Interesting...The original solvent for Floquil was Diosol (sp?). I"ve still got a little, but save it for more critical projects. From what I've read, it's basically lacquer thinner with Xylene and Toluene added. Other than that, the Floquil I have left gets thinned with lacquer thinner. By the way, the paint finally dried. A friend who paints lots more than I do said it usually takes Floquil a couple of days to cure completely. This evening the exhaust stack was installed; put cable on the winch and attached the winch; did a tiny bit if light weathering; painted the roller on the back rust colored; still quite a bit to do. Need to find a front tire like the one on it (wheels and tires appear to be from a mini tanks deuce and a half) for a spare to mount on top of the headache rack. Also need to buy some hooks (block and tackle stuff) and stuff. Maybe there will be time to take a few photos tomorrow. Today's bee busy and I only had 30 minutes to work on it.
Truck's nearly done. A little more weathering; needs front windows (still have to figure out how to make them). But that's about it. Added chains, mirrors, tail lights, a bar on the back for the cable and hook to attach to, fire extinguisher, etc.
That truck looks great! I like the detail around the winch, and the bed deck has just the right amount of experience to it. Getting the windshields in is going to be tricky. The way would be to delicately insert them diagonally through the side windows and cajole them into place. I suggest you hold the vehicle with the front downward to put gravity on your side when placing the glazing, and during the glue's curing time. Keep it up!
Thanks Mike. Let me look at that. The toughest thing for me is cutting the windows to shape. So far I haven't even figured out how to make a template for the windows. Second, cutting and gluing them from the outside is going to be challenging.
Made some decent progress on the next oilfield truck. This one is a full blown long chassis gin pole truck. The cab, frame and wheels are Sheepscot. Just about everything else is scratchbuilt. If I build another one of these the gin poles will be made out of brass tubing instead of styrene. The styrene flexes and it's difficult to keep the rigging taught. Until the load being lifted is built, it will have to have something to keep it stretched out There's a long way to go, but it's coming along.
Decided to do another truck. This one is an Autocar U90--a cabover in other manufacturer's language, but Autocar called them engine Under the cab. Fro what I've read, Autocar might have been the first to do a cabover. The "prototype" is a rendering, not an actual photo. the cab and frame are from an old Sheepscot kit. Just about everything else is either scratchbuilt or came out of the parts box. The winch had to be scratchbuilt. It's not a perfect representation of a Tulsa winch but it's as close as I could get it. It even has the shaft and gear that is run off of the PTO via a large roller chain (bicycle chain, in my language). A small headache rack will be fabricated to protect the back of the cab. A friend who grew up around trucks and construction helped me with some ideas. Unfortunately, he convinced me to brace the deck with 6" X 6' lumber instead of 4" X 4". That part doesn't look too good to me. Oh well... I'm still debating on the what color to paint it.
