Zvezda 1/35 Kamaz "Mustang"

[Guest]

It's strange Dave, the smell of cellulose / lacquer paints doesn't bother me in the slightest, but open up some white spirit, so-called odourless thinner, or a tin of household gloss paint and my head is spinning and I start feeling bilious!


So I carried on with the load bed today. I'd left the mudguards off since they were a different colour, and also I'd spotted this issue early on in the build:

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Both of the duplicated F sprues were the same, breaks in the delicate stays for the more forward mudguards. The others for the rearward ones were fine as they were deeper within the sprue. I thought about replacing them but with the angles being so critical to the positioning I just cemented them together the best I could.

It must have worked as once sprayed black, they fitted fine to the bed, lining up well. I also fitted the tools etc. that I'd painted earlier. Thanks to a few tips from Mr T I'm getting more confident with using CA glue to fix pre-painted parts.

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I then tested the bed onto the chassis. It's tight, but it all fits together perfectly. Impressive to say how many parts are involved and how wrong it could have gone if any were slightly out of alignment. Great work Zvezda!

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With that done I made a start on the cab, which again had lots of detail going on, even the heater vents and hosing. There'll be a few different colours going on so I built some parts up into sub assemblies and will bring them together later. I've tried for a slightly glossy textured surface on the seats to represent the cheap vinyl they were probably made from, but it doesn't show well on this picture.

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[Dave Ward]

Andy,
I live in a mid-floor flat, so I'm always aware of lingering smells, not only from my modelling efforts, but from my culinary efforts - easy on the garlic, and kippers are a no-no!
Dave

[outrunner]

Coming along nicely Andy, superglue is your friend for painted parts, something I learned when building r/c model aircraft.

Andy.

[Lee Drennen]

Andy. Very nice I like the exhaust very convincing

[Guest]

Cheers Andy. Super glue has never really been my friend, usually mucking things up instead, but we're getting better acquainted now lol

Thanks Lee.

[Guest]

After working the weekend I'm back to the bench today, and have started putting the cab together.

Seats went in first, followed by the rear and side panels. I know it could do with dirtying up to make it look a bit more lived-in, but since not much of it will be seen, I'm not going to stress over it.

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Dashboard fitted to front panel

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And fitted in place. These are the second set of pictures for this, as after taking the first I realised the steering wheel was on upside down! Thankfully I'd ignored the instructions and not fitted the screen yet, so could get in with a razor saw, chop it off, and reposition it the right way around.

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I'm off for my usual first-day-off afternoon nap, then will hopefully get the cab ready for paint later this afternoon

[Guest]

Cab assembled and the knocky off bits added. Roof is only friction fitted for now, just in case I get some overspray inside the windows that needs cleaning off.

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As you can see the main panels are already primed, but it'll all get another light coat, then straight on with the 4B0.

[outrunner]

Looking good Andy, if Zvezda had made the steering workable you could have got away with the steering being on full lock.

Andy.

[Guest]

Cheers Andy, I still don't know how I managed to get it completely wrong. Looks like I need to re-mask that windscreen too. Looked ok in the flesh!

I forgot to add this earlier, another example of where Zvezda need to tighten up their QC. Thankfully #60 is a mirror image of #58 so it was easy enough to find, but forgetting to add the number tag to a mould could cause some fun on other parts...

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[outrunner]

Yes, you do get the odd bit in the kits that need a bit of thought, good luck with the masking, I hate masking windows and if at all possible I will paint first then add clear parts.

Andy.

[JR]

Wow you certainly making this look good Andy. Love the seating, loads of top notch work with that engine. Fabuloso

[Guest]

Thanks John. I'm itching to make a start on my next project, but will try and resist and see this through!

[Jim R]

Many many people use them successfully all the time, but as before, my model is now falling apart at the seams!

Strange that but 'one man's meat is another man's poison'.
As always very neat, well thought out build.
Jim

[Guest]

As always very neat, well thought out build.
Jim

Thanks Jim. Coming from someone who's neat & clean building style I always admire, that means a lot.

Going back to the wash issue, I may have come up with a reason for it.

The joints that separated are ones I made when cementing pre-painted parts or panels. Now even though I cleaned up the mating surfaces for a good bond, there would have been no "barrier" of paint over the joint as there would be if I'd sprayed afterwards (I hope that makes sense!) So maybe I'm giving the enamel thinners and easy route into the joint, causing the problem. It has to be something I'm doing differently to others after all.

If that is the case, then hopefully a coat of paint or clear/varnish over the joints after assembly would prevent it happening again. I'll dig some scraps of plastic card out and do some testing :smiling3:

[Guest]

Cab is now sprayed, I've done a fair bit of brush painting, and added some stickers.

The decal scheme is from some kind of military games in 2018. That's an excuse not to do much weathering as I'd assume it was kept in reasonably good nick. I lost the first decal as I wasn't ready for it being so thin and fragile after doing several Tamiya models with their leather-like efforts. The subsequent ones went down very well indeed though.

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I'll let it dry overnight then give it all a coat of aqua gloss to seal the decals and stop the brushed paint rubbing off!

Wheels are also complete and drying off. 8 pieces each for the rears, and all 6 are different, so each one is in it's own pot with the sub assembly number marked on it. After a nights sleep I'll forget which is which so better safe than sorry :smiling5: