Steven Van Dyck Author
The frame is constructed in the first building step. It's a bit complicated to analyse, but you have to get through this to get all the components ready to fit between the profiles.

Lenny Li
Looks fun with all those PE sheets!

Neuling
Looking forward here ..........

Steven Van Dyck Author
All welcome, I now assembled the front and 4th axles. All are movable in a steering position, but as usual you have to decide and then fix everything. Also I found that one set of wheels is not parallel, so I cut the steering arm and added a millimeter of sprue roundel. Does this not appear if they test-fit these kits, or did I make a build error?

Steven Van Dyck Author
All 4 axles are now added to the frame, together with the shock absorbers that I had to shorten a bit at the front axle. The torsion bars are fixed at one side so I can remove the air bellows for painting.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The fuel tank hoops and steps are now replaced with PE. The steps are quite hard to bend in the right order and no dimensions or angles are given to mount them.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The radiator is now detailed with the Voyager silver mesh. You only see the front side now, it's on both sides. When it was assembled I realised that the air horns also need a PE part. There is some warping in the sump and the top cover, I hope it isn't evident looking through the front grille later on. The air tanks must be stripped like the fuel tanks, but you get equal lengths of PE strips to attach two kinds of tank. Therefore I clipped 4 of them and redrilled the hole on the end. The assembly with the 2 tanks and the container is suspended on a single PE part that I had first bent the wrong direction, I hope it doesn't get fatigued.

Steven Van Dyck Author
I started the interior with some colored PE from Eduard. The Black Dog figures are assembled and also a Maim figure and two Legend armament sets were added to the project. But the Maim gunner appeared to have a large backpack, so I don't know he's feasible.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Continuing the interior with the seats. Also the fenders are completed, it's very important to align the bent beams that sometimes are replaced woth Voyager assemblies. It's preferable to use that, the replacements are sturdier than the originals.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The cabin exterior is done using some original kit PE and clearparts, but both have problems. The clearparts are not calibrated and have distortion because of this. I will be replacing the large parts with plexiglass. The kit PE is wobbly because it's not thick enough., I even had to hammer it quite a while. Then I found out Voyager does replace half of the protection kit, but not the large parts behind the doors. At least half of the creases are removed then. But Voyager messed up at the hood closing strip, providing two identical parts in stead of mirrored ones. This could be remedied with some re-riveting.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The pVoyager photo etch cabin roof is constructed with all its nightmarish embossing deformities corrected, the badly fitting airco module that was mosly bent the wrong way around so it broke at one instance. I replaced the 3 largest clearparts with a piece of Trumpeter 1/350 airplane set transparent box cover, that has the right thickness to be able to sand the corner roundings in it. The air purifier system is not installed completely, because that would impede the clearpart masking. So now it's down to interior painting.

gorby
Looks amazing so far!
I'm also amazed at the number of projects you have on the go and still manage to achieve such remarkable results.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks Gorby, this was now put to wait for the Essex carriers, but as these are awaiting some last details it can go ahead now. The NATO green interior is painted after the appliance of the Eduard masking set. This replaces the kit masking set and has a cool black film, but still needs some trimming on the outside masks of the smaller windows.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The truck cabin is now finished with the Eduard safety straps. While fixing the roof I noticed that a small strip should pass over the rear to make the internal frame fit to the rivets in the PE.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The hood is dry-fit on the frame and it seemed that one fender had to be rearranged. I prepared the PE for the rear view mirrors that are quite complicated. I also built the Gecko Models pallet truck as a dio element. It's a very fine kit, there is only one pallet contrary to the image with the 4 pallets on the truck.

Steven Van Dyck Author
I added the Italeri 20ft container to the project as one of these is clearly visible on the Tankograd pictures. I got it from the store next door. I might cjt up the container to get a better composition on the dio and like that I can get 2 out of 1.

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

Steven Van Dyck Author
Welcome. I assembled the container in a few hours, an easy process if you wanted to show it closed down. But the option with open doors is incorrect and needs some changes to the locking system. I had done this with the right door, but it would make no sense to have the pallet loader blocked by the left door so I have to change that one too. I made a sketch of the design for the dio, though the cut might be more oblique to gain some volume.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The container is sawn in two and painted in some typical shipping container colors.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The rear view mirror and the winches are built. The chassis part for this has some sink and needs sanding. It will be difficult to add the cable to this assembly, the drums will not revolve because of a narrow fit.

Goldman
Looking great. Very nice details. Sometime it is a shame to cover all this shining brass with paint...

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, Goldman. In this case I think the many colors will improve the aspect. I added a folding ladder to the exhaust frame and used the Voyager turned bolts for the bumper. then I built the Hardox container with the kevlar blankets. Small parts are used for the connections to the container. I decided the two splintershields for the gunners are oversized and should be replaced with Evergreen, making them half as thick. I also looked at the Legend armament, the Mk19 will improve on the barrel proportions and the M2 might be a bit overkill with the televisor. But the kit M2 is in 2 halves and has a bad cooling sleeve.

Goldman
Beautiful work Steven.
Does this kit include the parts to be able to build it as a tractor unit (the fifth wheel etc.)?

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, Goldman. The fifth wheel remains even with the armored box on it, but the rear frame covers guiding the trailer are not used. They can be found. I also noticed a flashlight on the cab is left off in this version. The mudflaps are connected lower on the frame.

Steven Van Dyck Author
Both weapons are built without the special visor, even if that meant cutting into the M2 to remove the support. I discovered flaws in the armored container from the kit and decided to correct them. In Tankograd you can see the rear of the truck and it shows that the support frame for the container should fit between the towing eyes of the truck. Hobbyboss seems to have missed this in their contruction and now the frame goes on the outside of the towing eyes. Also one of the access ladder rungs seemed to fit under this frame. That was the Hobbyboss solution for having shortened the container with 3mm, also visible on the Tankograd picture. I had to rebuild the container frame and add an edge to the container to make that ladder fit again. Another strange observation is the shadow from the gunner's position, showing that the M2 turntable was fit in a rectangular hole. No trace of that is found in the Hobbyboss container roof. Maybe I'll correct that one before I start painting.

Steven Van Dyck Author
After a good wire brush polishing round of the cabin PE, painting started. I had only enough NATO green for the cabin, but I was able to do the armored container in rust colors. Even the interior should be like that, so it was real fun to bring up all those corrosion colors. I started with Gunze H7 orange and then shadowed in a mix of Tamiya black and Gunze Russet. Then a mix of Gunze H7 and yellow lighted everything up.

Steven Van Dyck Author
The M1070 frame takes a complete Tamiya paint jar to fill every nook and cranny. The armament is primered black and I alos found a photoframe that fits the dio.

Goldman
Well done diorama. The angled containers really add interest

Steven Van Dyck Author
Camo colors are completed and the Hardox rusty color is added, based on Gunze H7 with some dark brown and yellow. I used a few SKP lights from an LMTV set. Now I noticed that I closed down the cab without the radiator in it...

Steven Van Dyck Author
The truck and container decals are applied. I made changes to the numbers on one of the containers according to the registration system. Some details were scratched, like the bumper identification marks that were for some reason left empty by Hobbyboss. On the rear armor I painted the nickname of the truck. The cables were added to the winches with some parts unmounted. I did open up the cab to add the radiator I forgot. The base is made from thick cardboard with the concrete slab edges cut into it.

Steven Van Dyck Author
2 new Blast figures are added, one to push the pallet loader and the second to accompany the one in the armored container. I painted the cartboard to look like concrete slabs and added pigments and wash to the truck.

Pepe
Great

Steven Van Dyck Author
The truck is now slowly coming together. I made the mirrors out of some Earth Metal scraps and I removed one backpack from a figure, replacing it with an alufoil copy of another figure's vast.

Rui S
Beautiful truck 👍

Steven Van Dyck Author
Thanks, Rui. Now the figures are finished, but one lost an arm while being glued in to the truck. He'll have to be painted inside the cab now. The cargo containers are weathered and the pallet lift will roll over a spare anti-skid plate from the kit.