Mirror Models Diamond T 968A Cargo Truck WIP #1

Here we go again with another magazine review build, the subject being one of my favourite military vehicles, the Diamond T. During my teens, I had built the Matchbox Diamond T Tank Transporter, and it seemed to wrangle its way to a little corner of my heart. To the point that I recently purchased the Revell release of the said ex-Matchbox rekindle that love of the truck. That was until I got the chance to build the new Mirror Models 1/35th scale Diamond T Cargo Truck, along with the upgrade set for a SMMI review build.

This review build has fortunately turned out to be the ideal project for me to do whilst we are in the process of moving. I can do all of the main construction and leave any painting until the end which should coincide with when we have moved and I have unpacked most of my modelling equipment and set up the new workshop. So, here is where I am up to so far. 

First here is the engine supplied in the kit. Mirror Models have tooled up a nice example with very good detail. This engine looks better then some of the ones you find in the models cars of the 1/24th and 1/25th scales. Supplied on the etched sheet in the kit, is this lovely fan which just need the blades bending before being glued onto the pulley. There is potential for adding extra detail such a hoses and wires, but I will not be doing it on this build.

The front axle is next. As this is a 6X6 truck, naturally it is a driven axle which you can pose in a steered position. It does not mention this in the instructions and the steering arm that mounts on the chassis does have a small tab to locate it in the centre position. What I did was to glue one of the brake drum backplates in position, then using the steering track arm, get the position of the other drum and glue everything in place.

The wheels were all straight forward to assemble, but do not forget to run some glue around the inner joint on the wheel rims. I forgot to do this and still need to do this job. The instruction say to assemble the wheels onto the brake hubs, but I am leaving them off so that the hubs can be added to the axles separately from the wheels. Plus I want to paint the wheels individually to. You will notice there is twelve wheels in the photo, two of them are spare wheels which mount on the headboard of the cargo body.

Last for this posting is the radiator. This just needs a little bit of cleaning up on the joints prior to painting, mainly down the sides of the radiator. Believe or not, this is made up of five separate parts including the cap.

More work has been done since these photos were taken on Friday evening. One thing I have noticed with this kit is the lack of locating pins for the parts. What ones there are, tend to be fairly small and the holes they locate into are not big enough to accommodate them. I have had to drill these holes out slightly in both width and depth. But like the ICM kits I have built in the past, you have to rely on you eyes to ensure the parts are lined up and the right way around when gluing them.

I will post later on this week with further progress of the chassis.

Kit Review Page Updated

Tamiya's great 1/24th scale kit of the Lotus Europa Special has been added to the Kit Review Page of this blog.

On The Move!

Hello to all of you followers of this blog.

I am sorry that things have been very quiet on here for the last few months, but there has been a lot of other things taking priority at the minute. We are in the process of moving home, which we hope will happen by the end of October (fingers crossed). 

Having to get a few things sorted out on the house took priority and my time was diverted away from this great hobby. Now my hobby room has slowly been packed away starting with all of the unbuilt kits that took up 17 boxes, 7 folding crates and 4 large scale models stuck together in 2 bundles. It was whilst doing this that I thought to myself "Why did I buy so many kits!". Packing has continued with my tools and paints being packed away which is now 95% done. Most of my built models are packed to leaving just the ones in the cabinet over the stairs left. 

But there is a brighter outcome to this though!

We are moving to a bigger house with more bedrooms. So my hobby room/workshop will no longer be in the converted loft like in our current house, but in one of the spare bedrooms. No more trying to get my built models through the loft hatch in their boxes for transporting to a show. And there is one this I can tell you, falling out of the loft down the open hatch is not much fun. Especially when you have to repair the step and hatch mechanism afterwards.

This is going to be a big adventure for the family as we are moving from Bedfordshire up to West Yorkshire, to a nice small and quiet town called Hemsworth. Unlike my wife who has liked in several different locations, this will be the first time I have lived outside of Luton in my entire life. But the outlook is that life will be more relaxed up there and once we are settled into the new house, I can get my modelling back on track. There are a few unfinished projects that I would like to get finished off, like my F-15 Eagle and A-10 Thunderbolt to start off with. But the first priority on the model side is to get the new magazine build done, written up and photographed. The kit is the Diamond T Cargo Truck from Mirror Models with their upgrade set. Done a bit on it so far, but time has needed to be spent elsewhere.

So, if there are any of you who happen to live in the same area as we are moving to, let me know and we could possibly meet up at some point in time. Oh yes, another plus. Some new model shows for me to start visiting.