Post by Deleted on May 30, 2007 14:16:09 GMT
The donor kit for this project can be any of the 'Allen Hobbies' Zis 5 kits or Zis 5V. Based on two photographs in a Russian book, I have yet to translate the title but it is published by Frontline Illustrations.
The chassis is built as per the instructions without any modifications. The cab was altered by eyeballing the photograph and measuring the photo and trying several cardboard templates, until I arrived at a near estimate. The roof was extended by using several alternative coloured layers of plastic card glued together.
The rest of the body is scratch built from plastic card. I started with the planked cargo bed, this was marked out and all measurements were taken from the kit chassis. I scribed the planking in and found a set of mudguards that looked suitable, by trial and error I cut out the area for them to fit into the planked bed. The steel frame for transporting the pontoon was built using two sizes of angle strut cut and measured from the kit by eyeballing the modified cab height and the overall length of the planked bed. A test fit of the pontoon showed any adjustment that needed to be made.
The pontoon is made from various thicknesses of plastic card sheet and micro strip. Once again it was a case of eyeballing the kit and the photographs and working out an approximation as to the length and depth. The width was the easy part as it is the full width of a standard cargo body 7ft - 6 in. I cut out from cardboard several different templates for the depth and by eyeballing them against the photographs I obtained as near a match as I could. Then the same piece was used to determine the length. By this simple method I arrived at the figures of 18ft long and 3ft -6 in depth. How close I am to the real measurements only a full set of original plans will clarify if they ever turn up.
The chassis is built as per the instructions without any modifications. The cab was altered by eyeballing the photograph and measuring the photo and trying several cardboard templates, until I arrived at a near estimate. The roof was extended by using several alternative coloured layers of plastic card glued together.
The rest of the body is scratch built from plastic card. I started with the planked cargo bed, this was marked out and all measurements were taken from the kit chassis. I scribed the planking in and found a set of mudguards that looked suitable, by trial and error I cut out the area for them to fit into the planked bed. The steel frame for transporting the pontoon was built using two sizes of angle strut cut and measured from the kit by eyeballing the modified cab height and the overall length of the planked bed. A test fit of the pontoon showed any adjustment that needed to be made.
The pontoon is made from various thicknesses of plastic card sheet and micro strip. Once again it was a case of eyeballing the kit and the photographs and working out an approximation as to the length and depth. The width was the easy part as it is the full width of a standard cargo body 7ft - 6 in. I cut out from cardboard several different templates for the depth and by eyeballing them against the photographs I obtained as near a match as I could. Then the same piece was used to determine the length. By this simple method I arrived at the figures of 18ft long and 3ft -6 in depth. How close I am to the real measurements only a full set of original plans will clarify if they ever turn up.