The Blue Mule from "White Line Fever"

[StuntmanMike]

Hi Fellas

Here goes another WIP that is pretty unusual compared to my other muscle car builds...a big Ford WT9000 truck named The Blue Mule from the movie White Line Fever. Here´s a pic of the truck:

It´s a typical road movie from 1975. The trucker CJ (Jan Michael Vincent) gets in conflict with some smugglers and is forced to take revenge after some of his friends and his unborn child got killed.

For this build I´m using an AMT Kenworth K100 as parts donor for the chassis, a Ford WT9000 resin cab, a resin cummins diesel engine, aluminium wheels and fuel tank, aftermarket decals and probably some other things that I´ll have to figure out during this build. The aftermarket provides tons of stuff for truck models and I have to fight my way through this unknown jungle of upgrade details.

While waiting for the cab and the engine, I have started on the chassis. You can tell immediately it´s an AMT kit...lots of flash and their special parts fit. Especially the suspension for the rear axles provided some challenging fun. The chassis is prepared as far as possible without having the missing resin parts. I also have to leave it as unassembled as possible to reach all areas with my airbrush. The axles are not glued yet. They are just loosely fitted for correct alignment while the glue on the suspension is curing. Only the cardan shaft has already been glued to the axles.

Next steps will include reshaping of the rear end of the frame and adding wires and pressure lines for the rear axle brakes. When that is done, the resin parts should have arrived. So hopefully there will be steady progress with this build.

I hope this conversion build catches some interest.
Thanks for looking and best regards,
Kevin

 

[Smiling Demon]

10-4 Good Buddy, let's put the pedal to the metal and hammer this thang!!!! :lol

Love trucks, this should be interesting!!

Kenny

 

[PEEL1965]

Kevin. I never thought I'd see this thread happen. Simply amazing and your attention to detail and talent is impressive. Anxiously awaiting to see how this progresses. Thanks.

 

[Szyntax]

"Blue Mule Kicks A##"

Great build!

 

[StuntmanMike]

Thanks for your interest mates :thumbsup

I have done some work on the Mule, so here´s a little update.
The rear end of the frame has been shortened a bit and the rearmost crossmember has been scratchbuilt from sheet styrene.

In the next pic you have to look closely to see the tiny lug nuts for the rims. Stunning quality considering their size. I lost one of them while attaching them to the wheels, but there were more than I needed. These 5 bolt are not needed, but I´ll put them aside in case the model looses some bolts in the future.

Here are the rims, machined in aluminium in a great quality. The holes for the bolts were already there, but a little too small for the bolts to fit in. So each hole was carefully widened with a round file. It took me about two and a half hours to mate all the bolts to the rims. The fit is very tight. Once they are in, they won´t fall out. A drop of clear paint was applied into the holes before I pressed in the bolts. I don´t think they will ever get loose.

The wheels look so much better than the chrome plated plastic parts from the kit. Definately worth the investment.

That´s it so far. In the next update I´m gonna show the wiring of the frame.

Cheers,
Kevin

 

[Smiling Demon]

Man, loving this build already and those aluminum wheels are super cool.

Kenny

 

[StuntmanMike]

Hi guys

Thanks Kenny, glad you like it.
I was busy again and got a lot of work done in the past days. The first bunch of wiring for the frame is done. From my references I could see that the pressure lines are all painted like the frame. Later I´ll add more wiring in different colors for the electric components of the truck. After the wiring was done, the frame was primered and two coats of blue were applied. The blue color was mixed to match the dark blue areas of the cab´s paintjob.

Some pics of the frame:

That´s it so far. Another layer of blue will be added and after a few days to let the paint completely cure, I´ll go on with a light weathering and highlighting of the frame´s details. In the meantime I´m going to complete the wheels and I hope to have the resin engine here soon.

Thanks for looking and stay tuned,
Kevin

 

[StuntmanMike]

Hey there

It´s time for an update again.:thumbsup
After the resin engine and cab have finally arrived, I got back to the Mule business. The engine is incredibly detailed and very well casted. Among the best resin stuff I have ever seen. Fit is flawless and there was almost no cleanup needed to prepare the pieces for assembly. The following two pictures are from the instructions CD that was delivered with the engine.

The engine was primered and airbrushed in the same blue color like the frame. Small details were done in aluminium. The aluminium parts will later be drybrushed with other metallic paints like steel and gunmetal for a more realistic look. Some tubes and wires have already been added, more will follow as soon as the engine is glued to the frame.

I think the engine will look very cool when the wiring is completed and all the details are weathered and drybrushed.

The cab is "different" in quality. It requires some work for a decent finish. But no problems that couldn´t be solved with some putty and sanding.
The interior tub:

The interior door panels:

The driver´s chill-out-zone:

The dashboard:

The grille has already been cut open, but still needs a lot of clean-up work.

The cab is not perfect, but a good base to start with. I have already cleaned it up a bit and started to add putty where needed. Some spots on the roof have aleady been puttied and sanded. As soon as I think the cab is ready, I´ll add a thin coat of primer to better see the remaining imperfections.

The grille requires some bending to match the shape of the cab. It´s an easy job with a little help from hot water. Resin can be bent when heated and will stay in shape after cooling down.

That´s it so far, more to come soon. Hope you guys like it.

Thanks for looking and best regards,
Kevin

 

[PEEL1965]

Looking fantastic.

 

[StuntmanMike]

Hello again

Thanks Peel, glad you like it.:thumbsup

After some sanding on the cab, I wanted to make the grille fit better to the cab. So I heated some water and put the grille in it to make it flexible. Now the grille is flush with the cab. I went on with cleaning the grille braces and always had a feeling that something looked wrong here. After looking at the reference pics, I realized that there had to be eight horizontal braces instead of the seven that the resin grille had. My scalpel solved the problem immediately. Making new braces is easier than trying to make crude braces look good.

Stay tuned, more progress soon.
Kevin

 

[StuntmanMike]

Hey

Progress with the grille went much faster than expected. After rebuilding the braces, the grille was covered with BMF aluminium and the black areas have been painted. It looks much better now and is closer to the real deal. It has the same number of braces and now the vertical braces are placed behind the horizontal braces.

Some BMF for the front bumper aswell.

After I got the grille done, I thought I´d look over the decals to get an idea about how good they will fit the cab. First some pics of the decals. The are produced by JBOT Decals and they look fantastic.

Then I placed the cab on the decal sheet, which caused me to look like this: :confused and then this: :confused

The width of the front decal "could" fit...

The height of the front decal is a problem. It has to be aligned to the grille and will end in the window area. In addition the decal has other angles than the outlines of the grille. This will be funny to modify. I´m looking forward to have some serious cutting work on the decals.

The width of the roof decal looks good.

The length of the roof decal looks...like it was made to fit a daycab...that´s funny...

Seems like rescue is secured by having two decal sheets.

While preparing and painting the cab, I have enough time to think about how I´ll do the decal job. I think I´ll start with the grille area and work my way up over the windows to the roof and do the sides and back of the cab afterwards. I´m scared, challenged and looking forward to it. I like decal work. :thumbsup

I think the next update will include some engine and cab stuff.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[StuntmanMike]

Hi guys

This build is still progressing faster than expected. So here´s another update on the Mule.

I have added a fine mesh behind the grille.

The engine has been heavily weathered as this truck is a workhorse and not a trailer queen. The drivetrain already looks pretty complete, but some wiring will still be added to it.

The frame has been weathered aswell. When the oil colors have completely dried, I´ll add some more weathering with drybrushing in different colors.

Maybe the engine needs a new set of gaskets. It is sweating out some oil...

Treadplates have been added to the frame to hide the Kenworth crossmembers, which are not correct for a Ford truck. The Mule only has one treadplate between the cab and the trailer hitch. The rear plate was added because it looks cool. Only the scratchbuilt rear crossmember remains visible and gives the illusion that this is a Ford frame.

The next pic shows a part from the air intake system. It is scratchbuilt from Kenworth pieces.

The tube will be attached to the supercharger of the engine and is one of the last parts that can be added right now. I need to have the cab in place before I can figure out the final location of the exhaust and intake.

The next update should be here in a few days. Some more wiring of the engine, the trailer hitch and some other stuff are on my list for the next days.

Hope you guys like it and thanks for looking,
Kevin :thumbsup

 

[SGTgermany]

Dope. I gotta say that oil looks great. Looks just like the oil pan on my car.

 

[wannab]

Wonderful progress! :thumbsup



Doug

 

[StuntmanMike]

Hi guys

Glad you like it.
Progress is going slower and slower as a lot of parts have to be customized now to make everything fit together.

The air cleaner has been placed and I have changed the connection to the supercharger. I added some rust effect to the exhaust and a few more wires found their way to the engine.

Some more pics of the engine with more wires and hoses.

After some minor work on the interior inlay, I could test fit the cab to the frame. It fits nice and sits straight.

Some nice details of the engine and transmission are still visible when the cab is in place.

The cab is close to being ready for the paintjob. After applying a coat of primer, I found some spots that needed a little more filling and sanding. But the major part is already done.

The fuel tanks have been machined from aluminium and polished.

I hope to have the cab painted for the next update. And maybe I have some pics of the exhaust pipe and air intake which I have to build from scratch.

Thanks for looking and best regards,
Kevin

 

[CC5707]

Wow, that is some amazing detail! I am a great fan of the movie, you are really doing it proud!

 

[pwrofbauer]

Great build so far!

 

[StuntmanMike]

Hello there

I hope you´re all having a nice christmas time.

It´s been a while since the last update was done. The pre christmas business and some private stuff has kept me off from getting much done. But things are calming down and I´m back at it.

The cab required more work than expected. I thought I had it ready for the finish, but after the first coat of gloss white I realized the was more work needed for a decent look. So I went along and did a lot of sanding to straighten the uneven and wavy sides of the cab. Now the cab is primered again and should be fine for the final paintjob.

Next thing to do is wet-sanding the whole cab and getting the gloss white paintjob done before I can have some fun with the (non-fitting) decals.

Being laid low with a flu, I have lots of time to do some work on the model. So the next update should follow soon.

Happy holidays and best regards,
Kevin

 

[StuntmanMike]

Hello and happy new year to everyone

Just a quick little update...
The white paintjob of the cab is done and I´m pretty happy with the result. White paintjobs tend to make problems, but this time it went all good.

Now I can get started with the decals. That is going to be the nastiest part of this build. The decals do not fit this cab and I´ll have to do a lot of cutting and piecing stuff together to make it look right. Within all this madness, the biggest challenge will be to avoid overlapping of the decals. The colors of the decals cover very bad. I did a test with two little spare pieces and the color change of overlapping areas is highly visible.
This will put my abilities to the test...

Keep your fingers crossed. I´ll start working on the decals ... now.:thumbsup

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Wes R]

The engine details are amazing. I dread having to do white paint jobs as it always seems something will go wrong.