ZIL 4906 [5]

Hi there.
On we go. The cabin is nearing completion and I already started some other segments of the build. I still am very pleased with this. It is a well-made model, everything fits perfectly and looks very good. Nice work, Maxim.
Here's a close-up from the side of the cabin, the build report is below.

So yeah, the top part of the cabin is nearly finished. The antenna in the heightened middle section is added, there is apparently some kind of radome behind it, another sir scoop and the only things left there are the blue flash lights (on the grey circles) and the search lights. Also left to do are the hinges for the top hatches as well as the rear windows. That will come soon.

The rear side windows were a little hard. Small and thin parts, and all of them needed edge colouring. The transparency in between is made from plastic sheet just like the windscreen. The other side of the windows has an inner leather-look lining for inside the cabin.

For now they rest on the top of the cabin. They will get their hinges soon, just like the hatches. Here, as you can see, I also added the hand rails for easy access when you have to climb the vehicle.

Now here's a small and actually little rivet-counting-y mistake in the model. The 49061 (the "salon" version with the crew cabin on the back), has this sloped engine cover, as shown below right. This is because there is a door in the cabin and therefore the engine cover needs to be sloped, otherwise no one can use the door. The 4906 "crane" version I build however, has no such slope in the engine cover. It even is stepped. I designed a new variant and used this one instead of the original version. Sorry, Maxim, I really was planning to build this one out of the box but well, a little study made me decide differently... (-;

Well, and then ther was the main chassis frame structure thingy. Lots of reinforcement needed for lots of parts. It made me curious to see how this all would come together in the end. I started glueing all parts to 1mm thick cardboard. The pizza-boxes from the super market were perfectly right for this. In the past few years I kept a few of the really sturdy ones in my stash of usable paper and card. This isn't ribbed cardboard, but very tightly pressed layers of paper.

all parts cut from the sheets. this already was a little taste of what was about to come.

All glued to cardboard. Now the real cutting starts.

All pieces cut out and a first rough test fit. So this is how it works. Very interesting and well thought through.

Here I have glued it all together. The small strip inside the part between the first and second set of wheels (front is to the right) is for keeping the two halves of the chassis together.

If you were curious about what kind of pizza was in the box; it was a four cheeses fresh non-frozen pizza. I usually add some small pieces of frozen spinach on top, plus some mushrooms I fry up in a pan. But this is not a blog about cooking.

Here is the almost finished frame. The bottom part, a long strip of cardboard still needs to be added. This one will keep the construction lined out straight. That will come when this has dried.

Time for a fit for size. Well, it is going to be a big machine. That is for sure. The cabin's recessed floor snugly fits into the cut- away section in the chassis framework. I left the bottom plate of the cabin off, you can see it in the background at the picture below.

 

It sure is a big machine. It also gives me an indication of how big the Soyuz I am going to add later has to be.

But we're not there yet. So off with the cabin and the rest of the parts. I need to give my hand some rest from all that cutting today.

Which makes me wonder: is there an equation you can use for measuring the amount of callus you get, taking in account the amount and thickness of the paper that you have to cut and the freshness of your knife blade?

Well, that's that.
More next time! Thanks for taking a look.
 
PS. Congratulations to SpaceX for their successful return to flight, deploying all ten Iridium satellites and the first safe landing of a F9 first stage on Just Read The Instructions. I never doubted you guys and girls. You do a great job.

--PK