Back to the roots !

[mad gerald]

I use Zap-A-Gap (CA+) from Pacer (cyanocylate) and Liquid Poly from Humbrol.

... ah ... thanks for feedback

Cutting Evergreen with a scapel is hard and the results can be better for good ajustments and to produce parts at right angles. I'm looking for the proxxon range rather than the Unimat range.

... for cutting (0-45°) - even styrene - I use a Boehler circular saw:
http://www.gw-werkzeuge.de/boehler4.htm

Cheers

[Malachi Constant]

Beautiful assembly work!  All the details ... right down to the little jack stand on the hitch ... fantastic.  -- Dallas

[Bill76]

@Gerald : Proxxon has a circular saw in its range and seems to be perfect for styrene and brass.
@Dallas : This jack is very impotant when the trailer has to be hitch off in the field and the manure is outside. How many times did I stack stones and pieces of wood and the trailer felt down ? Too many times ...

So, there are the first shots of the spreader painted.

The primer coat is a grey panzer color from Tamiya. A good way to prevent from any remaining flaw.
This is my first test with hair spray technique with a airbrush. Not really confident at the beginning. Tha main spot has been to undertsand the process and how to control. Even if I spent many times to read on it, this has been a real challenge after a delicate building.

The final result is to create some effects made with mechanical scraches and wear use with the loaded conveyor.

After grey color, I apply a layer of HS from a spray can directly. I try to control the flow in the corner to be able to work as I want.

Then, a coat of rust color from Citadel and Tamiya acrylics paint. Scaring moment ! Take some warm water and various brushes. Because of my carefully test, thinks get harder that I was expecting and a a strongh brush has been necessary to scrap the paint. No chipping but scratches only. The main thing has been to handle fermely the spreader during this step.

[Bill76]

Next step is the real primer color and I choose a yellow from Lifelocor. The layer is thicker to cover the previous darken color. And for a chipping effect, I lay down HS twice. The result is amazing and surprising. I change for a soft round brush and no particular difficulty to remove the color except to grap all the ''trashes'', I mean the removed paint. I notice that has to be done very quickly before it dried completely.

[Bill76]

The main color is a bleu that I call ''bleu pétrole''. I compare the real spreader with a Pantone chart and the best acrylic colors are from Citadel.

The pantone references are :

- blue : bleu 18-4525 carribean sea ;
- yellow : 7548.

So if you have this Pantone chart, you could have a look on this incredible colors.

This blue is airbrushed after a new coat of HS and the final effects can be created in the box.

[Bill76]

It's time to paint the entire box. Same colors but as I wasn't confident in the HS technique, I decided to use the sponge for weathering operations even if it should have work. Several layers of blue paint have been necessary to give a good coverage and this color is very deep and stunnig. Before weathering, the trailer has stayed on my desk durinf a couple of weeks ! I've been hypnotize by these attractive color scheme.

The whole spreader is paint in one way, frame and box separately. It would easier to follow the using process afterwards.

[Bill76]

Front loaders on tractors could be consider as one of the best revolution to cope with the lack of labor force. I mean that a farmer could cope with all type of work on a farm as handling bales, soil, using fock pallets, ...

In the first models, the main bracket was a single arm on the right side and Farmall was promoting this asymetric shape but competitors haven't follow this building. Quickly, a symetric bracket with two arms around the hood becomes to be the unique way to cope with the increasing demand for stronger loaders. Today, this shape is still available even for 300 hp tractors .

[mabloodhound]

Georges,

Some fine paint work.  The weathering will bring out the realism to this model.   Oh, and don't forget the left over manure. 

[Bill76]

The spreader paints are from Citadel : Hawk turquoise and Yellow golden. For the weathering, I choose other colors from Citadel as Bubonic Brown for the used primer, Dark Flesh and Scorched Brown for rust. To add some more colors, I have use dark grey for iron and the paints from the Rust and Dust / Lifecolor.

All the work is made with a sponge because I though it should have been easier. Finally, I'm not sure ! It takes me a long time to achieve the whole trailer. Filters will be applied to fade the main colors.

@Dave : this spreader will be quite clean because it's just getting out from the shed. The chain conveyor needs some repair and a step at the workbench is necessary. So it might be clean ! So, no remaining manure on the spreader. Just some marks.

[Bill76]

The hitch gets some tires marks when the driver is turning too tight in the corner. That's happens very often with two wheel tractors. By the way, a tight bend is never good for the transmission shaft as well.

[lab-dad]

Looking good!
The tyres are a dead giveaway though!
-Marty

[Ray Dunakin]

This is looking very good so far.

[Bill76]

Just before some shots, a few words concerning the modulation color. I try this technique but I've been ''too shy'' in the coloration. I should highlight more from light blue to dark blue. On each side, I lay some thin coats of light blue but it seems that this technique should be more marked . I learn a topic on Adam Wilder's project, I though it was to much but in fact, this aspect needs to be very bold as the weathering operations faded it after.

The weathering process is still going on with some layers of filters from Mig productions (dark wash, Rust, ...). Soil pigments are mixed with Tamiya paints then blow from a round brush with my airbrush. It creates a very dirty and realistic effect that contrasts with the blue paint. A dark filter is applied in all the corners, and there are lot of corners !

The wheel drive system needs some grease (Mig production) but I think that using oil paint should be better.

[Bill76]

The chain conveyor is fitted and weathered.

The main problem of this spreader was the limited spreading width that is around 2,5 meters. So to cover 2 acres, too many round-trips were needed. Manufacturers began to look for a system that could spread on a larger width. The solution has been to replace the two horizontal beaters by two of four vertical beaters and the width was able to reach up to 8 meters in one way. Nowadays, most of the newest spreaders have vertical beaters to cope with the needs od preserving the soil compaction due to heavy trailers and tractors. Between 10 and 15 meters is a common width. Electronics is on the trailer to control the conveyor speed, the groos tonnage to spread and the ''quality'' of the manure. The trailer is able to weight the manure and to ajust the speed for a constant quantity. The spreading operations are very strict because of environment laws especially when your fields are in rainy countries or sloppy hills.

I live in a country that used to be quite temperated and wet (1 meter of rain per year) near the Atlantic Ocean. In spring or autumn, it's sometimes difficult to fing a dry period for spreading stuff and it's hard to control the rain flows and rivers have been polluted. Because massives uncontroled abuses, the coast is invaded with toxic seagrass and there is absolutly no way to stop this disaster. During the summer months, the beaches are green and it's smells very bad along the coast. A lot of money is needed to pay firms to clean the sand with trucks and loaders. To prevent from intoxication, some beaches are closed.
A dramatic picture of the modern tourism !!

Next step, the wheels and the accessories. Georges

[lab-dad]

I have used the Mig "oil" and artists oils.
For grease the artists oils are better due to their thickness.
black and brown as grease is not black unless very worn out.
-Marty