Trailer Tales!

For me this build is advancing quickly - if you discount the work I did 23 years and 2 years ago! The wheels have had their centers painted in chassis colour and added to the axles with their end caps. 

Whilst painting the wheel centers I also painted the axle end caps, the number plate mount, the grills for the refrigeration unit on the trailer body and the door latches. 

The spare wheel has been added to its carrier and the chassis is now mainly finished. There are a few minor jobs to do including fitting the number plate mounting, the king pin that the fifth wheel on the tractor unit engages to pull the trailer and I also need to paint in the rear lights.

On the body itself, the refrigerator unit and pipes were painted silver before the grills that had been sprayed grey were fitted with a few spots of super glue. 

I just need to add the latches to the rear doors and think about whether I risk using the original 23 year old decals that are likely to break up on application as they are so old or do I come up with an alternative decoration? However at this point it is looking good - to me anyway!

A lot of paint!

I have started the Italeri Scania Cool Fruits Time Machine build with getting the trailer sorted out. Having had a closer look at the chassis there were a few parts broken off and a few remaining to be attached. Luckily the box had all the necessary parts! Result! The backing plates for the brakes were added together with the rear under-run bar that had broken off. Oddly for now, but I guess not at the time of the kits release, there are no side underrun bars to prevent vehicles from going under the trailer in a side swipe accident. I am not adding any - the kit will be built as intended back in 1999 which makes it nice and simple for me!

The chassis was sporting a rather matt and somewhat poorly applied coat of blue paint so it needed sorting out. As Mrs. Woody was out the chassis migrated into the kitchen for a pre painting wash to get rid of 23 years of dirt and dust. As Mrs. Woody would no doubt point out it might have been useful if I also cleaned the kitchen but as Mr. Beecham - he of modelling and cycling prowess - called round I had the perfect excuse to leave the kitchen well alone! 

On the departure of Mr. B the chassis was taken to the WMD HQ spray shop where I was surprised to use a full jar of Tamiya gloss blue paint to cover the original paint. I guess the trailer chassis being a shape with so many small surfaces means a lot of paint is wasted in over spray. However eventually I got a finish that I was reasonably happy with and I then added a coat of Tamiya clear gloss just to give a bit more shine. 

Next step is to paint the wheel centers in blue - luckily I have another jar of paint in stock - and then get them attached to the chassis (although looking at the photos I am not so sure I previously assembled the wheels properly but that will become evident when I look closer tomorrow)  after which it will be time for looking at the body. In the mean time I better at least do some cleaning of the kitchen before Mrs. W gets back.

Back in 1999 the Italeri Scania Cool Fruits!

Back in 1999 when I started to get serious about building truck kits I bought this then newly released Italeri kit for what they termed as the Scania tractor unit with Cool Fruits trailer. I started building it but for a number of reasons that must have made sense at the time it got put back in its box partly built. There is a complete engine although in my then engine colour of choice, red - the internet was new then with little information and I had no idea that Scania engines are green! The cab is built and sprayed in Humbrol metallic blue - the only widely available range of paints and the only one that I knew of then with metallic colours in its range. The chassis is mostly built but needs finishing. The trailer - well that is a story! The chassis is just about done. I built the body but for reasons probably related to box size, Italeri make the sides, roof and floor in two parts for each component. That gives a rather awkward joint to smooth in the middle of what, apart from the floor, should be flat panels. I recall having issues getting a smooth join and I also recall the body falling apart, probably because I dropped it. That may well have been the point that the parts were packed together back in the box. Certainly when I ventured in the box a couple of years ago the trailer body was back in its separate two parts for the sides, roof and floor. In 2020 I started to rebuild the body. I got as far as constructing it and getting the joints relatively smooth and some white paint on it. It then sat on a shelf whilst the rest of the kit sat in its box. Well now is the time to finish it some 23 years after starting it! The parts are in the Man Cave so hopefully it will now get the attention it deserves.

Over the next few days I will be uncovering just how bad, or maybe good, my modelling skills were back in 1999 so this build will be a bit of a time machine journey. Hopefully nothing will be so bad as to require a full rebuild but as they say never say never!