WBO2014: You say Tow Mater, I say Tam' ata' !

[bromvw 744]

Jenny - how about doing the blanking panel un weathered so it looks like a repair ???/

[JennyMo 3526]

Jenny - how about doing the blanking panel un weathered so it looks like a repair ???/

Funny you suggest that - I did consider using a piece of scale chequer-plate that I have, which could be painted in shiny silver to look like it had just been riveted in perhaps? But personally I think I'd prefer it to look like a single deck if I was running it as a pick-up... although that said, I would probably want to include a bunch of rusty fuel cans and old tyres anyway, which would cover the deck of course!

Jx

[JennyMo 3526]

So just a quick update - Mater is now 99% finished, now that my custom LED lights have arrived today!

I contacted Model Lighting Solutions through ebay (I've bought from them before, including the lights on the STUMPscorcher) to see if they could make me up a custom loom for the STUMPkamper, and at the same time, create a more simple loom for Mater, as I couldn't find anything suitable off the shelf...

All I needed was a pair of 3mm red tail lights, plus a pair of 5mm white lamps - but on long(ish) individual strings, as one would be Mater's headlight, and the other the work-lamp on the roll-bar. Fortunately MLS also offer a 'vintage' white LED light as well as a bright version, further adding to Mater's rusted-busted authenticity, and at the same time, meaning the rear work-lamp wouldn't be too bright when running.

The loom is a simple fit, no need for a controller, just a direct plug into a spare channel on the receiver - although I have used a Y cable, as I also need power for the separate rotating flashing beacon:

The kit came complete with self-adhesive cable clips, making install a doddle!

The end result:

One eye:

Flashing beacon (caught on camera after about ten attempts! ;o)

And again!

Work-lamp power cable does need to be painted rust to hide it a little:

I'd call that done!

Toot toot!

Jenny xx

[Kevin_Mc 411]

Fantastic - there's no other word for it

[Trini2DBone 633]

Fantastic - there's no other word for it

X2! Looks exquisite! I love this build!

[B.M.T. 127]

How did I miss this? That is brilliant. And would drop a very inappropriate skid with them skinny tires

Speaking of, yes, the trucks have a 12mm hex for the rear, 11mm bearing on spindle for the fronts. The rims are 1.7" . I fear there would be a whole tire worth of pokage out side the guards, though. Time to slice and inset a strip of styrene

[JennyMo 3526]

How did I miss this? That is brilliant. And would drop a very inappropriate skid with them skinny tires

Speaking of, yes, the trucks have a 12mm hex for the rear, 11mm bearing on spindle for the fronts. The rims are 1.7" . I fear there would be a whole tire worth of pokage out side the guards, though. Time to slice and inset a strip of styrene

Thanks BMT! - yes I can confirm it certainly likes to do donuts on the kitchen floor with those tyres ;o)

I guess if the truck rims are 1.7 then the skinny Scorcher front tyres could be stretched to fit - although to be honest the proper truck style tyres would be appropriate on the dually rear anyway... and as you say, the rear arches are going to need modifying to cover the outer wheel properly...

It's not an option I've discounted just yet ;o)

Jx

[B.M.T. 127]

A thought their, Jenny... Rough Rider fronts would/should be an ok fit on those Semi truck rims, they're 1.6" and a bit. And would offer some grip. The truck tyres are very, very, hard (well the set I have are, the compound may of evolved, but, this is Tamiya!~ lol) Also, Someone, might of been RC4WD did a low profile trailer tire to suit them...

**edit**

They don't do those any more, but these... 73mm diameter.

http://store.rc4wd.com/LoRider-17-Commercial-114-Semi-Truck-Tires_p_1506.html

[Dojo Dave 889]

Holy moley, I don't care what you say that's incredible right there. Jenny you have out done yourself again, you are an inspiring artist and I hope one day to be able to pull something like this off.... Outstanding work.

[JennyMo 3526]

So just a quick photo update for Jan 2017 - as I've recently photographed all my vehicles in an attempt to update my showroom/s with a summary of all the latest mods (I'm losing count!)...

photo. inspired by a comment in my showroom from Crash Cramer, I have indeed fitted a 'Ghost-light' to Mater's crane!

 

I'm still debating on converting the rear axle/wheel-arches to dually - the main issue is finding a pair of stub axles that are long enough to mount twin wheels onto the M-chassis uprights - I'm thinking either Wild Willy 2 rear axles, or even Frog/Brat versions if they are longer?

But for now I'll leave you with Larry's cheesy grin again!

Happy New Year everyone!

Jenny x

 

 

[Nitomor 2122]

Excellent stuff, I think the Honda City has long axles from memory!?

[JennyMo 3526]

Jan 2017: Ta'Mater - Dually conversion!

Right, I've been busy with a tape measure and eBay, and this is what I've come up with...

That is a set of 1/14th Tamiya Truck dual rear wheels and tyres - the wheels themselves are 1.7 diameter, and 22mm* wide, and use a regular 12mm hex drive fitting.

*Actual measurement is 20mm wide.

However, once they'd arrived, I found the corresponding tyres were much larger diameter than I thought - approx. 83mm - so around 10-11mm larger than Rough Rider front tyres for example (which are also 1.7s of course). The truck tyres would clearly be far too big for the body (even if I fitted 1.7 wheels to the front too - which I didn't want to do anyway as I love the skinny smoothy tyres that I'd fitted on the front already), so I'd have no choice but to buy another pair of Rough Rider front tyres to go with those I already had in my stash...

photo. So at least I could mock-up one side at least, and double check the extra length of axle I'd need. I imagined adding another wheel [thickness] to the stock axle would reduce the length by around 3mm, and sure enough this was the case.

 

photo. The top axle is the regular M/TL etc. chassis TG10 length, as fitted to the Lowride Pumpkin M6 chassis as standard. The lower axle is one from a WR-02 (Wild Willy 2/Wheelie bus etc.) chassis - the same size drive flange and pin location, just 3mm longer - result!

So the required replacement axles were ordered, together with some more Rough Rider front tyres:

 

In the meantime, test fitting the wheels on one side had also revealed that the 20mm wide rims were a little too close to the wishbones, unless you used the wider Wild Willy hex drives, but then you'd lose the length of the axle again of course...

However, the Rough Rider front tyres are also slightly narrower than the 1/14th truck tyres anyway, so removing the bead flange (approx. 5mm) on the inside face of the inner wheels would give me the required clearance, plus make the tyre sit correctly on the narrower rim.

The trick now of course will be to narrow the outer wheel in a similar way, but retain the original detailed outer flange - I'm going to have to get creative without a lathe, but fortunately any mistakes I do make can be pretty much hidden with the rust and corrosion that Mater has:

 

Once the replacement tyres had arrived, it was time for one last mock-up before breaking out the hack-saw:

 

photo. I think this is going to look bad-bottom!

 

photo. Clearly the arches will have to be extended a little mind you!

 

More soon!

Jenny xx

 

[Mannyp1980 49]

Mater looks awesome with the double wheels on.

[JennyMo 3526]

56 minutes ago, Mannyp1980 said:

Mater looks awesome with the double wheels on.

Hee hee - thank you, and yes, it really has changed the whole look of the truck - much more purposeful and dragster like!

I'll be making a start on extending the wheel-arches soon, that really should tie it all together...

Jx

[Mannyp1980 49]

Mater gonna get some junk in his trunk!!!

[JennyMo 3526]

Part 1: Fitting dual rear wheels (1/14th Tamiya Truck rear wheels) to the M-06 chassis/Low-ride Pumpkin.

Ok, so I took the plunge with the hack-saw, and I have to say, things turned out alright after all!

First up, the main issue was the width of the 1/14th wheels - they were 20mm rim to rim, and therefore a little too wide for the Rough Rider/Buggy Champ front tyres I wanted to use.

A quick eye-ball showed that if I removed approx. 5mm from each wheel, the tyres ought to sit more realistically - and more importantly, if I removed the 5mm from the inside face of the inner wheels, then they would now clear the suspension uprights without having to use longer hexes...

Similarly, removing 5mm from the outside face of the outer wheels, would narrow the overall track width of the rear axle assembly, and mean the wheelarches would not have to be extended quite so far.

Fortunately, 5mm also equated to the width of the tyre bead on each wheel - making things easy to measure.

 

Inner wheels

I started with the inside wheels (the one with the hex drive), and it was simple to just cut the outer flange (and bead recess) off the wheel, and therefore the inner flange would become the new outer flange if you see what I mean?

I then cut some notches in the cross-ribs, so that the tyre would sit in this new 'bead' and the six ribs would help to act as an inner bead:

Tyres fitted, and wheels re-fitted - suspension clearance sorted!

 

 

Outer wheels

The outer wheels would require a little more finite work if they were to retain their original appearance.

Initially I cut both of the outer tyre beads off, as ideally I'd want to retain the complete bead on the outside of the wheel (where hard cornering forces might otherwise cause the tyre to unseat), but also because the Truck wheels have an inner lip detail that I wanted to retain - and cutting the wheel on the inside edge of the inner bead flange means it remains intact.

The centre section of each wheel was then sanded down to the required thickness - 10mm in this case, so that when the 5mm outer bead was reattached, the overall width is 15mm.

 

Although this method takes time (compared to using a lathe for example) the result was actually pretty accurate...

 

I used superglue to initially joint the outer rim to the wheel, then filled in the central section of the outer wheel with Araldite to form a strong bond.

photo. the narrowed inner and outer wheels together.

 

Happy with the way they fitted and the tyres sat, it was time for some paint... 

Mater is essentially rusty, although apparently his rear wheels were once painted white - so it was out with the salt again for the outer faces.

 

A bit of weathering to enhance the detail and rust - and note that because these wheels were originally satin-silver plated, rubbing the moulded whee-nuts revealled the original silver finish, which adds to the detail. The inner and outer wheels are also held together with three M2 allen bolts and nuts, forming a single wheel unit for when you take them on and off the vehicle.

 

The finished dually wheels fitted to the M-06 chassis:

Body on:

I think these look great, and have really changed the whole stance of the vehicle now!

 

All that is required to finish the conversion is to extend the wheel-arches by 10mm each side:

 

Stand-by for the body mods soon!

Jx

 

[Grastens 2795]

Yes, I think 'top-notch skill' would include using two dissimilar parts and mating them to a dissimilar chassis and making it look so natural as that! Amazing as always

[JennyMo 3526]

1 hour ago, Grastens said:

Yes, I think 'top-notch skill' would include using two dissimilar parts and mating them to a dissimilar chassis and making it look so natural as that! Amazing as always

Thank you Grastens! I have to say, it really is coming together now the arches have been extended (photos soon I promise - just sanding and painting now) - there is every chance you're going to burst when you see it finished!

Like my recent box-art paint on the STUMPscorcher, I think the dually conversion to Mater is something I should have done from the beginning ;o)

Jx

[JennyMo 3526]

Part 2: Wheel-arch widening...

 

photo. No going back now!

 

photo. Pretty clean cut with the Dremel...

 

photo. Mocking up infill panel with cereal packet strip.

 

photo. Styrene strip (10mm wide by 175mm long) - heated with heat-gun and bent to profile before cooling. Tacked on with superglue initially.

 

photo. Both sides done, and joint strengthened inside with Araldite.

 

photo. Superglued in place... you can see the additional width.

 

photo. Arch joint strengthened with Araldite before being attached, then more Araldite used to strengthen joint with wing.

 

photo. I'm pleased with that, time to start sanding...

 

photo. A thin layer of filler required to fill/cover joint.

 

photo. Inside of the arches, showing the Araldite joints.

 

photo. Repainting the rust - a mix of red-oxide primer and VW orange (as before).

 

photo. Wanda says it's time for some salt! (note. I added a little more blue to the rear wings to improve the contrast of the rust effect).

 

photo. Masking required to prevent over-spray.

 

photo. A little weathering (with black wash and orange rust powder), and a touch more blue on the front wings too...

 

photo. Close up of the rust detail - I love the new wheels!

 

photo. There you go, that's 'proper phatt', as the kidz might say...

Toot toot for now!

 

Jenny x

 

ps. I can confirm that even with the double tyres on the rear, this thing still spins at the touch of the throttle - donuts galore!

 

[Crash Cramer 617]

Ohhhh Jenny, that is some outstanding work as usual from you. I am not wanting to compare, but this work and attention to detail reminds me a lot of a truck built 12 years ago now by user Tamiya Fever, it won the competition "The car Tamiya SHOULD have made"

If you haven't seen it, I sure hope to hear your input when you do, if you have, well, never hurts to look again at some outstanding work on a Tamiya.

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=38722&id=1743&vb=t

Thanks for putting Mater "right" with duallys out back.

[JennyMo 3526]

4 hours ago, Crash Cramer said:

Ohhhh Jenny, that is some outstanding work as usual from you. I am not wanting to compare, but this work and attention to detail reminds me a lot of a truck built 12 years ago now by user Tamiya Fever, it won the competition "The car Tamiya SHOULD have made"

If you haven't seen it, I sure hope to hear your input when you do, if you have, well, never hurts to look again at some outstanding work on a Tamiya.

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=38722&id=1743&vb=t

Thanks for putting Mater "right" with duallys out back.

Thank you Crash' - and wow! - that F350 in the link is exceptional! - I really thought it was a real truck in the first (and subsequent) photos - and no, I'd not seen it before - amazing!

Jx

[JennyMo 3526]

I've updated my showroom with some new 'complete' photos... here is a selection (and some others) for your delectation!

photo. new rear arches, 10mm wider each side.

 

photo. I took the opportunity to add a little more blue paint to the front and rear wings, adding to the contrast of the rusty sections.

 

photo. I feel the new rust detail, especially on the rear wheels, is particularly realistic?

 

photo. Mater is still primarily rusty of course - that hood was down a canyon a long time!

 

photo. Load-bay details, and you'll notice the Ghost-light is now secured in place - and it swings as he drives along!

 

photo. Lower radiator panel painted in white as a nod to his teeth...

 

photo. Although it's Larry Willy the driver who really has the cartoon buck-teeth!

 

photo. I'm so pleased with the new stance of this model now... however, while it still slides and skids like a good un', it also grips (particularly when braking or on the overrun) and it's already rolled twice... I blame the rubbish stock shocks of course - so maybe it's time for an upgrade there too ;o)

 

Hope you like the latest mods!

 

Jenny xx

[Newsh 111]

That looks brilliant! 

[Mannyp1980 49]

Mater looks absolutely amazing, the double wheels are perfect and the wider arches look like the body came like that, perfect!!!

[Ciano67 156]

 

dear Jenny,

an fantastic job as generally your works.