Hey all,

Here's the blog for my next Braille-scale build; Mr. Panzer's Autocarro Fiat 18 BL WWI cargo truck/prime mover.



The review of this kit is HERE.

Stay tuned!

Mike

Hey Mike. Interesting to see some great war stuff! Should be an good little build.

Jaymes.

Looks a nice kit Mike - a few of these old trucks served in Spain with the C.T.V. during the late thirties :-

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/StirlingLowery/Fiat18BLCTV.jpg

That's a nice and unusual subject, good luck building it.

Hey Stirling,

Nice picture!!:


(hope you don't mind me putting it up...)

It almost appears that that unusual camo pattern is extended to the truck's tires? At least that's what the truck in the foreground seems to show (coloring?). Very neat...Thanks!

I'll be working on the cargo area this evening and hope to be able to get a couple of pictures up soon.

Mike

Well, with 'life and work' issues covered (not to mention figuring out how to get the camera going again), I got to building.

First up was the frame and front end (yeah, I was going to start on the cargo box, but this turned out the way to go).



The frame is one piece, which makes it nice. There was minimal clean up done other than clearing the resin over-fill between the spring suspension and frame.

There's not a lot to be wary of other than the cargo bed support rails. They're a bit on the thick side, and I realized this after they were glued on. Were it to be done again, I'd seriously consider using some Evergreen sheet stock (and the resin parts as the template) and make them about 1mm longer. The cargo bed seems a tad short in relation to these rails (I added a thin strip to fix this - seen in the picture below).

For the front end parts (engine compartment, firewall, cabin, and seat), it's all about dry fitting for position and alignment. No issues at all with fit or size, just double check their alignment. Oh, start with the cab base, then firewall then engine compartment. Things align off the cab.

The cab roof was easy to remove, but there's a fair amount of sanding along the back side to blend that with the edges.

The underside was next:



There are, at the moment, only the two parts attached at the rear. No worries here other than ensuring that the crossmember is straight.

Mike

The cargo bed was a chore of carefully removing the panels from their stubs and cleaning out the areas where the bed's stub was. Care here is key!



Dry fit, dry fit, dry fit! I finally settled on how the parts were going to be attached (front panel, end panel, then side panels). Once satisfied with "HOW" they were going to go on, I used some of the Gator Glue (real slow curing acrylic[?] 'super glue') to set the two end pieces. Once they began to cure, I used some more and set the side pieces in place. When everything was set and properly aligned, I "finished" the gluing with super thin CA.

The underside here only has the two storage boxes. They are left and right handed (there's a small notch in the top that aids in placement and alignment), so be aware of that.



Mike

p.s. More to follow on the parts that broke while I was removing them from the stubs and the work on the wheels. Some can be seen in the previous pictures.

Back from Texas (son's graduation from Army Combat Medic school at Ft. Sam Houston) and working this weekend.

Here's some of the 'repairs' done. The tail pipe from the muffler broke while removing the resin pour stubs, so that was replaced with thin copper tube (beats drilling out the end of the pipe!!). The part for the front suspension was broken in shipment. I removed the resin and replaced that with wire:


I attached the cab cover then the cargo bed/box. Once those set, the steering wheel and shaft were added followed up by the hand brake and the small part for the steering linkage (I won't add the piece that needs to be made until the front suspension is in place):


The rear "chain guards" have been attached to the rear suspension. The wheels will go on soon, but great care is going to be needed to make sure that all four wheels 'sit proper' on the ground:


Mike

Fascinating little build, Mike. As I have found with the MAKO ammo trailer, these little "kits" can have some not too obvious hidden gremlins. As I've never worked with resin this and your last resin build are educational.

Cheers,
Jan

Hey Jan, glad that building these little buggers is helpful. Like any kit, there's pro's and con's to "all resin" kits. I'm finding that usually there's a bit more clean-up involved (mostly being careful when removing the parts from the pour-stubs) than a plastic kit and then the fragility of the resin parts. The obvious need for 'superglue' is a consideration and I wind up using a combination of thick CA, super-thin CA, and the waterbased Gator Glue (I highly recommend this stuff!) during the build.

Hoping to get some wheels on soon.

Mike

Wheels on! (More about the assembly later)




The remaining parts (minus one 'step' I have to scratch):



Mike

Mike,

Looks like your humming along smoothly on this build. Very interesting subject. Will you be adding a similar camouflage pattern as depicted on the black and white photo above? I will be following your progress. Nice kit review too!

-Eddy

And primed:





Mike