Tow truck 1: power transfer

The underbelly of the first vehicle

As I had the tyre sets all built, I then built the suspension / differential housing balls (could you tell how amazingly deep my automotive understanding was?), so that they too would be ready to be installed whenever needed. In addition to only single tyres that were going to be installed into the front axles, the leaf-suspension steup was slightly longer than what the rear axles were going to get. Without thinking much, if at all, about painting, I glued the double tyres into the rear axles.

To the frontmost ball a short driveshaft was installed to connect it to the torque converter (got the name from the instructions). At this point I spent a fleeting moment if I should've painted these subassemblies separately, but as the whole damn thing was going to be 99% olive green, I just plodded on.

As usual, I dry-fitted the front axle and -wheels to their places, but for some reason at this point I recognized the pain point of painting. That wasn't going to help much, for the rear wheels were already there, making the process a bit more bothersome.

The frame got a couple of boxes attached to it, the larger was the fuel tank. The smaller box was unspecified, so from my point of view it could've been used to carry the jack, for example. "Toolbox" was pretty much as much details as I got.

Next thing was the rear drive setup, the complex that was made out of the leaf springs, the ball of differentials and whatnot, and the tyres on axles. This set was also connected to the torque converter by a driveshaft. I guessed this was pretty much how heavier wheeled equipment had the habit of working, I just trusted the instructions as being more knowledgeable about these things than myself.