Knight Hauler Harley Davidson 100th Anniversary Edition

[SWAGGER]

Hi all,

Well thought I should pop up a thread on my first build. The truck that got me hooked on trucks!

The story behind it is this; I came across these Tamiya kits by chance, browsing the web. After watching a lot of YouTube vids etc I knew I had to have one. I have always been a fan of American cars and trucks. I could not decide on which kit though, they all looked great, but I eventually went with a Knight Hauler. I actually got this in late August 2010 and pretty much built it in a few evenings, just couldn't stop until it was done!!

After further research, I bought an MFU and ball bearing kit and stripped it down and rebuilt it. I didn't want to paint it as I just hadn't got the skill or experience to do the job I wanted. With the winter kicking in, I couldn't even practice painting (outdoors - no workshop) so I put it away.

This summer I took the truck back out and just basically admired it and thought of all the things I could do and modify etc while I practiced painting a few things. I bought a compressor and airbrush and restored a few busted up electric guitars with good results and eventually felt ready to paint the truck.

Next problem, color and theme. This was tough. I just couldn't settle on anything. My girlfriends dad has a 100th Anniversary Harley that he bought in the US and brought home. One day while helping him work on it, he suggested I use the bike as a theme, ie, black and silver with gold pin pinstriping and the 100th Anni badge etc. I immediately loved it and got cracking. I also bought amber flashing beacons from Axles Modelbau in Germany, the Carson mirror and horn set and the Tamiya animal gaurd.

On to the pics:

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I couldn't believe the amount of parts:


Started to sort out the parts bags;


Thought it would help to use a sorter:


Frame assembly:









More to follow..........

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Motor and transmission:




And fitted to the chassis:



Rear end:



And finally, a roller:





At this point, I decided to make some pallets. I made some standard ones and some euro pallets, they are the same length as standard but about two thirds the width. I got the 1:1 dimensions of both and scaled to 1/14. Euro pallets are actually blue, believe it or not. I made a crate too and made them all look pretty rough and well used as opposed to the perfectly straight, fake looking plastic ones I saw for sale. I think they turned out ok:

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And then nearly a year later, the paint process....oh I dreamed of this day. I am very happy with the results. It is not perfect, but as a first attempt, I got the kind of finish that I wanted.

In primer:


Base coat:


Masked up for the silver:


Parts painted but no clear coat:






For the graphics, I found a company online that specialise in RC graphics. They were really helpful. I searched for ages for a Harley font, but could not get it as it is a patented design that was originally done by hand in the old days. What I had to do was get two pages of script (data/code) called a vector so that the guys' plotter could cut it out of vinyl. They did the bar and shield logos for me and the 100th Anni badge also. I know the bar and shield is normally orange and white, but on the 100th Anni badges and bikes themselves, it's all gold and I didn't want to introduce other colours to the overall black, silver and gold scheme.

TADA:




Graphics:






Closeup of the clear, wet sanded to 2500 grit, then buffed for ever with cutting compound, then AutoGlym HD wax and finally, TurtleWax Nano Tech gel wax.


I thought the black mesh for the grille was a bit weak, so I cut some chrome mesh to size. I think it looks way better:



Managed to get a 1/14 scale road map and binder for the dash - cool....

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The last few details I did was was hand paint in all the door jambs, hinges and handles etc, tint out the sleeper windows and add some CB antennas to the mirrors, made from guitar string.

Looking at it now, I don't like the beacons. They were sold as accessories for Tamiya tractor trucks, but to me they look to be 1/10 scale, too big. Also, they use 3V bulbs instead of LEDs and just dont look realistic to me. You don't really get the "rotating" effect, you see each bulb light in sequence. I might stick them on the 1/10 scale Land Rover Defender I bought my dad. It's actually a CC01 Land Cruiser kit modified to take an RC4WD Defender body.
I noticed somebody on here put a link to LED beacons by Pistenking. I had never heard of that site until I came on here. I have already learned loads from this forum. The Pistenking beacons look way better and are cheaper too. I paid 70 odd euro for these ones.....ah well.

For the future, I think I would like to stretch the chassis and paint it and the axles etc and add some more LED's etc. For now though, the next project is a trailer.

All comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks for looking!

[fhhhstix]

Wow you did a fantastic job. The paint came out great you should be real proud of yourself.

Travis

[tc1cat]

Very nice truck. Paint job looks first class! A truck anyone would be proud to own

[SWAGGER]

Thanks very much guys, I really appreciate that, coming from pros it means a lot. I'm even happier with it now!

[6wheelking]

nice paint, how you do your gold pinstrip?

[SWAGGER]

Originally Posted by 6wheelking

nice paint, how you do your gold pinstrip?

Thanks 6wheelking, it was pretty easy really. I hope I can explain it clearly...

The silver stripe is exactly 14mm wide and the gold pin stripe is 2mm wide.
I started out with Tamiya 14mm masking tape and laid it out on the black in exactly the position I wanted the silver stripe to be in the end.

Then, I ran two more lines of tape parallel to that one, one on each side, with a 2mm gap, for the gold pinstripe.

Once that was done, I removed the original centre stripe of tape and was left with a wide stripe of exactly 18mm. Then I masked out everything bar that 18mm gap. The pic above showing the truck in black all masked up, was just before I shot the silver and this is showing the full 18mm stripe.

Once the 18mm of silver was dry, I ran the 14mm tape back down the middle of the silver, again, leaving myself with a 2mm gap down each side, and shot the gold. When that was dry I removed all tape and then wet sanded the lot before clear coat.

I hope that makes sense, if not, let me know and i'll try better to explain it.

To be honest, I would not have achieved such clean lines if not for the airbrush and the Tamiya tape. It's good tape, sticks well without leaving too much residue and doesn't lift too easy unless you want it to. It also gives a really clean line. I just used heavier decorators tape to cover large areas.

I built up all of the colours with a few coats so that I had plenty of room for flattening it without going through. I learned the hard way, but Youtube was full of tips on painting. Spent hours watching vids.

EDIT: Just for reference, it's a Testors compressor with moisture trap and an Aztek airbrush (made by Testors)

[Espeefan]

Beautiful work on the paint! I like that color combination. It looks really sharp. I'd have to agree with you on the rotary beacons. They do look oversized, and a little out of place, sitting on top the airfoil like that. Maybe you should make some brackets and mount them behind the trailing edge of the airfoil, so they can sit perfectly vertical and fit the truck better. I hope you don't mind the suggestion! Just throwing some ideas around. I do like your truck!

[SWAGGER]

Espeefan, of course I don't mind buddy. There is no point showing these things if you are not open to a little constructive criticism. We all have different opinions and tastes. If it were not for different voices in a choir, there would be no harmony. Besides, I was thinking it myself and glad someone agrees, because that just confirms it for me. I know I need to swap them out now for the Pistenkings ones at some point. I think for a while though, I am going to leave it alone and enjoy it as I just finished it a year after I originally bought the kit. Maybe early next year I will tear it down and change a few things. Thanks for your feedback and compliments on the paint.

[FreddyGearDrive]

Now that really came together nice!Super job!
FGD

[Brian in PA]

WoW!!! That looks super! Nice paint scheme. That is one of the best Knight haulers out there.

Brian

[SWAGGER]

Brian, Freddy, thanks very much. That really a means a lot coming from experts.
I'm pretty sure that I am going to stretch this puppy at some point. Defo looks too stumpy to me now after seeing all of the stretched projects on here.

[Car5858]

Fantastic job is the least I can say.

Where did you get the rotating beacon lights?

Carl

[Diesel Demond]

bad ***!!

[SWAGGER]

Thanks Carl, thanks Diesel!

Carl, I got them from Axels Modelbau in Germany. Here:http://www.axels-modellbau-shop.de/k...nge::4870.html

I don't really like them. To me they are 1/10 scale, too big. I want to replace them with the Pistenkings LED ones, 1/16 scale. Much better look and more realistic looking.

[Tamiya Cowboy]

Great looking Truck Nice work!!

[AZLIGHTNING]

You did a Excellent Job! Very well done.