Liebherr R954C Shovel

Presented here is a custom model based on the Liebherr R954C tracked excavator from Conrad which I have been working on. The boom, stick and bucket is from the kit offered by Gaz Evans with a scratch built cab riser and platform and cab guards which I bought from Refo-Tech.

The quality of the casting of the parts is very good with surface detailing and raised holders on the back of the boom for the piping to be added. The bucket is supplied in four parts with the bottom and sides needing to be glued together. This is fairly easy to do but caution needs to be used to ensure everything lines up so the bucket opens and closes uniformly. The holes for the bucket hinge were drilled with a 1mm drill while all others are 1.5mm.

I scratch built the hose block from the body to the base of the boom using plastic strip which has been drilled with a series of 1mm holes, one for each hydraulic line.

This connects to the ends of the silver coated metal piping glued to the back of the boom once the boom had been painted.

A H-shaped plastic strip has been used, again with 1mm holes drilled to keep the hoses lined up and this adds realism to the model

The main fixed piping is 0.8mm silver coated wire which has been shaped to fit into the raised grooves on the back of the boom while small resin blocks are supplied with the kit and glue onto the boom and stick to make the connections with the flexible hoses.

For the hydraulic connections, holes were drilled into the ends of the cylinder before a 1mm ferrule (supplied in the kit) was inserted into the end of the rubber tube along with a small piece of 90 degree bent wire to make the terminators. This again adds realism to the model and is effective.

When it comes to the paint finish, I have used a can of Liebherr construction yellow paint but the finish is a little darker than the paint finish on the base model. At first, I believed that the Conrad colour was loo light but I have recently learned that there is a batch of Liebherr paint which is not the correct shade, so when touching up the full sized machines, the paint is a little darker. For the grey, RAL 7043 is the correct shade and is a very close match to the grey undercarriage.

The model is fitted with a set of narrow tracks and a set of resin cab guards which are produced by Refo-Tech. The only thing outstanding on the model is to apply the Liebherr decals. I am certainly happy with how the model turned out, and will now look to build another shovel based on a white painted R954C.