dptydawg Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 About 20 years ago I found a well loved sandbox fugitive Hess Training Van at spring Carlisle. It was missing most of its external bits,the door was gone, windshield cracked and front bumper broken. Once I got it home I stripped it down then stuck it on a shelf until a couple weeks ago. I have now as was pics (pre digital camera time), but this is how it looked when it came off the shelf I started off by installing floor sills and making a cardboard template of the new floor. I cut off the cockpit from the original interior and discarded the rest (into the parts box) The new styrene sheet floor is on the van roof. This is the collection of funiture that I built or scrounged from other kits for the interior and this is a mock up of where it is today. most of the interior is done. I had some issues with the paint on the lower hull so until that is resolved I can't install the interior. I have scratch built a replacement door. The paint is Krylon Celery. The interior is mostly Tamyia cockpit green and bug juice green. The woodgrain is cherrywood MacTac More to follow as progress occurs Thanks for looking Carl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinfan5 Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 That is cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 Cool and interesting project... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 Very interesting project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 That looks great! I've been on a bit of a camper theme this year myself! I've never been lucky enough to acquire a Hess Training Van in any condition. I guess I'll need to look harder. There is a resin caster who cast that side door. I don't remember who off the top of my head. Maybe someone here will reply with that info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lower99 Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 This looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apriliadan Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 awesome so far, great reuse of your findings. What a lucky find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantrix Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 Not one of these again! Geez, do you think you could have found something more original to build? Seriously tho, that's pretty cool stuff. Great work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel-Dan Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 I believe it was Don Loomis that had the door in his resin line. been a couple years though, so may no longer be there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffs396 Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 (edited) How cool is that? Here's a replacement door up for bid: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RESIN-CAST-HESS-TRAINING-RECREATIONAL-VAN-REPLACEMENT-DOOR-JUNKYARD-DIORAMA-/360810456135?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item5401faa447 Edited December 14, 2013 by jeffs396 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseldawg142 Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 (edited) ......... Edited May 11, 2018 by dieseldawg142 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dptydawg Posted December 15, 2013 Author Share Posted December 15, 2013 Thanks guys for the interest. Most of the interior shiny bits frig,stove, sink,furnace, are from the Open Road Camper kit. The bunk and some of the cabinetry are from the Kenworth T-600 sleeper, The bench seats are from the Dodge Ram Van kit. The seats are from the parts box. I fabricated a new door. Thanks for the leads on the resin one but I think mine will work. I changed the hinging some. I'm going to leave the model as a glider and I'm staying with the stock wheels and tires. Thanks Carl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Repstock Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 (edited) I've done this conversion. I kept the body halves together, and added interior parts from the bottom. After the interior was done, I added the floor, then built the chassis. I'm leaving a link to my build in the hopes some of the pics might be useful to your build. It's a cool project! Remember, the model is wrong. These were front wheel drive, not rear wheel. I used the engine/trans from a beat up ElDorado promo. http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Repstock/library/GMC%20Motorhome%20Project?sort=3&page=2 http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Repstock/library/GMC%20Motorhome%20Project?sort=3&page=1 http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Repstock/library/GMC%20Motorhome%20Project?sort=3&page=2 Edited December 15, 2013 by Repstock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelercarl Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Carl, I am impressed with what you are doing with this. I worked for a company that bought one of these when they came out and as Chief Engineer I got to use it frequently. Made several trips with the family throughout the Midwest particularly upper and lower Michigan. It was a real attention grabber. About 7-8 years ago I found one of these models and bought it. It was in fairly good shape, needed cleaning up but no broken/missing parts. I also want to detail the interior but have not been able to separate the upper body shell from the lower. Tried freezing the whole thing hoping the joint would "pop", tried many ways of prying them apart without damaging anything, but no luck. Would you share how you were able to get the upper and lower body shells apart without damaging them? Thanks, Carl Gowan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dptydawg Posted December 15, 2013 Author Share Posted December 15, 2013 Tom, that is one gorgeous model. It has way more detail than I plan to add to mine.Thanks for the link to your photos. they will be quite helpful in completing my motorhome. I considered using F250 front wheels for the van but the tires interfered with the wheelwells and I wasn't about to rework them nor built the air ride suspension as you did. So I stuck with the stock wheel disks and tires. What I did was use the front engine section of the bellypan and the rear axle section but I ground off the differentials. and then filled in the rest with sheet styrene. Essentially no underside detail. This model will likely end up in a diorama so the underside shouldn't get a lot of scrutiny. Carl, I ended up using a razor saw in places to get the upper and lower section separated. Some of the glue joint split with direct pressure from a knife blade but not all. all the windows did pop out fairly easily. Thanks Carl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 (edited) I worked for a company that bought one of these when they came out and as Chief Engineer I got to use it frequently. Made several trips with the family throughout the Midwest particularly upper and lower Michigan. It was a real attention grabber. Back in that era, I was a computer aided design (CAD) consultant and there was an engineering company in New Jersey that bought one of these to build a mobile CAD lab. This was in the era when CAD was still done off a main frame with attached terminals. They though this unit could be brought onto a petrochemical site and used to create as-built drawings. Back then this was a huge investment. It was a dismal failure. The main frame didn't travel well and wouldn't fire up on site. Kinda funny in retrospect since any single laptop today has more power than the entire system built into that truck! Edited December 17, 2013 by Tom Geiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooknladderno1 Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Nice work Carl and Tom! I bought one several years ago at a swap meet that the previous owner had crudely cut the top and bottom halves with what looked like a hand saw. Because of the gaping irregular cut, it has sat in a box... At some point, I may try sanding the halves down evenly and then applying Evergreen strip to replace the missing plastic. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
george 53 Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 I have two of these. One I extended by three scale feet, but never haveing seen the UNDERSIDE of one i haven't done too much more to it. It has a larger interior thanks to the stretch, and it sure makes a BIG difference compared to an unstretched one! These are NICE lookin models IF you can find 'em. I paid 50 bucks for each one, which I felt was a GREAT price for what i got! Thanks for the posts Tom. Did you make the masters For Jeff Ballards Econoline van? If so, you are a MASTER CRAFTSMAN, as it is as beautiful as your motorhome!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disabled modeler Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 VERY COOL....!!!! I have always liked campers....needs to be more of them done as kits. I have a few camper projects of my own but nothing like this...never even seen one before how cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davewilly Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Pretty cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Van Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 I have two of those Hess vans.......I hope to convert them someday! I always wanted to replicate the orange 'Palm' scheme! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
safak Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 wonderful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrObsessive Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Wow! I never paid any attention to these until I saw this thread! In fact, Tom I was so impressed by your work to this one, that I went on eBay earlier today and bought one! Got it for a good price ($25), but it's in need of some TLC. It's missing a couple small pieces but nothing that can't be replaced or scratchbuilt. I learned something as well in that the full sizers were front wheel drive. I never knew that! You'd think that with the size that they are with those dualie wheels------they'd be rear drive. You learn something new every day! Carl, keep up the good work with your resto.......I'll definitely be following along! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 I have two of these. One I extended by three scale feet, but never haveing seen the UNDERSIDE of one i haven't done too much more to it. Nobody else has either, so nobody will know! Don't sweat the small stuff, just finish it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilrathy10 Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Excellent work on this one, Buddy....You'd never know what it looked like without the progress pics....Awesome transformation.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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