MAN Truck Washes & Filters

Not much progress only a couple of filters and pin washes have gone on this week. A few more need to be added before I'm happy with the effects but it's getting there. 

MAN Truck More Signage

I've now finished off the last two signs and the one for the front cab. I first sprayed a piece of plastic card with NATO green then glossed before adding the decals. Once dry these were carefully cut out and then added to the model. The front sign had a small frame built up behind it using plastic strip. 

Next will be quite a few layers of filters and washes as well as some oil work on the cargo bed.

MAN Truck Gloss & Decals

A gloss coat has now gone on followed by the kit decals. These are OK although the registration plates are a little on the big side. The addition of decals to the fuel tanks really adds a bit more colour and interest to the model as well. Final decals need to go onto some mounting boards so I will use plastic card for this and add them later.  

MAN Truck In NATO Colours

 I've now got the camo colours on the model after adding a slight bit of fading to the green. I started with XF 69 NATO black with a drop or two of white added then used XF 68 NATO brown again with white added. Once the pattern was on I then started to tighten the pattern and get rid of any overspray. I then finally added more white to the brown and added this as a highlight. 

Some of the detail painting has also been done, mostly the wheels, cab and the anti slip patches on the fuel tanks. Before any more painting goes on I'll give everything a gloss coat as the model needs a lot of handling, this will stop any or accidental wear of the paintwork.

MAN Truck Paint Time!

With the primer curing much faster than expected tonight I've just put down the initial base colours for the camo scheme. First was a coat of tamiya XF 78 wooden deck tan on the truck cargo bed. Once that is dry I'll mask then finish off painting the rest of it. 

Next I mixed tamiya XF 67 NATO green with a good slug of XF 71 cockpit green for a nice faded shade of NATO green. Finally straight XF 71 was used for the fuel tanks, pump assembly and assorted other small parts. 

MAN Truck Primed

I've now given the model a blast of mr finishing surfacer 1500 black which has really popped the details. This will cure for a day or two now before I start the painting. 

MAN Truck Time For Primer!

With the last small pieces added to the model and a quick scan through the instructions to make sure I've not missed anything it's now ready for a good wash before primer goes on. I thought this build would take me longer due to the many small parts and complexity of some stages. However I really got into the kit so have knocked it out in record time!  

MAN Truck Cargo Bed

Now working on the cargo bed and sides for this. A fair bit of cleanup is needed here and the inner faces of the cargo sides need a bit of filler to correct some very funny depressions. Once all cleaned up they all fit as they should so I'm now adding the smaller parts to them. As you can see the plan is to display this with three sides lowered which looks to be the standard practice in reference pictures I've seen. 

This also shows off the very nice details of the fuel tanks and the pump assembly as well as allowing me to show the fuel nozzle hooked into one of the rear grab handles. Only a bit more work now and some cleaning up of smaller parts so I might get this washed and ready for primer at some point this weekend. 

MAN truck Fuel Tanks & Pump

I've been busy assembling the pump and hose assembly for the truck bed over the last couple of days. This little unit is a kit in itself coming in at about 85 parts! A lot of clean up is required though but with a bit of patience and lots of test fitting the unit is now done bar a few parts which will be added after painting. 

The fuel tanks are pretty easy in comparison but look good on the truck bed. Talking of which I've been looking at many pictures and the actual bed is made up of wood which is not painted in the vast majority of examples I've seen. So I will leave the tanks, pump unit and associated pipework off until I have painted the bed in a suitable wood colour or colours.   

MAN Truck New Wheels

My replacement DEF wheels arrived today so here they are test fitted to the model, they look really good and are much better than the kit items. Lots done on the cab area which is now finished and the exhaust and pipework is also fitted. Next will be the fuel tanks and associated assemblies. 

MAN German Fuel Truck Progress

The build is going very well with almost all of the lower areas complete with just a few parts to add after painting and wheel fitting. Working now on the cab and fuel tanks and I'm loving the detail of the kit, much better than the old Revell versions of this truck family. 

The fuel tanks will get a quick blast of primer just to check the seam lines have been sanded down properly & hopefully once these are assembled I can add as a sub assembly after painting. I've also ordered some DEF replacement resin wheels as they are a better option than the kit supplied rubber items. 

Hobbyboss LKW 5t MIL GLW Fuel Truck

My next project is this rather smashing kit from Hobby boss comprising of the standard German army 5 tonne 4x4 truck with a fuel pod in the cargo bay. So far construction has focused on the nicely detailed chassis which really has taken no time at all to assemble. The plan is to build this in subsections to make painting easier. Depending on the fit I may even leave the cab parts separate and paint it all in one go instead of painting the cab as I build and mask it later.

 

AFV Club Scimitar Complete

With a simple base completed today that's the Scimitar project all finished. I've really enjoyed this one and with the addition of the scorpion models update sets I've finally got a nice early 2000's era vehicle for my collection.

Probably not my last CVR(T) project as I now have a hankering to do a scorpion at some point.