Scratchbuilt tipper lorry body - 1/76 Oxford Diecast conversion

[0121modeller]

As part of my 4mm scale scrapyard project, I decided to convert an Oxford Diecast HGV.  

 

A lot of my inspiration & photographic reference I obtained quite by chace & good fortune whilst driveing over to Modellers Mecca in Kingswinford near Dudley, as, my daft old satnav took me on a diversion down Oak Lane where I came across a couple of scrapyards; B. Shakespeare & R. Davies & Sons, It was here that I obtained photographic referance of the Grappler crane I scatchbuilt here; http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/55660-scrapyard-crane-in-4mm-scale/ & also my current project of a tipper lorry.

 

I discarded the trailer upper body, rear mudgaurds & chassis of the Oxford Diecast model, but retained the rear wheels & axle sets ...

Bodysides were made, scale to approx 40ft in length, rounded underside profile body using quarter-round profile styrene from Evergreen or Plastruct, 

 

I've 3x tractor/HGV cab units from Oxford Diecast, not sure which one I'll be using yet...

 

Rear doors made, hinge detail added in later progress pics..,

 

rear doors added,

 

to be continued....

[steve1]

Nice.

 

As it's a scrap truck have you considered how to add the requisite dents and gouges?

 

steve

[Hippo]

Hi mate, of the 3 tractor units if you have one thats has a rear lift axle (tag axle) thats probably most appropriate, also a vertical exhaust (stack) as this helps cut down on the dust.

 

The trailer looks fantastic though, keep up the good work.

 

Owen

 

P.s. as you have gone to such a great deal of detail on the trailer, don't forget the tractor unit, it will need a hydraulic oil tank, (would look similar to the fuel tank).

[0121modeller]

Next stage, a new scratchbuilt housing was made for the rear axle & wheel sets;

 

Underside 'ribs' were added,

 

Preview... mudgaurds to be added to body,

 

The support legs next,

I used Evergreen #252 square profile , 1.5mm x 1.5mm inside of these & quarter round profiles for 'feet' . Diagonal support cross braceing was then added using mostly 0.5mm x 0.7.5mm.

 

My chassis next to the original diecast chassis, no cross brace detailing to that, but I think it may vary, I'm baseing my scratchbuild on photo's I've collected.

 

Starting to take shape now, but much more detail to be added in next my progress update...

 

[0121modeller]

Hi Steve1 & Hippo, thanks chaps, quite a few dents have been made to the body between ribs , I did this using varius pointed items pressing the inside outwards with a soft rubber eraser underneath.

Thanks for the info on the hydraulic oil tank, that & the lifting ram is my next stage, I'm out & about tomorrow as to hopefully obtain more photographic referance of this area of scratchbuild

[37114]

Excellent model, I like the attention to detail to get the right configuration for the rear doors etc, I hope you don't mind me mentioning but the gap between the body and the cab seems a bit large, I know you have a ram etc to go in but it almost appears as if the swan neck  part of the body (the bit above the tractor unit) is a little short, this photo shows what I mean, as it appears the trailer has 5 "ribs" above the Tractor where as yours has 4:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dscn8785/7955129964/

 

99% of the populus probably won't notice if you dont alter it and still a great model.

[0121modeller]

Hi Chaps & thanks for the feedback :-)

 

Yes, admitidly the tipper body was a guestimate on dimensions on photo's I have, tipper body length of my model is scale to 38ft, I can move the body closer to cab, but the ribs will remain as they are as achieveing the rounded profile of lower ribs & body was my priority. 

 

In mind of this, today I went to Modellers Mecca for styrene strip & I also visited a scrapyard in kingswinford as to take photo's & note measurements of another scrap trailer body I'm also building as part of my project.

I took this photo of the trailer last week when it was hooked to a Scania tractor cab , I returned today to find just the trailer, I took plenty of measurements & a few photo's for modelling referance; 

 

I measured the body to be approx 32ft in length , 8ft high from chassis (7ft high for raised body over tractor) ,

 Ribs;  4" wide x 3" deep, a mixture of spaceing between ribs from 13" , 16" & 20" ,

 Lifting ram was 5ft 6" high x 10" diameter,

 Chassis girder height approx 18" narrowing to 9" over tractor area, *width of chassis girder to girder 4' 4" <*this measurement quite important as I'm modelling trailer in an elevated position.

 

 

 

 

[0121modeller]

I've started building my other tipper trailer as follows;

Temporarily tacked together for accurate alignment of bodyside / vertical ribs

 

 

Preview with tractor/cab, the one bodyside haveing had vertical & horizontal rib/braceing added

 

I used a sharp object pushing to score & create outward dents, rips & bulges, 

 

The resulting dents & bulges on bodyside between braceings.

 

to be continued...

[halfwit]

Very nice buddy well done.

You haven't lived until you have tried to tip one of these in real life with the load stuck at the headboard, a white knuckle ride indeed!

Kind regards, bob

 

Sometimes results in the whole lot falling over - this happened twice to my father when tipping scrap and scared the hell out of him, and he was a tough guy! Luckily both times he was out of the cab when it happened, apparently you're supposed to remain in the cab when tipping.

 

Anyway, nice to see some more superb modelling.

[0121modeller]

A little more progress...

Rips & gashes were made using a #11 modelling knife blade peirceing from inside out, then twisting blade slightly,

 

 

Sides welded to floor, Evergreen #295 'L' profile used to add strength & ridgidity, I've used #4514 for the floor as it saved time as lightly scored at grooves & snap to required size rather than use tri-square, the square profiles wont be seen as will overlay to make level with #295's. 

 

Chassis girders were made from 0.75 (30 thou') plastcard sheet,

 

The chassis girder frame, flanges added, I used 'i' girder profles from Plastruct in between main chassis girders,

 

Next, I thought long & hard how I would make the tipper body pivot up from chassis, I decided to use a 1mm thick metal rod for the 'hinge pin' , the rod being removable as to separate body from chassis as & when needed  during on-going construction, painting, etc  .., 

 

 

Test pose for body elevated, as similar to photo I'm baseing this model on,

 

End body panel nearest cab fitted between bodysides, ladder rungs fitted near the end of bodysides, alignment checked at raised profile area between body floor on chassis..,-  perfect. :-)

 

Next stage, I'll need to fit hydraulic lifting ram using 3 sizes of aluminium tubes as follows;  5/32" - 1/8"  -  3/32" , Also more detailing needed to rear end chassis, support legs, & rear doors modelled in open position (for tipping mode) in next update.

 

Still much more to do !

 

 

 

 

 

[rhymad]

Sometimes results in the whole lot falling over - this happened twice to my father when tipping scrap and scared the hell out of him, and he was a tough guy! Luckily both times he was out of the cab when it happened, apparently you're supposed to remain in the cab when tipping.

 

Anyway, nice to see some more superb modelling.

Same thing happened to me, I was driving a six wheeler Guy BigJ tipping scrap cubes (crushed cars etc.) at the steelworks at Redcar, they were stuck in the top of the body, the overhead magnet came along to release them, unfortunately the driver of the crane misjudged the height of the tipper body in the raised position and hit the body with the magnet. The lorry tipped over onto it's nearside, one of the front tipper rams snapped and came through the back window missing my right ear by about Three inches, very frightening!

[freebs]

I've just caught up with this thread. It's not really my thing, being more into architectural modelling, but it looked interesting, and I have to say, you're doing an absolutely first class job on this! I'm looking forward to seeing it finished,

 

Lee

[d winpenny]

Looking great, david

[rhymad]

Looking really good, and the step by step photos are excellent.

[Wrighty]

Really impressive modelling! Can't wait to see the end result.

 

Chris

[0121modeller]

Thanks for compliments, heres more progress mainly of the hydraulic lifting ram, I've modelled it with pivoting action so I have a choice of either haveing the tipper body elevated or lowered pose.

The hook-on to the tractor ; I used a tiny pan head screw for my last tipper body, this time I decided to use styrene tube over rod.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I made the rear doors to pose in an open position

Atatchment of the doors to body wont be done untill the doors & rear end od body are painted up...

 

...to look something like this, only painted of course.

 

Chassis pivot for ram tested for movement & alignment, when satisfied the longer piece was cut off.

 

I drilled an 0.85mm hole through a 1.5mm square rod, put these over both ends the 0.85mm metal rod as to keep the rod in place through chassis & bottom pivot for the 'plug in' ram.

 

For the hydraulic lifting ram,  I used 3 aluminium tubes as follows 1/16", 3/32", &  1/8" ,  these sizes being within an inch or so to accuracy of 4mm / 1ft scale

(EDIT- Now 4 aluminium tubes, as a 5/32" was added at later stage as seen in later progress)

 

 

 

More updates to follow.

[HARRYMALLARD]

All this brilliant work is making the oxford diecast truck look pretty basic! Keep it up!

[0121modeller]

A little more progress to the trailer body and chassis;

Stabilizer legs were made with Evergreen #153 1.5mm square styrene strip each leg chopped to 7mm length, ends drilled using an 0.85 drill, then a  #142  1mm square styrene strip had their corner edges rounded as to plug into 0.85mm hole.

 

On my other tipper trailer build, i made the stabilizer legs using #252 square tube with #153 inserted,  With hindsight, a little overscale as the #252 was 3.2mm (3mm after fileing outer sides of #252), so I decided to make this trailer as accurately to scale as possible by the method described above.

 

Similarly, on this model, the stablizer/leg 'feet' were then made using Evergreen #250 2.5mm quarter round profile, on the other trailer I'd used plastruct quarter round 3.2mm, so looked okay but a little overscale.

  

 I've decided at some stage I'm going to re-build the 1st trailer body & chassis (at the start of this page), as the bodyside rib spaceings & other features being slightly incorrect/overscale as 37114 pointed out, which i'm greatfull for that & all other feedback, its all part of learning & improveing modelling, so comments & questions always welcome    

 

Whilst the support legs were set drying, I started the next stage of the ladder/footholds & grabrails next to the lifting ram, a few evergreen #265 were chopped to dulicate size of 2mm, I needed 6 of them but cut extra due to their tiny size with the risk of dropping when handling in position with tweezers.

 

 Before placement of the footholds, I drilled 0.7mm holes for grabrails, I used 0.7mm steel wire (the sort used to make model tree's) , tested fitment was okay, then marked the spaceings for the 6x footholds. I decided 'Revell Contacta' too thick & aggressive, & application with plastic weld solvent with a brush too fiddly as needed a steady hand, so my method for 'plastic welding'  them was to pour a tiny drop of  plastic weld solvent into lid and dip & position each of the footholds.

 

I made another lifting ram, slightly longer total length using a 5/32" aluminium tube placed at the bottom, I reduced the diameter of this tube slightly using a file & emery cloth, painted *it red using a tamiya paint pen*, (**I'll need to paint this bottom tube properly at a later stage)

 

 

I decided I'd gone OTT with the 'rips & bulges' to metal sheeting between ribs, so made some repairs with 0.25 styrene strips, welding them on to some of the bodyside gashes, Before positioning, around the edges of repair plates I used a special tool known as a pounceing tool as recomended by fellow modelling friend Zunnan, the tool is ideal for makeing embossed rivets into thin styrene strip & sheet.

 

Next stage will be tricky, the underside rear end, I really need to think hard about this one about how to do best...  results of this & painting stage in next update.

[hammy]

Looking great

[0121modeller]

Rear end detail & painting;

With referance to my last post concerning the modelling of rear end, this is how I did it, In case I need to remove body from chassis I'll need a pair of tweezers to pull the sleeve off the pivot wire then pull out pivot rod.

I've modelled it as near as possible as shown in photo below;

 

The body pivots up without mudgaurd detailing fouling or binding with chassis,

 

On to painting,

Luckily, I did'nt need to separate the body from chassis.

I applied normal halfords normal automotive/metal primer spray giving extremely fine passes as not to melt the fine styrene & risk flooding intricate detail, I sprayed the rear doors separately,

 

I let the primer to dry for a couple or three hours, then applied 'Renault Etruscan red' (burgundy) , again, spaying doors separately but only the outside as doors will be posed in open position , paint allowed to dry overnight, Then using plastic weld with fine brush, I welded both the rear doors in an open position after fileing off paint at the hinge areas for welds . When doors were welded on & set, I applied a quick passover with primer spray to re-cover the filed area's of hinge/door welds.

 

Body in lowered position hooked onto a Volvo tractor cab

 

...and in elevated pose with Scania &,as shown in photo in background.

Also, just visible is the grappler crane I also scratchbuilt* (*link to this in my 1st post of this thread).

 

This model is virtually complete now, just the rear light clusters to be welded on & a weathering wash applied.

 

 

 

[d winpenny]

Looking excellent, david

[uglykidjoe]

It would look good with a Scania T cab too - they're quite often seen pulling scrap about. The Real-x / Automax ones can be found on Ebay quite often , although they're 1/72 scale

 

http://hongwellcollectors.yuku.com/reply/1787/JoyCity-Automaxx#reply-1787

 

 

Steve

[PhilJ W]

It would look good with a Scania T cab too - they're quite often seen pulling scrap about. The Real-x / Automax ones can be found on Ebay quite often , although they're 1/72 scale

 

http://hongwellcollectors.yuku.com/reply/1787/JoyCity-Automaxx#reply-1787

 

 

Steve

The Automax Scanias are 1/76 scale, as are the Cararama ones. Oxford are bringing out a 'T' cab later this year.

[hornbyandbf3fan]

Some brilliant modelling there! I wish I had the skill as I'm planning a small scrapyard and I'd like models of the lorry and the crane you made as well!

[uglykidjoe]

The Automax Scanias are 1/76 scale, as are the Cararama ones. Oxford are bringing out a 'T' cab later this year.

 

 

Even better then, I did no t realise this as the cab is so big anyway

 

Thanks for that, Steve