Recycled AC Mack

Like the way you have put the foil on the side once you have painted  it and weather it sould look like metal.

Coming along very nicely.
You build good scratch.

Wow. Very cool project.

Ben

Thanks gents. Hope to get back into this soon.

I scratch built an air compressor for the Mack. The theory is that this will allow it to operate as a stand alone unit or as part of a train. The connecting rod from the bottom pulley into the body of the compressor is a Pitman? arm from a truck kit and the black filter  at the top is part of a Euro style brake booster.


The compressor will be belt driven with the drive coming from the shaft with the brown cap to the right of the compressor. This is the shaft for the drive sprocket on the other side. It's a fairly steep angle down to the pulley on the compressor which drives the piston. I'm not sure if all this would work in the real world but Heath Robinson was an optimist . The tank to the left is the main air reservoir  with the connecting pipe from the compressor. It's made from evergreen tube and those little plastic caps that you push into the cross in Phillips heads screws in kitchen cupboards. I still have more pipework, another air tank and brakes to go.

The steps up to the cabin level. Once I'm up to the painting/detailing stage, I hope to put some broken timber on each of the chains hanging at the bottom of the steps to represent a broken swing step.

I think the steps are from a T series Scania kit. I was going to go with chequer plate or timber but thought this offered something different  and added to the 'made from odds and sods' look.

Can't wait to see this build in the "Showroom"!
Great work Tim!...

How's this one going.

Things are going slowly. Have the conveyor framework done and a gearbox/drive unit on it. Working on the braking system for it. I am sort of copying off a HO scale wagon but only having a narrow chassis means making changes/ making it up as I go. Will post some pics when it becomes clearer what's going on.

Have got a basic braking system on this. It ended up lower that I wanted but needed it to be so to clear the conveyor.

Realistically where I have the chian linkages running from the centre pivot bar, it would probably be rods. I felt the chains added an extra dimension and texture.


I still need to run a bit of pipework around the valves on the red tank and up to the underside of the cab floor.


Front end view of the conveyor showing the gearbox.


Side on view. I'll keep this as a separate assembly so it's easier to put the belt on once painted.


I've used the mechanism from the landing legs of a semi to represent the gearbox/transfer case coming from the pto shaft on the axle. I'll use a drive shaft with uni's at each end to drive the conveyor.

AWESOME work on it.

Great work. Look forward to more.

Ben

Great work, after seeing it in the real I'm amazed at the amount of detail.
You've got more patience than I've got. great to catch up on the week-end

Thanks Kev and yes it was good to catch up again. I've started  with the basic paint on this.





This is my first go at using the hairspray method to weather the paint. I used grey etch primer and let it dry off then hit it with Tamiya acrylics to do the rust/brown and black spots. When that was dry, I hit it with hair spray and then the Tamiya top coat when the hair spray was barely dry. As the top dried, I rubbed it with a wet brush and cotton tips to expose the underneath colours. With a bit more practice I'd reckon it would come up better. Seems to work better with flat paints. The truck chassis was gloss red and tended to peel rather than rub through.. Going to detail the weathering with pastel chalks, another first but Muttley said it's easy so what could possibly go wrong?? Apparently it wipes off with your finger if you're not happy with it, mind you, I've had paint do that too!

This has to be seen in the flesh.  It's great.

I've just tried my first attempt at hairspraying (Acrylic over silver car paint) and I found that it was all too easy to rub off more of the acrylic than I intended.

Thanks for the kind comments guys. The hairspray technique takes some getting used to and yes, it is easy to take way too much off, right back to the foil based on todays effort. Painted the chassis and hopper today. Will put pictures up when it dries.

Basic colours on everything now. Still loads to do but can start putting it all together as I get bits finished. It's amazing how much stuff you discover you haven't done when you think it's all ready to go







Going to have a fiddle  with inks or oils or what ever I can find to make the timber decking look aged when I get to it.

HOLY COW!!!!!!
Not being a truck person, or truck builder, i do not think to look in here very often, man, i should, way more often.
This build is just amazing mate, the scratch building and detailing is awesome, my hat goes off to you,
this is just AMAZING..

I love the rusty ones..........................just amazing Tim.
Excellent building skills.

Thanks guys, a lot of first time stuff going on here - so far so good I think?...

"First time stuff" can be a bit of a nerve wracking experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The real bummer is when it turns out perfect first time then stuffs up the second time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It all looks perfect to me, what type of paint are you using?

How true Kev, just when you think you have it mastered it goes to rubbish. I've been using Tamiya acrylics on this both for the airbrushing and brush detailing. Been great so  far, put a bit at a time in an old, clean milk bottle lid for the detail stuff then add the next colour for blending, bit of acrylic thinner in it for "washes" etc.

Loving your work on this.

Deaf as wrote:with Tamiya acrylics to do the rust/brown and black spots. When that was dry, I hit it with hair spray and then the Tamiya top coat when the hair spray was barely dry. As the top dried, I rubbed it with a wet brush and cotton tips to expose the underneath colours. With a bit more practice I'd reckon it would come up better.

a slight variation i've used is the salt technique. after the rust brown layer, sprinkle salt in areas of heavy rust, then lock it down with hairspray and then top coat. the salt gives it a more natural textured, flaky look.

http://www.thepartsbox.com/BB/viewtopic.php?f=252&t=4715&p=72106&hilit=terror#p72015

Love the tow truck aussie muscle. The weathering came up a treat. I've put the hungry boards on the hopper and rear decking is on. I put a shaped piece of Styrofoam in the hopper and painted it flat black. The load is screened ash from a coal fired boiler.


I tried various methods to give the boards an aged look and found the best was just Humbrol primer grey thinned down, brushed on and wiped off. Mutley suggest oils but Beary crafty had nothing suitable in her stash so I'll chase that up next time.

I used the Dremel to thin through the seat cushion and the  used the knife to 'tear' the plastic. I then covered it with tissue, painted with acrylics and used offcuts from teddy bear fur to poke through the holes. I wanted it to look like it was on its last legs with the horse hair stuffing from a previous patch up job poking through.

WOW looking good.