ZIL 4906 (4)

And a happy new year.
Hopefully a lot better than last year.
On we go with the Zil.

It now is detail work, but we started with placing the outer layer of the cabin over the insides.
Originally it is one piece but I noticed some small deviations in the fitting. When one side was fitting well, the other didn't fit at all. I guess it was because a tiny torque in the frame. If it only is slightly off, the parts start to have a bad fit. This one was easy to solve, however.
I cut the skin in three parts: the backside and two halves for the sides.

It caused the middle to be not clad with the outer skin but I knew something was to be put on top of it anyway, so I didn't worry about that.

What was a little worse was that even though the fit was better, I had a lot of excess at the corner. It needed to be cut away and I was left with kind of thin frameworks at the corners of the cabin. It will be looking more sturdy after adding the black rubber fittings inside the window sills.

The rear side windows will have hinged windows.

The engine compartment. This will be placed behind the cabin.

Then, the headlights. The kit provides you with printed "shiny" reflector cones for inside of the lamps but the instructions don't tell you to remove the circles in the strip the lights will be. You need to punch them out to get the required depth for the lights. This also means to carefully test fit them to go in between the card board top and bottom layer of the front end of the vehicle.

All headlights eventually got a small circle to close up the back. I used metallic silver coated paper for the lights' reflectors.

The outsides are red or orange reflectors, I presue. The kit lacks these parts, actually. I made these from shiny red metallic paper and I gave the surface a structure like reflectors often have. The outer housings of the headlights got a small piece of plastic to close them up. I glued these with PVA, because CA glue will definitely fog them up inside. After it has dried, you can add tiny drops of CA around the outside rim of the plastic to secure the plastic in place.

The doors of the Zil are on the top of the cabin. These hatches have an inner rim. These need to be carefully placed inside the opening. It requires some tact and patience. 

Here the covers for the frond end of the cabin (which will house certain electrical systems and probably some small equipment but no engine) are ready for placement and one of the hatches also is made. Also, the top section of the cabin is placed here. It has a reinforcement inside the forward facing part and it needs to be folded on the sides, something which is not well shown in the instructions or the parts itself. You have to cut in the sides for about 3mm on both sides and fold it inward. The left-to-right part has two long reinforced strips running the entire length. The top folds over to cover the sides. Again, it is edge glued.

The insides of the hatches is also coloured (the sheet is printed on two sides).

It is all edge glued. Very nice fit. Just be careful with the amount of glue you use. The small grey squares are where the hinges will go later on. They have to face inward.

And it fits very nicely over the hatch openings.

I had to sand down the slots a little for a flush fit of the bonnets.

Instead of using the thin small strips provided for the edges of the bonnets, I just coloured them blue with a pencil. 

A reinforcing X on the top hatch.

One of two fire extinguishers.

At the back of the cabin the air intake and radiator of the engine is placed. In front of it another smaller air intake will come, as well as a kind of radome and an antenna.

I messed up a little with glue here. But most of it will be covered with the hinges of the hatch anyway...

These lights are glue-on half-ball shaped beads with a pearly gloss. I painted them with a transparent orange acrylic. The original lamps in the kit are conical but I thought these looked nicer.

So here is where I am now. Not a lot further but I am not in a hurry.
See you next time!
--PK