Atlas RS3 conversion to a D&H RS3
To see the finished model click here
Several small items must now be addressed before the final assembly can take place. The battery boxes must be removed from the old nose section. I do this by using the back edge of an Exacto blade to score a cut at roughly a 45Deg. angle in the corner where the top of the battery box meets the side of the hood. Once I have established a good break line I use a pair of flush cut nippers to make a cut from the bottom of the shell up to the break line I scored at the front of the box. This will allow the battery box to come free and it should have enough material left on it for filing off to get a tight fit. To install these I carefully filed off the extra material from the cutting process to ensure a good tight fit. A little super glue will bond these nicely into place. At this time I also glue in the horn into the holes on the long hood in the section between the cab and the dynamic brake housing. I do this as I need two small pieces of styrene to fill in the holes and the horn has these pieces. When the glue is dry I simply cut off the horn and sand down the area to smooth it out.
The next thing that needs addressing is the body work. I filled the gap at the top of the cab between the roof and the head light assemble as well as the two back windows that were blocked off on the prototype. When I filled these windows on the last few that I did, I used the old glass pieces to back the area that needed filling. When I went to do this particular model I could not locate the window section anywhere, so I backed the area with a small piece of styrene. When the putty was dried I sanded it smooth and then applied a second coat as the putty I use has a tendency to shrink a bit. This will allow the second sanding to give a smooth surface. I used sandpaper up to a 400 grit to finish off these areas. Of course I found the window section just after I put the putty in.
Now that the body work is done, it is time to do the final assembly work. As I was looking through my notes from my last builds I noted that I removed the two "arms" from the long hood that I left on page one. I did not have any information as to why I left them on some of the past builds, so I figured they were not needed. I did, however, leave the small step area where the cab mounts to the hood as this is a good glue up surface to mate these parts. When I glued up the two parts I clamped them with a couple of clothespins to ensure they were aligned properly while the glue dried. I used ordinary styrene solvent (model Glue) to do this. Careful observers will also notice something else here. I forgot to remove the side numberboards form the short hood before I assembled everything together as I normally do. I did this just before I did the final glue up. A file is all I used to remove this then clean up the area with a piece of fine sandpaper.
While the glue is drying on the hood section I turned my attention to the walkway section. Since the kit hood is shorter than the stock hood there is a very small gap that needs to be filled just in front of where the nose meets the walkway. I shaped a small piece of styrene to fit in this area. Do not make this part too big as it will interfere with the worm gear tower on the truck. When the hood is mounted there is only a small sliver showing so texturing this area to match the tread on the walkway is not important.
Now that the glue on the hood is dry it is time to paint. I first sprayed all of the metal parts with primer. This is an important step that I learned from the first model I built. Most model paint sticks just fine to styrene with out any primer. In fact I do not recall too many times where I ever put primer over the plastic. However, it is important to put it over the metal castings. The paint will come off in sheets from the metal if it is not primed. Once the primer has dried I spray the model with a base coat of white to ever everything out.
When the white paint has dried I covered the entire model in red since this will be done as a bicentennial unit. After the red has dried, I masked off the section to remain red and applied the blue. When I mask the color separation line it is fairly straight forward except for the ends. In order to get the curves right I made up a couple of templates that I use to cut out my masking tape.
The red paint I use is Signal Red and the blue is D&H Avon Blue. I am not sure these colors are right, but I think they look close enough to me to match the pictures I have seen.
Next we will do the decals and add the finishing details