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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 no joint on the real vehicle (so far as I could determine) appeared. 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 paint the cab interior and add the instrument decals the cab ideally needs to be built in two halves. I preferred in this case to leave the screen and all the cab windows off rather than mask them, until the cab is painted.
I started the cab construction by building up the rear section, cementing the floor and rear panel 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 crucial for getting the best overall alignment of the cab, and critical if building with the doors closed.
I found the main fit issue with the whole cab assembly concerns the doors. They are a little oversized and do require some trimming to sit well if placing them in the closed position. The door parts are connected to the sprue gate right over the intersection of both outer skin and inner body making clean up far more of a challenge than it should be!
If you wish to model the kit with the cab doors closed I would recommended dry fitting them before both the front and rear assemblies of the cab are fixed permanently. I found a great deal of trimming and test fitting was required to the doors before all cab components fitted precisely.
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 cab roof part is still shown unattached. This also allows you to complete the steering link assembly in step 22
My cab assembly approach meant adopting a different solution. I ended up cutting the steering column just above the steering box. I then drilled both pieces and inserted a piece of copper wire in the upper half so they could be aligned perfectly when the time came. This way I could thread the upper part of the column through the bulkhead allowing me to attach and paint the steering wheel in the cab.
It is worth noting the engine assembly will NOT locate in the engine bay after the cab assembly is fitted to the chassis. So, if you wish to paint the engine separately you will have to add the cab assembly after it.
Radiator, engine panels & fenders
In my last L4500 S build I displayed the vehicle with the bonnet completely removed but this time I planned on only removing the top half of the driver’s side panel. This means that the radiator housing, bonnet and bulkhead must all line up neatly. Making this an altogether more difficult task is that both fenders locate to points on three different parts; the chassis, cab floor, and engine side panels.
The instructions have you add the fenders to both the chassis and cab floor after the cab is fitted to the chassis. As I had left the cab assembly seperate to paint, this would allow me to attach the bonnet, engine side panels, and the radiator housing together and ensure a good square fit.
Attaching the strengthening bar to the underside of the bonnet first, I then cemented it to the engine side of the bulkhead. Once dry, I added both engine side panels and finally the radiator housing, making sure that all parts sat at the correct angles. I then test fitted the engine to the chassis and added this new sub-assembly to check for any clearance issues.
To ensure a nice square, flush fit of the engine onto the chassis pay particular attention to both front and rear fixing points. There are location slots, but I garuntee they will require widening a little. This is a particularly important 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 kit I built a little plastic required removal from both parts to ensure a good fit of the cab onto the chassis. To get the cab to fit on it's two forward location brackets a little plastic requires removal from both the tab at the rear of the engine block and also the top of the gearbox
Happy that all fitted well so far 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 it made positioning them far easier.
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