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Cab construction
Once the main chassis compenents have been fitted we move onto the cab construction and is often the case with trucks and cars we are faced with the dilemma of how to approach painting the interior. Unfortunately, Zvezda have not helped us with this task! They have designed the cab roof to join just behind the screen where there is not actually a joint on the real vehicle (so far as I could determine) Masking the joint after painting the interior would not be my preferred plan of attack so I figured that issue would need to be addressed first.
I have built the Zvezda L4500 S with the wooden cab so a fair amount of parts on this kit are identical. You got both the metal and wooden cab with that kit and as I had built this cab previously, I employed the same method of construction with this kit.
To be able to get decent access to the cab interior with the
airbrush and add the instrument decals the cab needs to be built in two
halves. The windows on mine will be left
off until the cab is painted. I started by building up the rear section,
cementing the floor and cab rear together. I left off both the seat and seat
back until both parts had cured to avoid any potential interference. There are
a couple of tabs on the inside of the rear panel to line up to the floor and it
is important to make sure the lower points of the rear panel sit at the same
height as the bottom of the floor moulding. I found out in my earlier build this
positioning is critical for getting the best overall alignment of the cab, and more so
if building with the doors shown closed.
Once dry the front panel and roof can then be attached to one another. Whilst curing I dry fitted them to the rear section already built up with masking tape to ensure the roof dried at the right angle. Once fully cured the any joint line can be easily cleaned up and masked. Once dry the dash panel can be fitted.
The main issue with the whole cab assembly, I found, is with
the doors. They do require some trimming to sit well in the closed position and
any paint added will make this even worse such are the fine tolerances of the
fit. The sprue gate position on the door
parts is awkward to clean up as they are positioned right over the intersection
of outer skin and inner body. If you wish to model the kit with the cab doors closed
a great deal of trimming and test fitting will be required to get a good
overall fit. I dry fitted my front and
rear cab assemblies together with the doors with masking tape. Much test fitting was made before I was happy to proceed
In step 22 you are to attach the steering box and column to the chassis at the same time as you add the completed cab assembly. This is fine if you follow the instructions as the steering wheel can easily be fitted to the column inside the cab as the roof top part is still unattached. This also allows you to complete the steering link assembly in step 22
As I had adopted a different approach my solution was to cut the column off just above the steering box, drill both pieces and insert a piece of copper wire. This way I could attach the steering box to the chassis, complete the steering link assembly and still be able to line the column up once the cab was painted and completed. Using my method of cab construction the steering wheel will still need to be cemented to the column inside the cab after it has been pushed through the bulkhead as the roof I had connected to the front panel will obstruct the fitment if connected together. To aid painting the steering wheel in its final resting place I dry fitted the cab to the chassis and with the aid of the copper wire attachment to the steering box, was able to determine the wheel location in the cab. I then added a spot of Blu-Tak to the column as it passed through the bulkhead to hold it in place for painting.
As already mentioned the engine assembly will not locate in the engine bay once the cab is fitted so the chassis so if you wish to paint the engine separately you will also have to leave the cab assembly off.
Radiator, engine panels & fenders
In my last L4500 s build I displayed the vehicle with the bonnet/hood completely removed but this time I planned on only removing the top half of the driver’s side panel. This meant that the radiator housing, bonnet/hood and bulkhead all needed to line up neatly. Making this an altogether more difficult task was that both fenders also locate to points on both the chassis, cab floor and engine side panels.
The instructions have you adding the fenders to both the chassis and cab floor after the cab is fitted to the chassis. In leaving the cab assembly unattached for painting this meant I would now attach the bonnet/hood, engine side panels and the radiator housing together to ensure a good fit.
Attaching the strengthening bar to the underside of the bonnet/hood first, I then cemented it to the cab front assembly (bulkhead). Once dry I added both engine side panels and finally the radiator housing making sure that all parts sat at the correct angles. Once this now bigger sub assembly was dry I test fitted the engine for any clearance issues. All appears to fit well.
As for how the engine sits in the bay pay particular attention as to how the rear of the engine locates onto the chassis. There are two location slots, but they will require widening to get the engine to sit flush on the crossbeam. This is a particularly important step as if the engine sits too high it will interfere with the cab assembly.
With the engine snugly located in the engine bay the front cab assembly was test fitted to the chassis. As with the previous L4500S build the tab at the rear of the block needed trimming and also the top of the gearbox needed shaving a little to get the cab to fit on its two forward location brackets. Happy that all looked to fit well and that the steering column located into the steering box I could now position the front fenders to the chassis. The cut out for the steering box outer arm on the driver’s side fender needed widening on my kit but once addressed the underside cut out makes positioning them easy.
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