Styrene

Styrene

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Highway Miniatures 1/87 1925 Ford Mail Truck

If Highway Miniatures would produce kits in 1/72, I could become addicted and try to buy them all. Nonetheless, even if they are 1/87 scale (and not totally compatible with my 1/72 endeavors) I still buy them and find them extremely attractive.
Other products of this company were posted here before, and now I started this mail truck as a photographic companion for future model photo-session only ephemeral dioramas.
Again, the quality-price ratio is phenomenal. The molds are detailed, fine, have minimum flash, depict the original to a high degree, and in this case even come pre-colored.
Notice also the decal sheet, instructions and screen material. What else can you ask for when you pay less than $ 10? Is this some kind of miracle? an hallucination product of the glue vapors? if this is real, why airplane kit manufacturers struggle to produce such fine detail and are far from charging such a modicum price?
Whatever the reasons, I LOVE these little kits. The clear material provided for the windshield has even red marker lines so it won't slip inadvertently and will be easy to find. What a nice detail. These guys, whoever they may be, know what they are doing.
As you can see, I separated the parts from the sprues DELICATELY, cleaned them up, and got them ready for some painting and assembly.
There a few minor points: the mesh provided -which is great, by the way- is weaved horizontally/vertically. The real mesh was diagonal -as per actual photos-. You may cut the pieces you need from it, wasting some of the material, but you may run short. In the photos I have of the actual truck there are two lights -besides the "normal" ones- on the front of the cabin, missing in the kit. The position of the floor -and a couple other parts- is not very clear from the instructions. Again, minor issues compared to the excellent level overall.
I used MV lenses for the front lights, a decal to depict the radiator,and another red MV lens to represent the back light.The whole building process took only a few hours through three days. You have to use good magnification and be careful due to the minute nature of the parts, but it felt like a breeze and looks just nice.
The images show now some parts glued together.
Some images of individual parts to show size and detail, all amazing for this scale compared to similar airplane parts:
 The main sub-assemblies have been painted with enamels and airbrush:
 MV lenses were added and two decals (metal base and pattern) to represent the radiator:
 The patterns for the screens (which have diagonally-weaved wire in the original truck) are laid over the plastic mesh kit material. They are a tight fit:
I ended up having to split the back panel mesh -as in reality- so the provided material will be enough. All worked out well.
 
 I needed to make my own decals for the air mail truck, with rub-on characters on a piece of decal sheet:






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