Catch Up With Part 2 : HERE
Chassis time. This was actually done first but meh, this is the order I’m posting the blog in and they can be done either way around with no difference so doesn’t really matter. Again this is pretty good straight from the box with just the usual mould seams to clean up ( though these are always a pain n the butt on leaf springs ). The exhaust pipe has had the end drilled out and the whole exhaust has had a coating of Mr. Surfacer which has been lightly stippled and then sanded to give a rough texture ready for rusting up.
Because of the intended portrayal of the finished vehicle it was necessary to redo the front steering. The kit comes with the wheels fixed in the straight ahead position but I needed them pushed off to the right and with a slight lean to them to look as if they had been pushed right by the impact of the crash. This meant cutting and repositioning the CV boot covers and the various steering linkages which wasn’t really all that hard to do. Again Mr. Surfacer was used to redo the boot covers on the now expanded side.
As I said the kit chassis is already very good so other than modifying the steering the only real additions added to the underside were adding a couple of missing brake linkages as well as the brake lines and mounts leading to all four wheels. These are just various pieces of stretched sprue and wire. Most won’t be seen from above but due to the high ground clearance of this vehicle if you get down at eye level they are clearly seen.
The wheels are the style with one large piece for the tyre and outer wheel and another for the inner wheel with a separate brake drum. These are a very good fit but they do require a thin layer of filler ( Mr. Surfacer to the rescue again ) to eliminate the join line that WILL show after painting even if it looks like it won’t. The only other addition to the wheels was adding inflation valve stems. The front ones come from the inside out, the rear ones go from the outside in. These are just stretched sprue with a dab of glue on the end to swell it up a little and look like the valve cap.
