3D printed road vehicles

[grahame]

The flat bed truck will have a Soehaven 3D printed Scania cab, bashed Tomytec tractor chassis, a scratch built flat bed trailer with a few salvaged RTR detailing items and a home made load when I get it finished. Quite a mongrel. But at least I will have managed to utilise the two Scanias (supplied as cabs only) as complete vehicles.

Plus I've finished painting the wheels on the Volvo F10 tractor unit. Apart from glazing and a perhaps bit of weathering that is just about finished.

 

 

G

[grahame]

I think this will do for underside details on the trailer. After all it will be underneath, painted a dark colour, probably in shadow and who takes a lot of notice of road vehicles on a model railway layout. Only jesting, as I seem to be and this is a thread about them.

 

 

Next to start fiddling with the tractor unit chassis. That needs a little work to make the cab fit and try to back date it a little.

 

G

 

 

 

 

[grahame]

Back to the tanker.

 

I've now got some decals on - from Langley although there was only one of the large esso logos so the other side is bereft while there were plenty of the small cab side ones. I'll have to pick up some more next time I see their stand at a show I attend. The red stripes were transfers made from crafty decal paper sprayed with a car colour and then sealed with varnish. Not much to do now on the tanker now - fix the cab in place, glazing, number plates and perhaps some weathering.

 

 

Meanwhile, I've also got some basic colour on the flat bed trailer. But I think that'll do for today. I've plenty of other chores to catch up on.
 

 

G

 

[grahame]

I found some chevron decals in my stash which seemed to fit and go okay on the bumper. I've also bashed the chassis including a scratch-built cylindrical fuel tank. I'm a little unhappy about the look of the rear wheels - too much chrome - and would like to do something about them to tone them down. Or if I can find more suitable ones I'll swap them over.

 

 

Next for it is to consider and make a suitable load.

 

In the meantime I've been looking at my 3D printed Osborn's Arch Laser Bedford S van. I gave it a coat of primer and paint some time ago but never finished it. 

 

 

It's a little soft around details and there are some strange angled gouge marks, although the window pillars are commendably fine and overall it looks the part. I'll try to fill and file smooth the angled marks and then paint it picking out the details.

 

G

[grahame]

I've had a re-think on the Bedford S. Being manufactured 1950 - 59 and probably only in use on the streets until the end of the 60s it's far too early for my intended layout period. So I've filled the dents and given it a very rough and quick coat of paint and will look to dispose of it:

 

 

G.

[BernardTPM]

The military version was used by the TA for many years. They look chunky on the normal tyres, but like real Tonka Toys in 4x4 form on knobbly tyres.

Edited July 12, 2019 by BernardTPM

[grahame]

I'm slowly getting around to do some work on the other 3D printed vehicle models I've acquired. Here's some of RailNScale's recent releases for the 1970s and 80s market - a Renault 5 (72-85), Saab 900 (78-94) and Peugeot 205 (83-98). All are N gauge 1:148 scale 3D printed so need cleaning, painting and glazing and these are in various stages of that, so are unfinished.

 

 

These large close-up photos are very cruel and expose all the flaws of the model and painting, but they do at least show where work is required, for example, particularly on the Pug 205 where the 3D printed stratification ridges, as a result of Shapeways layering print process, needs to be sanded smoother.

 

G 

[grahame]

I've finally found a suitable cockerel model to go on the cab roof of my Courage beer tanker - they were quite an iconic lorry mascot and examples of them sell for quite a bit these days. Actually the model is a chicken and it's from the Pendraken Miniatures 10mm range but once fiddled with and painted gold I guess no-one will be able to tell. The models are just over 4mm tall (excluding the base) so seem about the right size for the lorry even if perhaps a little big to represent a real chicken for a farm scene.  

 

 

This is the lorry it will go on which is a 3D printed Ford D800 tractor unit from Soehaven with a scratch-built tanker on a heavily modified Tomytec trailer chassis :

 

 

G

[grahame]

I've now got a bit more colour on and started picking out details for the three cars. Taking photos like these helps see where any tidying and touching up needs to be done, but so far I'm quite happy with progress. The next big challenge will be glazing them and the Saab looks like it might be very tricky with almost a semi circular curved windscreen:

 

 

G

[Armchair Modeller]

For the Saab windscreen you could try some thin clear film applied to the outside of the window frame. Windscreens are pretty flush generally.

[grahame]

Thanks.

 

I did watch a you tube video about using clear self adhesive tape for making car windscreen that was stuck over the front frame. They were HO scale and weren't as curved as the Saab. I'd be a little concerned about the fact there is no proud frame along the bottom edge (to stick to) so the tape/film would be likely to pull straight across between the bottom of the pillars. It's a dilemma - I'll have to give it some more consideration and perhaps some experimentation.

 

G

[grahame]

The white metal cockerel (shown a few posts above) is a little large, even for the lorry. On many pics of them I've seen they stand on little boxes so they appear over the company cab roof branding board, but for my truck, although I made and painted a box, I left it off to keep down the overall mascot height. Plus I sanded away the rather blocky integral cast metal stand which added another 1mm to the height :

 

 

However, I guess in mitigation there are two things. Firstly, I doubt many will have seen or noticed the golden cockerel mascots on Courage lorries, and secondly the Ford D800 cab (as on the model) was fairly low as apparently the engine was mounted at 45' so that the cab, which tilted forward, had a flat floor and the overall height wouldn't be excessive. Later trucks seemed not to be so constrained and the cabs are significantly taller.

 

Nonetheless it is unusual and eye catching. And, unless I can find a smaller more suitable one, it will have to do for now.

 

G
 

 

 

 

[Mike 84C]

Ford D800's, I took my HGV test on one of those but it was a 28t or maybe 30t one as it had a V 8 Cummins I think. The cabs were mounted  higher to get the bigger engine in! I think your tractor unit should really be a 28/30t one with that twin axle trailer. I never really liked Ford's much, more of an AEC man! but they must have been a tough bit of kit as firms like British Vita and the biscuit companies ran them with large single axle box trailers and they always overtook you!

[Mike 84C]

Meant to say I like the Courage cockerel, remember them well.

[grahame]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

It's not exactly modelling weather but yesterday evening I scratch-built a load for the flat back trailer to roughly replicate this: https://www.na3t.org/road/photo/CX00986-04

 

The 'concrete' sewer pipes have been made from short lengths of plastic tube with the joint flanges produced by adding a slither of a larger diameter tube around them and filing to shape. The diameter of this outer tube was a little too large so I cut a section out of it to pull it tighter and fit snuggly. Here they are on supporting 'wood' staves (square section styrene strip) and in primer. Just a matter of painting it and fixing to the trailer. Oddly, in the pic referenced above, there doesn't appear to be any lashing ropes/chains.

 

 

G

[grahame]

I've slapped a bit of paint on, although it needs a little touching up, but here's my effort just resting on the trailer and not yet glued in place.

 

 

The cab still needs glazing, a driver added and fixing in place. Seems like I'll never get these trucks finished.

 

G 

[millerhillboy]

What an interesting and eye catching fleet of vehicles, I particularly like the pug 205 as I used to the 1.9 GTi back in the day.

 

So many layouts just use out the box vehicles and understandably so but to see you put such great detail into each and every vehicle is fantastic.

[grahame]

Thanks.

 

It's a problem, the lack of RTP vehicles for the mid-70s to mid-90s, that one has to look at alternatives such as 3D printed models from the likes of Soehaven and RailNscale as well as bashing and hacking.

 

What is needed, as so often mentioned by many enthusiasts, is common-or-garden regular private saloon cars and typical commercial vehicles from the period.

 

G

[Steven B]

@grahame do you have a link to the vehicles produced by Soehaven? The only references I can find are your postings here!

 

Steven B.

[grahame]

1 hour ago, Steven B said:

@grahame do you have a link to the vehicles produced by Soehaven? The only references I can find are your postings here!

 

Steven B.

 

They're on Shapeways where he has a shop - it's actually 'soehave' rather than Soehaven as I typed. You'll need to scroll through the pages for the 1:148 versions and there not that many:

 

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/soehave

 

G

[grahame]

Some occasional and slow progress. I've manged to get windscreens fitted and drivers added to the two Scania trucks:

 

 

[grahame]

Here's another, hopefully better, pic that might be of interest:

 

 

G

[grahame]

RailNscale are now offering their 1/148 scale Volvo F10 in two new variants other than just the tractor unit - a ridged 6x4 chassis with hook loaded container and a 6x2 flat back with cube tarp cover.

 

G

[grahame]

Apparently RailNScale are now six years old and to celebrate are offering special anniversary packs of 1990s cars at discounted prices. Unfortunately I've not seen any at 1:148 scale but they will probably re-scale on request.

 

https://railnscale.com/2019/08/18/6-years-anniversary-sets/

 

G

[BernardTPM]

Interesting that the '1990s' cars are all designs going back to the 1980s or earlier.