MAZ 537: Payload II

The Hasegawa kit of the Hitachi double arm digger is a very nice one. Everything fits and the level of flash and mold seams is minimal. The coloured plastic is well done, with only the grey bits showing signs of swirls in the mixing of the styrene pellets prior to injection molding. That being said, I have painted most of it, using Tamiya TS-12, Orange, and TS-48, Gunship Grey.



Lots of rubber tubing serves to mimic hydraulic lines, and flexes as the functional hinges and cylinders are moved. (The main boom with the grapple is not complete, there is lots of tubing still to go).



I think some sort of rack to carry the grapple and rebar nipper above the truck cab is going to be essential. 



The operator's cab goes in here. Space is tight for a 1/24 operator. To illustrate this, Fred tries out the 1/35 cab, which is held together with tape for test fitting. It's a bit tight but not impossibly so.



Plan A is to move the left side outwards by up to 10 mm, which is the upper limit set by the width of the MAZ chassis and White truck cab. Widening the forward-facing glass would be the biggest challenge. There isn't much room to lengthen the cab, except by removing a component (HVAC system perhaps?) that sits in behind the operator. The cab roof would also need to be raised by about 15 mm.



Plan B is to cut up a particularly poor Aoshima kit of a Suzuki commercial vehicle, which is also a squeeze for poor Fred. Believe it or not, when I bought the Suzuki many years ago, it was to use the cab for some sort of operator console for a crane or something, so this is exactly why it's in the stash. 



In any case it would be a shame to do away with the Hitachi cab entirely as it is a very nice unit. Maybe I'll assemble it and we can all 'pretend' that Fred fits. Stay tuned!