Thanks Eric

More of my handiwork with Photoshop and the drawings from the TM:




Rear Brake

Mike,
I found one of these at the airshow I was at today got some pics of the brakes will post a little later when I have more time.

Cheers Rob.

Working now on the mounting bracket for the slave power steering gearbox:



And the steering unit itself:

Slave steering gear box FINISHED!





AND all six hydraulic lines that service this gearbox are represented!


Reference photo of gearbox at:

http://data4.primeportal.net/hemtt2/dieter_krause/m1120_lhs/images/m1120_lhs_64_of_92.jpg

Mike, I can clearly see you got that down well. Those wheels look super and I can see the trick is pastel rather then paint. So, you don't seal in your pastel?

Btw, I never heard of using a screw from tire to hub in create the sagging look. So, I'll sure to see how you do it.

Here you go.

Cheers Rob.

Rob - Great photos that answer a lot of questions. Great work!

Mike - There was a famous model railroader named John Allen who used to say "there is no such thing as dust, it is just additional weathering. Now don't touch my RR cars!"

If I put a fixative on my pastel weathering it disappears so once weathered I, from then on, pick them up only by reaching under the front and rear bumpers (or their equivalent) Besides the pastels are easily repaired if they get smudged.

Package on the way, Mike.

Thank you Sir!

The Engine has ARRIVED!- almost 10 days ahead of schedule!!!!!!
(To use a NASCAR term, I guess you could say I bought a crate engine.)





An amazing and beautiful piece of casting work.

Well, I knew right away that some major engine compartment sheet metal was gonna have to go . . .

Oh Yeah ! ! !



The engine is sitting a little high right now because I am still using the existing Italeri transmission mount but that will change!

Anybody that is into drag racing is going to recognize what this is. That's a compressor sitting on top of this engine, a "blower"!

And on top of that sits an exhaust driven turbo charger with inter-cooler!

- - - A blown turbo diesel; that is one serious horse of an engine! - - -

Thats a sweet setup! Did it include the front brakes also? If I remember, all the missing crossmembers are included too?

Yep! Front brakes and all cross members!

Good to know. I have the Trumpeter M983 on the way to combine with the M1120. I will have to order the engine kit now.

Wanted to revisit the idea of just how much plastic has to be removed on the Italeri HEMTT to accept this mega engine. Good idea to make these cuts as you are building the kit rather than like I did, by taking a Dremel tool to a partially assembled model. A little more difficult to do but not impossible. At this point I have done a little bit of clean up to the cuts but still need to true up those cut lines.





F.Y.I. The Trumpeter kit is already open in these areas (no cutting required) as is the larger vehicle offered by Oshkosh.

I made a Boo Boo!

There are two versions of the HEMTT engine kit from Real Models. WARNING, WARNING. There is one version for the Trumpeter model and another for the Italeri.

I ordered the WRONG kit. (Totally my fault.) But I am actually now glad I did!

It is now my understanding that with the kit for the Italeri HEMTT a large portion of the lower front of the engine is missing in order to fit around all that unnecessary plastic that Italeri gives us.

I like the way this turned out better. I get the FULL engine and instead have to cut away that large floorboard area in the Italeri kit that shouldn't be there anyway,

The down side: With the engine kit for the Trumpeter you do not get the rear brakes because they are already provided in the Trumpeter kit!

I am working now with the distributor and with Real Models to purchase the rear brake castings as well.

Since I had already put in my own crossbar above the front set of wheels I figured I would just cut up the Real Models resin H-frame and add their angles to my I-beam.

Engine wise, I got the exhaust headers installed and that allowed me to place the turbo in its' final location,

This evening I worked on the front end of the engine: main crank pulley. fan pulley and clutch, water pump and alternator. Also worked on the rear engine mounts, the driveshaft to the T case and started scratch building the forward engine mounts.

That engine looks right at home. Nice work.

Work'n on the engine mounts now. The rear mounts that come with the engine work perfectly but I wanted a bit more realistic front mount. Try'n to work something out now.