MrObsessive

Those files look REALLY good Doug! A while back, I stumbled across a '56 Pontiac Safari, I don't remember where I got it though.........possibly from Sketchfab? Here it is, and some of the parts files were all over the map as far as scale.......it took some time to size everything up nice and even. It's not bad at all, but some of it will need some smoothing out before I try and get it printable.

It's probably a bit bigger. In the slicer, the model scales out to 223.24mm's. Scaled down from the actual car in 1/25 that's real close as the actual car would be 225mm's if you shrank it down. Johan's Caddy seemed like more 1/26 or 1/27 scale so they could fit in their standard boxes. I have an X-EL promo somewhere buried away (haven't seen it since I moved several years ago)........sometime I'll have to try and dig that one out and take a look. I can tell you though it's definitely larger.

I'll be following this one! I had all the bits and pieces to do this exact conversion with a '75 Cutlass, UNTIL I saw Robert Burns' 3D cars. I dropped everything and ordered that one and it's definitely on my "to do" list in the not too distant future. I had a '76 as a Driver's Ed car in High School, so this one definitely brings back memories of those days. For headlight buckets, why not check out the Revell '83 Cutlass? The buckets look to be very similar in shape, and you could always add (or subtract) what's needed as it's plastic and not harder to work with resin.

I posted this over on FB a day ago, and it's STILL getting responses on my thread! 😁 This started out as a .obj file I got off of Squir.com. It was pricey, but whoever created the original file really did their homework on getting the lines of this car 'bout perfect. Robert Burns of "Two Many Projects" and I traded files as I got his '70 Buick Riviera I printed recently, and he converted the Caddy to be printable, and will more than likely be in his lineup in his next go round of models he offers. I printed this one and it finished very early yesterday morning, and the print time was around 16+ hours. The body came out very well, with just a couple issues..........namely the very tip of the hood which might be due to the body needing tilted a little bit higher, and a couple faint layer shift lines. Very easily sandable, so I'm not worried about that. The car just fit on my build plate as this is a VERY BIG CAR. I have a bunch of pics I took of the print, and stay tuned to Robert's blog for those of you who follow him on Facebook. I have no idea when his next group buy will be. Original .obj file of the car as I got it from Squir.com. It does have a complete interior BTW, but the rear seat looks to be more for a convertible than a two door hardtop. As it was coming out of the printer on the build plate..........(sorry for the blurry pic...it was waaay early in the morning). We've talked about this ad infinitum, but wall thickness of this depth is VERY important for a model of this size. What can be a challenging task after the body is out of the printer and the excess resin cleaned up is getting it off the supports. Soaking the body in hot water helps to get them off easier, but if the model is too thin in spots particularly where the supports are in a vulnerable place (rocker panels), I can guarantee you the body will literally tear at that spot. This can happen even if the body was cured a bit before getting the supports off. Some complain about bodies being perhaps a bit too thick.........having done this for a while, I can't stress enough how important it is to have stout enough thickness for the model to #1 survive printing, and #2 to handle being taken off the supports. Thick areas such as around the roof pillars, it's easy to take a dremel on low speed and thin them out a tad. Problem solved. Thanks for looking and any questions, I'll try to jump back on and answer if I can.

Depending on the 3D model and how it was formatted, in Blender you can make it so that the model breaks up into many different parts. You can then pick out that script as a separate object, put it on a plane, and then raise up the scripts using the extrusion feature to whatever size you need. Then you can convert the script to a .stl file, scale it in your printer (I'd make a number of them) as you'd want the "base" the script is on to be a few mm's thick. Once the scripts are finished printing, you can then take very thin cheap kitchen foil and then make an epoxy casting of that. Very carefully remove the scripts when the epoxy fully hardens, or simply carefully burnish around the foil, cut out the script, and you're all set. At least this is how my crazy mind is working!

Somewhere on the 'net (might have been YT), I watched a vid where there was a running, driving Mach 5 that someone built based on a 'Vette. It looked VERY convincing, but I don't remember it having all the gadgets that the cartoon car had.

My favorite cartoon to watch as a kid in the '60's! I scratchbuilt a Mach 5 MANY years ago. I still have it, but it doesn't have all the whiz bang gadgets that yours has. 👍🏽 Somewhere on YT there's full vids (unless they took them down) of Speed Racer. I think the second episode that aired (The Great Plan Part 2), the first few minutes of the show, Speed explains what each of those buttons on the steering wheel are for and what they do. I always thought the car looked an awful lot like a customized late '50's Ferrari Testarossa as the Japanese are very big fans of Ferraris in their country.

Ron is on Facebook quite a lot. I posted a thread on the Resin and 3D Models board, and he responded just yesterday. I was at the MAMA meeting in Maryland last Saturday, and Ron was there and doing OK. I can drop him a line and let him know that you asked about him.

Dave, as is mentioned on the video, it's a Phrozen Sonic Mighty 4K. I use Chitubox for the slicer as to me that's the most user friendly. Mods I've done with Blender and with Fusion 360.

If it were me painting this (I'll be doing this shortly), I'd do just as was suggested. Paint the inside of your trunk, door jambs (body and the doors) inside of the hood, and parts of inside of the body where it can be seen from the outside such as the inner fenders if needed. Let it thoroughly dry, and then tape the outside parts close, but not necessarily all the way in the opening. Especially for candies, this is tricky as you want the same hue throughout, as well as you want your paint to be in the same "direction". Direction meaning with candy paint, you have to paint in a diagonal fashion in all directions to ward off "zebra stripes". Hope this helps!

Thanks to a good recommendation by @my66s55 , I now have a second BIGGER 3D printer just delivered today. It's another Phrozen model since the first one was pretty much trouble free, and I already got it up and running with a complete body of the 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso. I scaled it to 1/24th in the slicer, since it would eventually be a transkit with an Italeri kit I've got lying around. I shot a quick vid of it running not long after the print started. Despite the not very steep angle, I usually have my settings to get the print as smooth as possible, so it's around a 12 hour run for this one. So far so good, and overnight while I'm asleep it'll be done, and I can get 'er all cleaned up by morning.

Oh yeah..........I've gotten some that are not as accurate as they should be. I try to look them over, and if it's a small flaw, I can edit the file to make it more like the 1:1. Some are just so way off, and if I see it in the previews, I don't even bother to buy/download it. I've had one particular vendor send me a file to preview it, and I pointed out where the model should be changed as not only the roofline was inaccurate, but the car itself was too short for that particular model/wheelbase. Same goes for scale. I've cautioned those that are buying files and it says "1/24-25th scale", they should seriously consider looking up the specs of the 1:1, and scale the model in their slicer. I've heard more than a few complaints about files not being scaled correctly, and I'm a big believer in doing that on my own, no matter what the creator says.

I came across this one last night. I found it (FREE!) on a gaming site of all places. It's not bad at all, and while it will need some editing to be printable, the body lines to my eyes are spot on, and I have pics of the 1:1 which show what most of the tubular frame should look like. 1959 Corvette Stingray racer. A car I've been wanting to see as a kit for YEARS, but I doubt it'll ever happen. The model as it came in the original .obj format.......... I was able to separate the body out, and for the moment I wanted to see how it would look smoothed out to get rid of the "faceted" appearance. I converted that file into a .stl file and then wanted to see how it would appear on the slicer print bed. Of course, this is not to scale as my current smaller printer would not let this fit in 1/25 scale at all. Those black insides tell me that I'll need to do some further editing as it would not print as is. A technique I use to cure this.............too involved to explain here.

I was just searching for a 3D file of the '59-'60 Eldorado Brougham the other day. No luck so far...........yet. 👌🏽

As of tomorrow, I have a second bigger printer to be delivered. The one I have now, either I have to tilt the body at a steep angle, or I split the body and do it in halves. This newest one should be able to do a whole body (one of my first will be a '73 Olds Delta 88 four door), so it shouldn't take quite as long as I don't have to angle it so steeply. The smaller printer I'll keep as I can use that for printing interiors, engine stuff, hoods, trunks, etc, while the larger one is going. It'll mean more cleanup at the end though which is not one of my favorite things when it comes to 3D printing. 🤯

My favorite cartoon when this came out as EVERYBODY was talking about Speed Racer when it first aired here in the fall of '68. Even the girls were into Speed Racer! I scratch built one of these a loooooong time ago and having the model like yours would have made things so much easier! Yours looks great and looks so much like the TV car. Not long ago I watched a video where someone built and was driving a 1:1 Mach 5. Now THAT was cool! 😎

Somewhere on this forum, there was someone who did build a rather nice version of this car despite all its foibles. I don't remember the builder's name, but it was not bad at all. I tried to attempt to correct and build this one many years ago, but after the third time when the body broke, it went into the "forever never finished" pile. It can be built, it just takes more time and patience than a newer kit. I personally can't get past the car's very inaccurate body shape.

This is my own personal solution to the forever inaccurate Revell 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. I came across this super excellent file on a site called Animium.com, where you pay for certain "level" 3D files and you're allowed so many downloads per month. I don't know who the creator of this file was, but I will say they have certainly done their homework as this is THE MOST accurate version of this car I've yet to see in any scale. Now granted, quite a bit will need to be done to the files to make them printable, as this as I have it now is in a .obj format. I don't know when this will be first a digital WIP, and then a physical one. A number of projects in mind have priority, but this is definitely in the lineup.

I've been buying a number of 3D files these days as you just never know when they'll up and disappear without a trace. Since these are to eventually be 3D printed, there's going to be quite a bit of work in getting them printable as most of them are in their native .obj format. Here are a number of pics of what I've run across. Some of them I got at a reasonable price, others were rather expensive, but from what I've seen in my Blender software, they are 'bout perfect. 👍🏽 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham 1960 Studebaker Lark 1958 Cadillac Coupe Deville.......one of the more pricier ones, but worth every penny. 1964 Studebaker Champ Pickup One I'm working on at the moment for printing in the not too distant future..........1973 Olds Delta 88. Thanks to @my66s55 for the very helpful tips on adding wall thickness, that's what I'm in the middle of now. As you can see, all of these (with the exception of the Eldorado Brougham) are vehicles that we'd NEVER see from the major kit manufacturers as modern kits. Now that I have the files and can tweak them to be printable, I can make the cars I've wanted for years and not have to worry or wonder if they'll make this or that. Lots of work for sure in getting files ready, but then it's more than likely you'll have one of the very few cars that will be seen either at a show, or even in a magazine.

Soldering something like what Randy is doing is not my strong suit......my hats off to him as this is definitely a one of kind model. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else attempt this. AND brass body panels to boot! 🤯 Having said that, I was recently looking for a 3D file of the Birdcage chassis as I did print out the body from a file I got from Bill Cunningham, and it came out very well. To me that's what makes the whole car. In fact, I'd print out two chassis.......one for the build itself, and another one to display next to the finished car which would be pretty neat.

Johan unfortunately is the ONLY company to ever get that '57-'59 Dodge/Plymouth 2 door hardtop roofline correct. Of course, we know the story about AMT's '58 Plymouth.......I can go on. That is one thing I do like about 3D printing. I happen to have a file for a '57 four door hardtop Belvedere, and while the lower body is very low poly (faceted), the roofline is 'bout perfect, and I could always separate just the roof and use that if I wanted to create a '58. I've also got a file for a '57 Dodge and while it's not bad, the roof is easily editable with a few tweaks especially at the C pillars. I have that '59 Plymouth (actually a couple of them) and yes, they're kinda tough to find, but the X-EL's like Steve mentioned are a bit easier to be had. Some are pricey though, so there's that. BTW, Steve........your '59 is absolutely GORGEOUS! 💓

Ok, I see where you lowered the height of the radiator for clearance. Funny the radiator is vertical in the race car, and not tilted like they did in the street cars. That would certainly help with hood clearance.

Pierre, is there a way you could raise the engine mounts (on the block) allowing it to sit lower in the chassis? I had this issue years ago when I was building the ROG Jaguar XK-SS and converting it to a D-Type. The engine sat too high making the hood stick up, and not sit flush with the cowl. I remember not only shaving the mounts, but moving them higher up on the block to get it to sit lower, and also shaving the inside of the hood for that extra half mil or so clearance. At least you're finding all this out now, and it's the reason I constantly reinforce to novices to NEVER paint your car first until ALL the fitment issues are handled if there's any at all. Painting IMO should be one of the last things done in building a model.

Thanks Rob, and you're welcome! 😁

Months ago, I printed out a file I got of a 1967 Maserati Ghibli coupe. One of my favorite European cars from the '60's and the first effort wasn't too bad considering. Since that time, I figured out a way in Blender how to separate body parts from one another if the file was originally created that way (there's another more tedious why if it's not), and wanted to do another Maserati. This time with opening doors and hood. Since I'm still using my small Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K, I needed to once again split the body in half with 3D Builder, and run the two halves at different times. The rear clip of the car I did first, but my better sense was telling me to put some sort of bracing between the roof and the rocker. I've had an issue in the past when the slicer detects too many "open area", it will not form the supports, despite them being in the preview screen before the model is sliced. Here are pics of how the rear half turned out............ Very nice how it came out, and no issues with missing or halfway formed supports despite part of the doors being edited out. I noticed that the trunk would not separate when I was doing the original editing.....that's probably just as well as I can 'bout guarantee with that open area, there would have been an issue. The next day, I moved on to the front half of the car, and here's where things got interesting. I had edited out the hood and saved that as a separate object, but my sense was telling me to try and put some kind of bracing(s) across the hood so the slicer can "see" what needs a support there, and not have an issue with either missing, or halfway done supports. Well................here's the results of that. 🤯 Obviously, this front clip is trashed as there's no fixing it and I wasn't even going to attempt to try. I tried it again, but this time I left the hood in place, and made extra bracing between the edited out doors, roof and rockers. Much, much better this time and I'm stand by my thought that the open doors have some type of effect on how the supports will form, or lack thereof. When I first printed the front half with nothing edited out back in March, I had no issue whatsoever and I'm glad I added the extra bracing as a failed print certainly would have happened. I can see though that the supports stopped forming about where the top of the side bracing ended. I don't know if that's an issue with Chitubox's software or with Phrozen, but this has happened before with opening panels. I got the two halves joined together, and I sprayed a very light light coat of primer over the join areas to cover the putty I used. A MUCH, MUCH nicer result this time around! I can always cut the hood out at a later time as there's a scored line in the underside which makes this easier to do. Since I have the hood separated as its own object, I can always print that out if need be if the cutout hood gets damaged in some way. One thing I noticed is the difference in scale of the newer printed body. IIRC, the first body I ran straight from the vendor with no changes in scale. The latest body, I scaled the file out in the slicer as I have specs of the 1:1, and wanted this to be true 1/25. Notice the difference in size........... I can always add trim for around the windows and roofline later on. Of course, I'll have to build door jambs for the body and doors, as well as make my own hinges. At some point, I'd cut out the trunk also. I'd brace the inside first however as the hinge retainers would need more real estate to rest on. As the months have wore on since I got the printer, there's always something new I'm finding out. I hope in the not too distant future to get a second bigger and newer printer (same brand), and I'll be curious to find out if I'm still having the same issues with missing supports whenever there's any open areas edited out.