Its 'wheely' great to get the wheels started on the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4! These are slightly different to the wheels which usually come in these kits in that the drive hub is a separate part which actually is a lot better for detail and painting.
The power plan to the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4 kit is now altogether and splendid it looks too! Well I would say that as I built it!
It even fits into the chassis frame. Just temporarily for now as I still need to finish the chassis build and paint it.
Things are moving on!
Time to bring some life and interest to the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4 power plant in the form of some detail painting. The fan is in light grey with a black centre and the various hoses and fan belts are mainly black with a few red parts. I have no idea why they are red apart from the instructions and online photos of real engines show them in that colour! I will be putting a coat of varnish over the various parts before gluing them together.
The engine block and gearbox are now painted in aluminium and very shiny it looks too! Once the paint has dried it will be time to paint some of the detail such as the fan belts and hoses which will bring a bit of contrast to it.
With things a little warmer and the Man cave warmed with the heater on it was time to add some paint to the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4 engine and gearbox as well as the other associated parts. As described before a black undercoat was applied. Once dry, this will be the ideal colour to overpaint with the required aluminium coloured paint.
Whilst I am waiting for the undercoat to dry I got back to some kit construction with the front steering beam axle.
Some more parts added to the Actros MP4 engine lock and gearbox which is almost at the point of being ready for paint. Ironically, given that Italeri moulded the parts in silver, I will need to undercoat it in black so that I can then paint it the aluminium colour that it needs to be! It will look a lot better then the moulded silver colour though!
Whilst the main engine block and gearbox for the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4 kit did not take too long to put together there are, as a highlighted in my last post on this build, about 40 or so additional parts to add. Most of those parts require two to be joined together with the resultant joint line to be smoothed off. For reasons that only Italeri probably know of, they moulded most of the engine parts in a silver type plastic. Whilst it may look a bit realistic if you were not going to paint the model, it makes determining if the joint line is smooth or not almost impossible to do visually. The only real conclusive test is a fingernail. Just run your fingernail over the joint and it will pick up the smallest imperfections.
Anyway, back to the engine and gearbox, and parts have been added making it all look more interesting. There are still parts to add but if you need to glue two parts together you need to let the glue set before you can smooth the joint. It all takes time!
Now, where are the nail clippers?
Engine block time with the build of the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4. Initially, most truck kit engines take shape fairly quickly and with this kit about 6 main parts go together to produce a substantial looking part of the model.
However, there are far more detail parts to go on yet as you can tell from some of the location holes and pins on this closer view of one side of the engine. In fact there are about another 40 parts or so to finish just the engine and all have mould and joint lines to smooth out before they can be fitted. Oh joy!
However, the chassis does look more truck like with that engine block temporarily fitted.
s 2025 draws to a close (and where did that year go?) the chassis of the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4 takes on some interest with the drive axle now in place along with its air bag suspension and the leaf front suspension is also attached.
There were lot of mould lines to clean up and smooth off like these on the front leaf spring.
This always takes time but is worth the effort to build a better model which is probably a proverb that I should take forward to 2026! Talking of which, tomorrow is 2026 so have a Happy New Year, build some models and stay safe!
After yesterdays strange sights, today was much more on stream with the chassis of the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4 kit coming together.
At this stage there is not a lot to show for the work put in but hopefully over the next few days things will become more visually exciting!
It was indeed a day of unusual sights!
First off the sight of a model truck chassis being constructed on the workbench!
It must be about two years since the last one of these appeared on the bench! However the chassis rails have been assembled. Strangely, each side is in two parts which makes it tricky to join them so they are straight and level However, they are now glued and the various cross members and parts that fit in between the chassis rails are coming together.
Second strange sight was seen out on a drive with Mrs. Woody. I may have posted about this some time ago but I am sure that the collection of railway memorabilia in this garden has got bigger and very impressive it is too!
Finally the third strange sight seen on the same journey as the garden above was a herd of deer which suddenly came out of a field hedge and about a dozen of them then crossed the road in front of us, jumped the ditch and headed off into the distance!
I would normally associate deer with being near some wooded areas for cover rather than in the open fields of Lincolnshire but this lot appeared unbothered about needing cover.
A magnificent sight but it was not until we looked at them on the horizon that we saw the stag with some amazing antlers.
Mrs. Woody normally complains about my 'slow' driving but had we been going a bit quicker and arrived a few seconds earlier we could well have had deer's on the bonnet of the car!
Time for a new project? Probably not as I have so many already on the go that need finishing but I have an urge to glue some plastic parts together! So this is the chosen subject that has been sat in the Man Cave for about two years which actually is not that long as most of my kits are decades old!
