My first attempt at weathered painting and I am really quite chuffed with the effect. Thanks to Nick and all the others who have weathered before me for showing the way.

Had a go at adding some knots in the wooden planks. I know that wood strength is gauged on many things including the frequency and spacing of knots in it. For those in the know, I don't want to know if there are far too many. Added with a black marker.


A wet finger slightly to smudge the dots and catch the grain of the balsa


Next a mix of grey shades made of the Works acrylic tube black and white paint. I made sure the tones varied slightly over the length and width slightly.




Also added some slight brownish tinges to replicate rust stains since these flat-racks carry a range of wooden and metal pallet loads.


And to ensure it is not too dark, I blended with my finger and also used paper towel to wick the excess off, again looking for variance across the rack.


Next was the rust and shading on the metal. Having hunted high and low, I did not find hairspray. Plan B meant raiding the larder instead for salt. To get the rust shades I used Humbrol NATO brown as the base colour, and then again used the Works tube paint, burnt umber and white to mix more and more pinker shades on top.




As you can see I did quite a lot on the side and middle rails, as these are going to take the worst of the weathering. Appears overdone at this stage as I kind of thought the next green shade would cover some over anyhow.


After chatting with Nick, I applied the salt quite liberally over the worst areas of weathering using my photos for reference. As Nick had confirmed, the salt stuck to wetted areas and formed blobs in places of interest like nooks and crannies where water might gather.










With the wood back on the flat-rack, I set about adding some wear and tear on the planks and was fortunate to have picked up a nail sandpaper file that had something sharp accidentily superglued on it that scored the timber on the first pass. It was the look I was trying to achieve with a mix of faded, sanded and lightly scored timber.










Its first load, the Sanky trailer


The aluminum tube to catch the LHS hook has a degree of green paint, rust and fresh scratches from the hook.








I am quite chuffed with the effects and will be using these techniques through my next painting of DROPS and Landies.

Thanks Nick for guiding me through.

Nige

Awesome update Nige, looking great. I love the timber effect. I have used a similar process in the past to "weather" real timber for rustic furniture. A few swipes with extra coarse sandpaper, a few strategically placed hits with various implements, then a wipe with old sump oil. The sump oil collects in the low spots and grooves, and then I rag off the excess. I have also done this on a much smaller scale to get a woodgrain effect on timber propellors.

Can't wait for the next update mate.

Cheers, D

Thanks Damian

Took some better pics during daylight as the others are yellow tinged by the house lighting










Nige

I also noted from the second photo that one of my welds had split on the bed head frame. These crazy ARABS cannae drive !!!!! Get the STABS to do a proper job !!!!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!!!!

So, out with the glue and a good strong clamp and it has pulled together. That is one area not needing repair now.

I remember the bed head frames had a luminous bulb fitted to allow easier locating of the flat-rack when driving in blackout conditions. Only problem was the bulb was prone to getting a direct strike off the LHS hook from drivers wrongly aiming at the bulb.

Instant radioactive leak incident requiring the flat-rack to be taken out of use and major clean up incident.

Not surprisingly, the flat-racks no longer have them.

Nige

Hi Nige!

I love the scratchbuilding you are doing! Both the LR and this one! There is only one thing I don't like, the pictures. I found a way to fix bad lighting and yellow tinting. I buildt a macrolight for my camera. There is a webshop with extreme deals(!) where I found some LED rings to put in the headlights of your car(!!?). I bought 3 of these and glued them together. I havent made the electronics to control the strenght of the light yet, but it works. There should not be a big problem to adapt such lights for you jvc camcorder. (my pictures of the VW T3 was taken with this lighting)

Hi Kjell

What do you use as a power source for the bulbs and does that not mean the light source is very bright at the front???

Would love to see some of your photos using it.

Nige

Thought I would add a bit of rough metallic sheen to some of the rust patches and a few lighter perpendicular pallet scuff marks on the top surfaces and edges of the metal rails by rubbing a soft pencil lightly over.

I think it works quite well.

I made a post for the macro-light here HERE if you want to see more of it.

Hi Kjell

I will be looking to see how you work out the electrics to control the lighting on your other post. Thanks for the linky. I will maybe look into this after xmas if I get a chance.

Tube inside tube, 1x1mm strip, 'U' channel and circles cut with a hole punch and I have some brake actuators.


I had a set from a spare axle to estimate sizes from (the pair in black)


Solder wire for plumbing




Nige

Excellent detail on the brake actuators. The previous shots of the model under the outdoor natural lighting look awesome. The model looks real like a 1/1 prototype

Thanks Ko

Was trying to fit the brake actuators and connecting pipework but ended up breaking more than I was fixing.


Ended up having to backtrack slightly on the air reservoir and its hangers to make it fit.




Also made the trailer brake shunting controls and valves on the turntable






Turntable brake actuators added and awaiting connection of pipework to valve sets.


Connection to flexi hoses of main trailer frame will need to wait till after painting.

Nige

Sat up late tonight watching the North Korean funeral procession and making the side marker lights for the trailer. What a combination !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Angle sections to mount onto the chassis frames, then thin channel downstand sections to mount the lenses onto. The lenses are sprue cuttings sanded and shaped.


Copper wire is to be run to each of the marker lights.




One large wiring box and main wiring loom




Small and fiddly but will be so visible

Nige

I have added the hose and wiring connections that pass to the 'A' frame and then to the truck. Got them secured with blue tack in their holders where not in use.








Also made the thin metal mounts for the rear side marker lights. For some reason the super glue refused to hold one of these on the mud guard and I spent over an hour fighting with it to sit still. I won in the end and took a photo.



Low and behold I checked the reference photos to realise that I had metal mounts on the rear faces of the mud guards. Thankfully, the mud guards are not glued in place and were swapped nearside for offside and the problem solved without any more cursing or swearing.








Next on the list is the ISO twist locks using sprue off cut, solder wire and thin plasticard


I don't know if any body else has noticed, but sprues tend to have a hollow centre running the full length (not sure if this a result of the process of blowing the plastic through the injection molds) that can be drilled out to the right diameter.


Having drilled the sprue I sanded along its length to make a simple cross ensuring the centre hole was retained. Where I am with the twist locks for now.











I still have the lever lock plates and retainer pin chains to add. I have only the one twist lock dry fitted for the moment as I will be painting these and re-fitting them near the end.


Hope you like

Nige

I can see no other purpose for that plate, other than to put the red market lights above the height of the side locker on one side, and the spare wheel on the other. I would imagine that approaching drivers might miss-judge the length of the trailer if the rear marker lights were fitted to the mudguards themselves, as the lights would be masked from certain angles by the locker and spare wheel. The plates give a bit more rigidity and height for mounting the light and a route for the wiring.

The twist locks will not be fully operational as I do not want someone trying to pick up the whole model by lifting up a flat-rack secured only by 4 fragile plastic versions.

I will have two pieces that will represent the male locking blocks. One to represent them lowered for loading of flat-rack, and a larger one to represent them locked up where the trailer is traveling without a flat-rack on.















Nige

The king trailer is now drying after a coat of black and nothing has fallen off so far !!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe a first coat of green tomorrow !!!!!!!!!!

Nige

Better pics prior to paint job (a black undercoat)

















And now with a first blast of Humbrol Dark Green (RAF)












Have ran out of the RAF green and need to stock up on some other colours if I can tomorrow.

With the flat-rack on to show the contrast in colours so far










Nige

Looks awesome Nige! Fantastic work and incredible detail. It always amazes me how things look in the transformation between styrene and wire bits to incredibly detailed military equipment. Great job.

Jim
Large Scale Armory

Thanks Jim, appreciated.

Made a start on altering a donor engine to a Rolls Royce Perkins 500 Eagle Engine.

Not got a clue where this lump came from as it has been in my stash for years in the spares pile. Cut off the main parts that were out of position to allow me to reconfigure as best I can from the source pics I have.

It may not end up totally accurate, but it will be under the big resin cab that is not likely to be in the tilted position too often, if at all.


The charge cooler and pipe between the rocker covers




On the opposite side, the start of the glow plug locations


Nige

Well

4 x Tamiya 100ml Dark Green (RAF) spray paint winging their way to Bonnie Scotland from Model Hobbies to get me back on track with the paintwork !!

I suppose I am contributing to the gradual demise of the so called Local Model Shop, but with only a couple of models and a few paint tins to choose from, I cannot say the shop left in Stirling can compete with the internet.

My only other choice is a 36 mile trip to either Edinburgh or Glasgow. If I take the family with me, my 4 tins of paint costs me an extra £50 in keeping the wife and kids fed and watered, transport, and that would not include the added extras Karen might want to purchase if she dragged me around the other shops.

£3.55 and my four cans are delivered to my door.

Having been a great supporter of the best model shop in Stirling when it was in Baker Street, (sadly gone years and years ago, I have a feeling I am doomed to be an internet shopper for my model supplies from now on.

SORRY MODEL SHOPS !!!!!!

Nige

Have made a rough representation of the ZF Gearbox which will look better when there is a lot more pipes and cables around it.


There is also the engine driven steering pump, compressor, ping tank and start of hoses that I need to try to place with some degree of accuracy to the chassis.




Without having any measurements to work from I managed to get the gearbox length just right to the rear mounting point which I did have




I can now start to place some of the other features like the gearbox heat exchanger, oil filters and gearbox driven steering pump etc in place

Nige

Added some hydraulic flexi hoses from the distributor manifold to the LHS Main Frame ram locations


Made a decision to open up the cab vent grill for the radiator which was a little worrying as the detail on the KFS cab is so neat and I did not want to spoil the finish which will be so obvious if I cocked it up. First the inner block front cut out and part radiator removed making sure the cab mount locations not damaged.


Then the grill itself


Revised the crank shaft pulley , water pump, alternator and pulley belts




Fuel filter


Gearbox mounted PTO for the LHS




Nige

While trying to find out where the oil filling pipe travels to from the front of the cab grill ,,,,,,,,,,,, I found out quite a fundamental difference with my donor engine block !!!!!!!!!

The ferkin sump is to the front of the engine block,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, not the rear !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Out with the knives and saws !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Helps when you find a full engine diagram for both sides.

Nige

Got out the Dremil and cut off the sump. After a quick sanding, and 180' turn
Before


After




I can now position the filler pipe to suit the new sump location as the pipe arrives just below the sump join line

Thankfully, never fixed the engine in place within chassis

Nige