da Speedinger

thank you Gene

finished finally

thank you for your kind words, Dale! many greetings from Austria to Australia!

again i wanted to make something special, this time from a 1/24 revell VW samba bus kit. from the beginning it was clear for me to use a cheap old 911 porsche model as a donor for engine and wheels. first idea was to make a shorty bus, as gas monkeys did. but soon a shorty bus equiped with a powerful porsche engine became a stupid idea for me. also playing around with ideas of choping or shortening just a little didn't make it into realisation. i ended with the plan to make a triple cab pickup, as only single and double cab versions were produced by VW. the interior and exterior design i stole from Kindigit Design. the cassis had to be modified to lower the stance and to accept the wider tyres and the 911 engine. from the body (a multi piece body i had to glue together first before making the mods) i cut away 2 windows and made the pickup bed and a new rear window panel from styrene. also the roof was shortened, but i kept the sunroof in full size and most panorama windows. the front doors were converted into suicide doors. i also used the front seats, dashbord and steering wheel from the porsche and modified the original rear seat benches. the bed was covered with coffee stir sticks. many smaller parts had to be scratch built, like the flat screen or the exhausts. rear lights and an antenna were frenched. finally a friend of mine 3D printed me a new front logo.

thank you very much for your kind words, chris! honestly i have to admit it took me more than 2 years from the initial idea to the final result, simply because i did not have the right idea how to make the frame. i started several times but my approaches always failed. as soon as i could solve this major issue, the whole build was done within 2 months. therefore - never give up, you will succeed one day!

thanks, Mark!

thank you!

well, not really my own idea. because this ducati engine is designed to hold the swingarm pivot on the motogp bike. therefore it was clear to use this as the connection to the rear frame. but that means: you can never make a rollin chassis, you always need the engine.

thanks a lot for your kind words, tom!

a mostly scratch built boardtracker-style custom bike, featuring a ducati motogp engine (gp4), girder fork, plunger suspension, diagonal tyres, mechanical drum brakes and wire-spoke wheels. everything except engine and wheels is scratch-built or kit-bashed. WIP: finished model:

for me the the body looks chopped, are you planning a chop, too?

sharp!

WIP: VW Samba Custom Triple Cab Pickup - Kindigit Design style

looks great - yellow and black is always a good contrast! personally i would have lowered the stance a little, at least the front. and maybe a bit wider wheel track.

i like it a lot! your reference car has the wide body kit painted in body color, but i think using semi-gloss black or carbon fibre decals would rock even more. here's a sample of what i mean:

would be interesting to know, how much you changed the transmission ratio. normally, with a smaller front sprocket, the car would go slower. so a bigger rear sprocket would be needed. for a car that is supposed to break the landspeed record, this is a very important issue!

you have a cool photo shooting location down there in southern france!

i like your approach - not oob but make the maximum from nothing. i personally would have also modified the stock exhaust into lake pipes or bellflower tips using pieces from the kit's molding frames.

very sharp!

use prototyping, as we IT-guys do. with this i mean to add some rivets to a spare part and then compare your result with the molded rivets. you should see then which one you like better.

amazing to see on your pics that the drivers legs were the first thing behind the front wing. in these days when you hit another car or the railguards your legs were gone ....

onother model that already appeared on escale. i found this kit, partly started (just glued the fork, no paint): i haven't made a scrambler so far, the model is already vintage (because the Z1 is a bike from the 70s), so i soon found where i want to end up with this build: did not look to dramatic to transfer the Z1 into this retro scrambler, except 2 minor issues: cylinder #1 and #4. the Z1 is an inline-four, whilst a scrambler is a single cylinder or a parallel twin (like this one). i thought this will be a challenge for me, which could result in a failure. but it turned out to be a simple job, just a little planning where to cut and very soon the block, the crankcase, the head and the valve-cover where shortened. to achieve a slim bike i also narrowned the tank, the seat and the engine covers. exhaust was scratch built, also the engine protector. the other parts where modified according to the photo reference. this pic shows the first mock up: unfortunately the stance was the one of a chopper and not of a offroad bike (although i already extended the length of the rear shocks). after shortening the forks and building 3 further sets of shocks i was happy: and here is the final result:

oh i would love to see some pics of the racing cinquecentos from the old days!

i had the same issue to fit the 911 engine into my fiat 500 body and i also eliminated the clutch in order to fit the drive shafts in a proper angle.

cool idea!