Right, having done the research to determine the slight differences between my target model - the US 1940 International Harvester K7 truck - and what I am going to call the 'donor' model - the 1958 Soviet 1958 Zil-157 truck - let's list them...
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| Above: Left - 1940 K7. Right - 1958 Zil-157. |
The main cosmetic differences between the original US truck and the later Soviet copy that I am concerned with relate to the truck's cab.
1. GRILL - The US model had a horizontally orientated set of radiator grill spars, while the Zil-157 had a it's grill spars running vertically.
2. BUMPER (FENDER) - The K7 had a large bumper section integral to the bottom of the engine housing and mud-guards, the Zil-157's bumper was a simplified and separate flat rectangle.
3. ENGINE SIDE VENTS - The K7 had 4 on each side - the 157 had 3.
And my biggest concern...
4. MUD GUARDS - the K7 has nicely rounded mud guards, again the Soviet's simplified these with some easily manufacturer flat arches.
[5. WHEELBASE/CARGO BED - The Zil-75 was classified as a 6x6 truck and as such had three axels with two wheels at the front and for wheels on each of the two rear axels. The International K7 ("Inter"), 2½-ton variant I want to model was a 4x2 truck - two axles, two wheels at front, 4 wheels at the rear, front wheel drive - so I will have to build a new chassis and bed. But this is easy so it's not a major concern. I'll also have to make 1940 era US civilian wheels and tires as the Soviets stuck great big heavy duty off-road tires on the Zil-157.]
On a 1/72 scale model these are enough modifications to make a conversion pass for an original K7 (at least on a war-game quality model).
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The Work Begins!
It seems really strange opening a plastic kits after so long an absence, but here we go!
The ICM Zil-157 plastic kit comes - mostly - moulded in grey and the details seems very sharp, with no flash to speak of. Here's a close up of my main project work, the 157 cab...
First of all, I'm looking at the modification of the grill - I'll have to remove the 157's and build a new grill with horizontal spars. Also, another minor difference between the trucks was that the K7 has what I shall call thin 'cheeks' on either side of the engine compartment which were absent on the 157. I'll begin by reintroducing them as this will involve cutting the sides off the compartment - I'll also remove the 157's grill...
I may need to do some additional modifications to the engine compartment side-panels, but I will only know what I have to do once I move onto doing the new mudguards (job No. 3 on my list).
Now, though, I have to tackle the replacement radiator grill. As I mentioned, the original US K7 had horizontal grill spars - I can either try to scratch build this component myself with good old plasticard or try creating a model in 3D and print it out.
The above picture show the grill, huge mudguards and the massive bumper unit. You can understand why the Soviets simplified a lot of this in their version, that's a lot of metal and lengthy manufacturing!
I used GOOGLE SKETCHUP to draw a 3D model of the K7 grill (scaled for the 1/72 kit)...
As a3D printing novice, I was very unsure if I could get the detail of my model to render. While it isn't the most complex model all those tiny caps between the grill (0.5mm) had me worried so - for the first time - I set the quality to 'hyper'! What this does is increase the resolution by reducing the size of the layers printed, hopefully resulting to increased detail.
Well, the overall dimensions and fit was good...
But the black PLA material makes it a bit hard to see the detail - were the grill spars printed out properly or just a unrecognisable mess? Let's give the grill a quick spray of primer to see...
Hooray! We have a passable K7 style front grill! Task No. 1 done. Though it'll look better when it's properly cleaned up and fixed in place. 👍😀
NEXT: THE MUDGUARDS & BUMPER.
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