Freightliner FLA (fsba) 1/25

[Hermann Kersten]

Hello gents, long time no see, but i was very bizzy with a new project.

After some talking and drinking a lot of coffee with my friend Jacobus, the US resin truck builder, we found on the net a very beautiful Freightliner.

Some times i try to build out of the box, but every time i fail again, because i see so many nice "real" Freightliners.....pfffffff.

Ok than, at the end we choose the Freightliner with the Front set Back Axle, a very rare model in scale 1/25 , and as far is i could find there is only one at timstrucks.com.

Here is the real thing.......

 

I choose to make  2 cabine conversions, 1 cabine with 3 steps for Jacobus, and 1 cabine with 2 steps for myself.

This means that this will be a duo build with 2 different approaches, so that there will be two different trucks at the end.

 

Ok guys, here the conversion of the cabine.

First i had to smoothen the doors, so that the 2 ridges each door were completely sanded away.

With a sprue part the door handle holes burned shut and sanded until this was all smooth.

After this job i glued the 2 cabine parts together.

On the seam , I glued a 0.5mm round styrene and after that i put some putty on it and sanded all smooth.

This means that with the sanding i will damage some revets, but thats not a problem at all.

I removed all the revets from the 2 side walls, front side and rooftop.

After everything is smooth, i will renew all the rivets with a Punch and Die set like i did with the Marmon cabine parts.

 

Than its time to cut the under side parts and renew them with styrene with the wheel casings to the back.

The next job is to close the headlights and make new ones at a lower point.

The headlights will be the square ones instead of the round ones.

Also the  window style in the window frame has to be removed and will be changed to a smaller one.

The windshield will be inside the frame and not behind it like the kit version.

After some putty and sanding i renewed also the rubber of the windowframe and afcourse the new revets.

Here is the tool i use for the new revets, a piece of tape with some distance lines so that the revets have the same distances.

In the beginning i counted the 0,6mm rivets but after a while i stopped with counting.

I guess there will be around 450 till 500 rivets each cabine.

Also the wall on the backside has to be modefied to the newer version, just like i see or saw on my reference pictures.

Than the modefication on the chassis.

The chassis stay the same way and dont need any cuts.

Just remover the parts wath i marked in red......

On the front axle i removed the part where you have to glue the power steering.

This power steering unit will be on the front of the chassis, and i had to make a new spacer for it.

A new straight crossbar at the end of the chassis, and 2 casings or holds for the rear lights.

The fuel tanks extended on both sides and the exhaust tower a little bit modefied.

And than.....than with the cabine to see the fittings.

Now its time to make the engine and make a new exhaust with a flexible part, what is made out of styrene.

The engine becomes a turbo and an airbox on the engine.

I saw this type of engine on an auction site, where they sell a few of these Freightliners.

The exhaust pipe is made out of 9,7mm styrene tube and the pipe in the upper is a polished aluminium pipe.

As last, i sprayed some primer to see the result so far......

Ok guys, thats it for today and i hope you find this an interesting project.

To be continued.

 

Hermann.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2018 by Hermann Kersten

[drinkone2]

Very nice work on the conversion! Remaking all of those rivets had to be a pain but they look great. That front bumper looks like it will be a challenge.

[jacobus]

so there is one

nr two i wil posted also

its fun to have a duobuild

great to do

jacobus

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Very nice work!!

[landman]

16 minutes ago, DRIPTROIT 71 said:

Very nice work!!

X2

[vincen47]

Excellent progress on a very unique model.

[Mopar - D]

Awesome build your doing here with Jacobus. Looking forward to seeing more of your progress. 

[Hermann Kersten]

Thanks for your comments gentlemen.

On ‎9‎-‎10‎-‎2018 at 12:28 PM, Mopar - D said:

Awesome build your doing here with Jacobus. Looking forward to seeing more of your progress. 

Yes Jim, to smash the rivets with the Punch & Die set, is a long process, for attaching them its a fairly easy and quick job.

 For the front bumper It doesn't  look too complicated, but we shall see.

 

Ok guys, after i got a privat mail, there was a little comment on this build.

The recommendation was that the bottomside of the doors were not round enough, and tat this newer model hat there was a door frame around the doors.

I knew this before, but was too affraid to danage more than doing good.

 

Well......after some thinking, i give it a try anyway, because the cabine is not painted yet, and i want to have the cabine as realistic as possible.

As you will guess, the doors and door frames are now adjusted to the newer version, first I stripped the primer from the cabin, have sanded away the old door frame, rounded the bottomside of the doors and attached a new doorframe with a 0,25mm x 0,5mm styrene-strip and after all this work i sprayed the cabine in the primer again.

The result of this work..............

 

Now make everything smooth for the paintjob.

I already had a color in mind, and I sprayed a test on an old cabine.

The cabine is sprayed on a grey primer, and the flat piece of plastic is sprayed on a red primer.

With the grey primer, the colour looks more alive than with the red primer.

After all, im doubting again, maybe a brown bronze is more beautiful than this one.

Freightliner FLA Brown Bronze

I will test again hahahaha.

Ok guys, this is it for today and I would say, see you next round.

 

Hermann.

 

[gotnitro?]

Beautiful work 

[SpreadAxle]

Outstanding work so far

[olsbooks]

WOW!  Your craftsmanship never ceases to amaze.

Peace.

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Excellent! The doors do look better!

[Hermann Kersten]

On 15-10-2018 at 5:17 PM, gotnitro? said:

Beautiful work 

Thank you Jeff.

On 18-10-2018 at 6:16 AM, SpreadAxle said:

Outstanding work so far

Thank you Ray.

On 19-10-2018 at 2:48 AM, olsbooks said:

WOW!  Your craftsmanship never ceases to amaze.

Peace.

Thanks JC.

On 21-10-2018 at 1:11 AM, DRIPTROIT 71 said:

Excellent! The doors do look better!

Yes Brian, in retrospect, this job was not that bad or hard, but it gives this Freightliner a more realistic look.

Afterall i'm glad i changed it.

 

And today a new progress.

The battery box and the lubrifiner are now placed, for the battery box I had to make 2 brackets with a platform on which the battery box is mounted.

For the lubrifiner i had to make a new one, a smaller one in diameter because i saw on several pictures, that this smaller lubrifiner is placed behind the front wheel.

After the lubrifiner and the bracket was done, i put everything in place.

Than the most difficult part........choosing a colour.

After looking at many Freightliner pictures, I chose the bronze color, not a show truck, but just a workhorse.

I found this one of the most beautiful colors for this freightliner and found this to fit nicely with the time frame.

I would say, judge you yourself .

And the headlights that are still loose, because I still have to edit them with a Molotow liquid chrome marker.

I noticed that it is difficult to get metallic paint well in the picture, in reality it looks smoother,  or rather, less coarse , than the pictures show.

Ok folks, that's it for today and until the next round .

Source: purplewave.com

Hermann.

 

 

[gatorincebu]

 

   Herman,

               your skill level is way up there. And your attention to detail is outstanding. nice work on this project thus far !

 

 

   Be Well

     Gator

 

[PettyKW43]

I am so impressed with the rivit detail on the cab as well as the conversion to a set back front axel, following these two builds close , great job gentlemen! I have had thoughts of doing one for years but not a lot of reference material till nowadays!

[Chariots of Fire]

I know you spent a lot of time making rivets.  Did you know that Archer makes rivet decals?  They are raised dots on clear decal paper.  They come in a variety of patterns and can be trimmed to any length.  I used some on a previous project.  They need to be placed on primer so that you don't lose the detail.  They come in two sizes, HO and O.  I used the O guage size (1/48) for my 1/25 scale model.  They are actually made for model railroads but they work well with trucks too.

[Sergey]

Hello, Herman!

Great work! Do you plan to make new grill for this project?

[CRUSADER2]

Its looking good, another interesting project, great work as always Hermann

[Ken Gilkeson]

your work is amazing

[Hermann Kersten]

Thanks for the nice comments guys!

On 28-10-2018 at 11:33 PM, PettyKW43 said:

I am so impressed with the rivit detail on the cab as well as the conversion to a set back front axel, following these two builds close , great job gentlemen! I have had thoughts of doing one for years but not a lot of reference material till nowadays!

Just give it a try Richard, and maybye this build will be a help for you.

On 30-10-2018 at 8:30 PM, Chariots of Fire said:

I know you spent a lot of time making rivets.  Did you know that Archer makes rivet decals?  They are raised dots on clear decal paper.  They come in a variety of patterns and can be trimmed to any length.  I used some on a previous project.  They need to be placed on primer so that you don't lose the detail.  They come in two sizes, HO and O.  I used the O guage size (1/48) for my 1/25 scale model.  They are actually made for model railroads but they work well with trucks too.

I know the Archer rivets, but i prefer to do it this way, i I have the P&D set anyway.

On some forums I also saw that some times things go wrong with the Archer decals, especially with painting the cabine.

Edges or the whole decal strip coming loose while painting the cabine.

With this method i'm more secure, also when i have to strip the cabine if i make a mistake with painting the cabine.

On 30-10-2018 at 8:38 PM, Sergey said:

Hello, Herman!

Great work! Do you plan to make new grill for this project?

Yes Sergey, and also the small grill above the big one, all will be modefied.

 

Aaand we continue.

Today i show you the modification of the side windows.

The glassware in the AMT kit consists of one entire unit.

For this model i cut out the windshield because the windshield will be placed inside the window frame and not behind it.

For the side windows i used a 0,5mm thick transparent and a 1mm thick styrene plate to make the window frames on the sides.

After the frames have the correct sizes, the right one in the picture, i glue the transparent, what has the same size as the window frame, behind this window frame.

And inside the cabine together with the higher seats like the real one....

After this job i make the new center support for the windscreen, this center support has to be more narrow than the old one.

After this one i modefied the sun visor, the white one is from the AMT kit and the grey one is the modefied one.

Than the start of the side fenders with the supports.....

And as last, the CTM headlights, the square indicators and the and the black painted wheel spacers

Next update i show you the windshield and the how to do tutorial.

Thats it for today and see you next round.

 

Hermann.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Hermann Kersten

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Looks pretty Awesome!! Top notch Work!!

[Hermann Kersten]

Thank's for your comment Brian!

 

Ok guys, today a small update from this Freightliner.

Today I show you the modification of the transparent part of the AMT kit.

From this glass part i cut out the windshield, what will be placed inside the window frame.

 

The side windows are made out of 0,5mm thick transparent styrene.

Than some small details, like  the registration number for the weighbridges, at the front of the cab, and the windshield placed for a fit.

Then it's time to start with the cabin for Koos.

First of all i had to smoothen the roof and sides before i start with the rivets.

Than i made the double steps for this and the single steps for my cabine, and with this photo I also show how the inner roof is modified.

In the absent of the AMT glass part I have to make a replacement of the glass thickness, wich is the inner roof.

And the single steps for my cabin, which are already painted and attached to the cabine..

That's it for today, and see you next update.

 

Hermann.

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2018 by Hermann Kersten

[PettyKW43]

Your conversion work is spot on ! The only thing that needs attention is switching the White Freightliner emblem , the cab conversion you have done puts it well past White truck’s involvement with Freightliner, although you could say that the owner of the truck backdated his emblems! Absolutely no criticism of your work, I am austruck with this build!

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Looks Amazing!!

[Hermann Kersten]

Hello fellow builders !

 

On 20-11-2018 at 11:04 PM, PettyKW43 said:

Your conversion work is spot on ! The only thing that needs attention is switching the White Freightliner emblem , the cab conversion you have done puts it well past White truck’s involvement with Freightliner, although you could say that the owner of the truck backdated his emblems! Absolutely no criticism of your work, I am austruck with this build!

I didn't notice this, but i will see what i can do or change it to a normal Freightliner emblem.

Thanks for the remark Richard!

 

Yes gents, today i show you some small progress on this one.

The windshield is finally placed and with a styrene strip of 1mm hemisphere, I glued ithis center strip of the windowframe on the windshield.

Than i placed the modefied sunvisor on the roof, it is not on the cabine glued yet, for the looks.

The next job was to make the side fenders of the cabine.

I made them out of 0,5mm styrene plates, and glued them together so that the top could be curved or rounded.

When the glue is hardened than the curve will remain.

After all is hardened and cleaned, than it's time for the paintjob and the attaching of the tax stickers.

For this model i put the tax stickers on the fenders because  I saw this regularly with the real ones .

The handlebars on the innerside and outside of these fenders, will be mounted later on.

 

Now it's time to make the frontgrill and the bumper.

Ok guys, this was it for today and until the next round!

 

Hermann.

 

Edited March 9, 2019 by Hermann Kersten