Ag-Chem Rogator 854 Sprayer Project

[Izzy]

Very fine detail and modeling skills ..... Hats off to ya! I am yet again blown away at the brass work......very nice indeed.....

[rc_farmer]

How ya coming on ya Gator, Dan?

[twotoots2]

Thanks again everyone! Sorry about the delay in not posting progress..... Here are some finish up pics of the cab project.

[twotoots2]

Here are some pics of the chassis bodywork, paint and final assembly including the hydraulics. The project is mostly complete at this point with the exception of the booms.

[Snochaser]

KA-RAZY!!!!!!!!! Excellent job!

[mazdaparts]

Holy crap that looks amazing. Nice work.

[twotoots2]

Thanks again guys!!!

The custom decals from Mark Wikner arrived. The quality is very good. They are the peel and stick variety. I had LOTS and LOTS of trouble with the RoGator hood decals. Luckily I had lots of extras made up, I needed them! It was almost impossible to get a perfect line. They still are not perfect, but good. I have an extra set if I decide to re-do the hood.... Overall, I'm thrilled! The RoGator can now live up to it's namesake!!! A big first in this 4 month long model building mission.



This rig just SCREAMS AgChem RoGator!!!


The AgChem logo and the new headlight assemblies really set off the front end and grille nicely.


Was even able to replicate the "custom" hood arrow stripe I taped onto the real hood. Gives the rig a little more sportiness!


An oversize decal which I used for the door. Its basically a dealership sticker, like you see on autos.


The liquid measurement gauges turned out fantastic!



Extra AgChem logos were used to spruce up the plastic fenders. These were where the real ones were stuck on. I want to replace the real fenders on mine so they look this nice!


The bulk of the day was spent plumbing the various tanks on the sprayer. First I painted the valves, then ran lines to the appropriate locations. Though all this looks like a big mess of spaghetti, The routing from the pump, pump tree to various output points closely duplicate the same routing on the real rig as can be practically done on a 1/16th model. This satisfies the early project goal of keeping the sprayer plumbing accurate and authentic. Not to brag, but this model could be a teaching aid to illustrate the sprayer plumbing.... : Anyways, I'm happy. Spent lots of hours, until 1:00AM finishing that project.

Here are a couple of views of the underneath side. I'm thrilled that this mess of lines looks like this, organized chaos and clutter, just like the real machine!



The inductor (used to bottom load chemical into the product tank) is finished, just needs polished.




Spent several hours on the foam marker tank to get it finished up. First thing was to super polish the old tarnished finish. Afterwards, I waxed it to slow the re-oxidation process. Used 5 min epoxy to fill the big hole in the top end, then re-sized it to accomodate the valve. Also constructed the little left/right selenoid valves (11 valves used on yesterday's plumbing project.). Mounted it in the cradle and added the water level indicators to finish up.



All this effort pushes the project closer to the boom fabrication phase. I really didn't think it would have taken two months to detail, paint, and finish detail the chassis! ??? And its still not done, but lots closer. Next up is building a replacement exhaust system since I lost the original, and re-engineering a new cab-to-frame mounting system. With the exception of a few minor tasks, the chassis is almost completely finished up!

[Rogue]

Absolutely jaw=dropping I just don't know what else to say.

[Trucker Al]

WOW!, Fantastic build......

[Dreamweaver]

Come on now.. Those are pictures of the real one with a little Photoshoping...

This turned out excellent. I commend you on the amount of detail and realism you accomplished.

-Mike

[Tamiya Cowboy]

Your detail and building skills are just amazing work!

[rc_farmer]

That is absolutely amazing. You captured it down the finest details.

[doodlebug]

Hey Dan, Look's great!
Talk to your sticker guy, every time I have vinyl put on my truck and equipment, they spray some liquid on first. And that give's time to line them up, and a pass with the squeege set's them in place. No I don't remember what's in the spray bottle. Hope this help's in the future. Later, Neil#2 aka doodlebug.

[Operator]

Thats the real deal there! Nice!

I grew up in Benson,Mn. I welded at LOR-AL back in the yearly 90's, before AG-CHEM bought them out. I was making AIR MAX booms and boxes then. I then welded at Tyler for a few years after high school, before Case bought them out. There I was on Patriot frames, Hyd tanks, and Flex Air booms. My mom still works there, she has been there since 1971.

I can really appreciate what you have done here, having see many, many of these built from scratch at full scale.

Matt

Benson, home of the Moonwalk.

[SmallHaul]

Awesome machine, great work!

[SonoranWraith]

Stunning build for sure. Really nice detail work.

[steamer]

The Greatest satisfaction of building a detailed model like that, is sitting back with your feet up admiring your own handy work. It's truly a museum model in every way.
Rob

[satchellm]

WOOOOOOOOW that is amazing! good on you.

[Espeefan]

Very nice. The detail is amazing! It's pretty much a master piece in my eyes. Great work. Just incredible.

[holland trucker erik]

Wooooow

Erik