Volvo FH16 XL750 – Part 6

It has been a while since the previous update of this RC truck model. The plan was, that after every parts bag, I would make an update. But because of Christmas and New Year and some health problems, things took a little bit longer.

Also, parts bag E has more building steps than the previous parts bags. Because of the holidays, when ordering things online, also took longer than before.

Around the holidays, I also ordered some paint. For the outside and interior. This would also be my first time trying to spray paint some parts. Normally I would paint the parts with a brush, but because these parts are a little bit bigger in size, it would be better to spray paint them. In the hobby shop, they told me step by step how I would need to do it. It would be a bit more work and things would take a little bit longer. But in the long run, things would look nicer. I was prepared to give it a go. I needed more paint than at other times.

Standard or Modify

My first plan was to build this RC Truck just plain standard. No sound or lights. Because it is my first try with an RC Truck, the standard would be the best. But around the holidays, the hobby shop had a special offer. They were giving a discount on Sound and Light modules. This was very attractive to me and I took the chance of getting one module. Just a module for Sound and Lights.

The timing was also just right. In the building, I was at the steps of assembling the tail lights. This was a good time to take them apart again place the LED lights in it and put them back together again. I also could do this later, but it was better to do it now.

With the Sound and Light module, I also bought the LED lights that were needed, wires, and soldering iron. It had been a very long time for me soldering. It took me a few minutes to get used to it again. But in the end, I managed.

The Sound and Light module is very nice. The shop advised to use the module from Beier. In this module, you can program many things on it. You can select different engine sounds, and also for the lights you can do a lot. In the building instructions of the RC Truck, they are referring to the Tamiya MFC. But because now I have a different module, things are a little different.

We will take things easy and step by step.

Spray Painting

As I mentioned, this was the first time for me to try spray painting. I just followed what they told me in the shop.

To my surprise, things have gone well, so far. The first body parts are painted. Some of the side panels on the truck. And things look nice. Slowly the truck is getting some color and things are getting shape. But now I need to be careful. Because I already know, that when things go okay, I get overconfident and that is the time that things can go wrong.

Right now, one of the “fuel tanks” is drying with the first coat of silver paint. This already looks nice enough, so I think I will leave it at one layer of paint. For the other body parts, I think two layers of paint is better.

For the next building steps, I already have seen, that it will be more on the electronics. How and were the place and route the wires. I think within the coming days, I will go back to the hobby shop to get more wires. And maybe also some more lights. I also had seen some videos of RC Truck with some blue-colored interior lights. That also looked very nice. Now I am also thinking of doing that. Last week they finally had the headlights in. They look very nice, and also they have some options on how the lights could work. We will see.

All in all, the RC Truck now has more options than I had planned, but I think it will look much better than a standard truck.

Below are the photos of building parts bag E. More photos will follow, once the next parts bag is opened. (Click on the image to enlarge)