spiced with great scratch building, what can go wrong? Cheers Rob 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 It is amazing what can b done with card. Nice work, Rich! 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 Rich Unreal scratch building, even tire tread. Sitting in the front row along with all the guys Keep 'em comin Peter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 3, 2021 Author Share Posted July 3, 2021 Hey Guys, The tire production is now finished. I still have a spare to build, but I'll build that a year or so from now. Once I had the master tire built and sealed, it was ready to cast. I had to build the box for the mold and make a fill plug for the tire. The box is Lego's, and the fill plug is a 3/4 inch dowel. I glued the plug into place and then flipped the tire right side up, plug side down. I glued all this to my base and got ready to pour rubber. I poured the rubber for the mold and let it all set over night. I found this in the morning.... A big dimple, and the level of the rubber had lowered. My tire had sprung a leak and sucked in the rubber, or my box had a leak. It was the box, and it wasn't to bad. When I removed the master tire from the rubber mold, I lost a few treads.... I had to remove all of these from the mold, to get it all ready for casting. Production started, and about ten minutes for each tire. Eight new tires, and a couple of extras, to empty the resin bottles. I have a job cleaning all these and getting ready for paint. I'll remove the fill plugs and sand the treads to wear everything old and used. This will take a bit while I'm building wheels. I'll be back with more rubber shenanigans in a while. Thanks All............ 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 6, 2021 Author Share Posted July 6, 2021 Hey All, A quick post for today. This is my secondary build after the Frog Prince, so postings will be slow at first. I have finished with the tires. I have all the tires I need painted and ready for install. ..... When I get that far. Cleaned and painted......... I have also started cutting the frame and getting frame components built. Thanks everyone for hanging with me on a slow start to a monster truck build. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted July 6, 2021 Share Posted July 6, 2021 Rich WOW - amazing scratch work for sure. Keep 'em comin Peter 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 7, 2021 Author Share Posted July 7, 2021 Hey All, I have been trying to finish up with the Frog, and the Frog is now done, with just weathering to do, and I now can concentrate my efforts here, altho a little slow at first. I have a house move coming up in a few weeks, so the postings my be a bit erratic for a short time. I started this project some time ago, but have not put much time into it, and I'm just now posting the build. My original build had gotten to the frame being put together. And then I found much better references, and my frame was so wrong, I started over. My original reference was seriously lacking in some respects to the frame supports and the differential pans. Just so you can see the old frame. These photos show....... that there are eight cross supports and four differential pans. That is 12 cross connections. This is so far wrong from what I have found in subsequent photos and drawings that I can't just live with it. I have new references that show the rail frame of this build and I can count 19 cross members so far that I need to build and place along the frame rail. I usually spend quite a while longer finding references for builds before I start, for just this reason. However this is just to cool to wait much longer. On with the new frame.. The frame rails are the same length and height, so no change there (old frame is painted), but I did start over with all my markings so as not to get confused and recut everything instead of reusing the old frame. I also have all the base plates for the cross supports cut and sized. You can see how many I missed the first time 'round. I also have all the differential pans built... and the major cross members along the bottom of the rail....... This pile of cross member parts along with the diff. pans and frame rails are now ready for painting. They are at the paint dept. as I write, and I'm going to try something I have never done before. I'll show you when I get back. This is were the build is today. I'll be back with fresh paint and a new frame. Sorry if this confusing to some, but all is on track and I have a better frame build to work with. RichO Later everyone........ 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark31 Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 damn nice work you show here. Great building going on. Mark 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 So anyway, I spent the last month building all these tiny parts for the frame after the restart. When I was ready to paint all of these, I wanted to try something new. I have not tried the "hair spray" technique for painting, so, a plausibility study was in order. I can see how this would work really good. I have a ways to go to get the technique down for this build tho. I over sprayed the top coat and had to scrub with a wire brush to get started. I really like the scratches effect with this. If I can get the top coat to come off a lot easier I might have something here. More practice is needed. I kept to my tried and true salt technique for this build. It's easy and I have more control over my colors and textures, and I don't have to think about it. Just do it. I start with a red oxide primer base rust. Then I apply all the variations with other colors over the red base. I sprinkle the salt where I want the rust and then top coat with the contrasting green. I get such really great textures with this technique, it looks like real peeling and rusting paint. Just look at this texture............ More frame mounts and cross plates to build........ Everything is where t is supposed to be and I'm now ready to join the frame. Like 40 connections. Her it is!! The first two pieces to be joined on this build. I have all these connections to deal with to get the cross supports into place. This is just the first one. I'll be back with a together frame man. Thanks All 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 Rich Wow, the scratch work is amazing and your rust/ peeling paint work is fantastic. Keep ‘em comin Peter 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 13, 2021 Author Share Posted July 13, 2021 Hey Everybody, I have made the frame connections and the frame is now in one piece. I also have the painting of the frame finished, ready to move on to the Drive Train. A lot of cross connections........ The painting of the frame......... I showed some guys at the model club. 50/50 love/hated it. The rivet counters thought the color was to unrealistic. The artists loved it. I really wanted to go to town with the color on this build, and make it a bit different. I'm now ready to move on to the Drive Train. Starting with the 4 Differentials. I'll be back. Rich 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Rich the rust and wear looks mighty good Keep 'em comin Peter 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GusMac Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 I'm with the artists! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 15 hours ago, GusMac said: I'm with the artists! I go en route, fine puntilism meets crude Russian metalwork, what can go wrong? Cheers Rob 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 18, 2021 Author Share Posted July 18, 2021 Hey All, I have finished building the four Differentials and the two central Gearbox's, and I have connected everything together. I had to also make little connectors that stabilize and secure the Differentials to the frame. These are the two central gearbox's......... The stable connectors.......... The four Differentials........ And they all live about here......... Getting everything together and a new test fitting..... Everything painted and temp. placed. I have a bit of plumbing to do, so nothing secured. Aft connections....... Bow connections........ This is one big long frame....... I now have several different options. Continue with the Drive Train, with Tranny, and Engine, or start the Suspension system, or plumbing or............. I believe I will punch the drive shafts through the frame wall, and locate the start of the Suspension System. Until next time All.............Thanks 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harv Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 Looking good !!.....harv 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 Awesome work - weathering is right on the money. Keep ‘em comin Peter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaireckstadt Posted July 18, 2021 Share Posted July 18, 2021 What shall I say? Amazing 🤩 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichO Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 Hey All, I spent this week building the Torsion Bar Anchors for the suspension system, along with a few other items. These are the Torsion Bar anchors that anchor the suspension system onto the frame rails The Torsion Bar Anchors. These took all week to build..... Placed along the rail frame......... These all look like they are level enough to move on to the next part of the suspension system...... I also built the Tail Hook Anchor, and hook, and the install..... I also have a bit of plumbing started. The other ends of the lube lines will be attached much later in the build. A busy build week this week. All a lot of fun. I have started building the next phase of the suspension system. I hope to have something to show next week. Packing for the move is coming closer. Thanks All for watching......... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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