Scott Colmer Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) A couple years ago a friend at work said asked me if I wanted to replicate a truck that a friend of his was building. I had other projects going on, but I agreed. The other friend was Louie Force. I met with Louie at the FXI shop and we struck a deal for me to build a 1/25 scale version of the truck he was building for FXI. When I started the truck was in rough mock up. Now it is nearly completed. I'll do the WIP thread from the beginning. Here is the truck in rough mock up of the 1to1. Hosted on Fotki I started chopping off the roof of an AMT Peterbuilt then opening and hinging the doors. If I remember right, I might have found the source for the hinges here in the trucker's lane of the forum. Hosted on Fotki Then I figured I would start with the chassis. The kit front axle had the center dip added to match the 1to1 axle. I'll save the drilling for in Canada in the build. I also started on the steering knuckles. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Thanks for looking. Scott Edited January 10, 2015 by Scott Colmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petetrucker07 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 This is gonna be cool. FXI is a local company to me. Ill be watchin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olsbooks Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Very cool. Any tidbits you can add on how you made "this or that" are greatly appreciated for us novices at scratchbuilding. Thanks for posting and looking forward to following. Peace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirt Demon Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 can't wait to see this one done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Colmer Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Clayton, and Bill. Thanks for the interest. This is the first big rig I have ever build, so this is all new territory for me. Jesse, I do not have a lot of detail pics about making some of the parts, but I'll share the one's I do have. Time to make the front leaf spring. I measured the 1to1 spring and scaled it to 1/25 using an on-line scale calculator and dial caliper. I started with brass strips cut from K&S Sheet. Hosted on Fotki The hardest part of making a leafspring is making the eyelets and getting the distance between the two correct. Start by bending one end around a form. I used a drill bit to match the size of the sleeve I was going to use. Allow for extra during the bend that can be cut off before the end is curled under the bit. Pliers will be needed. The second bend is the one that takes measuring and planning. Be sure to plan allow for the reduction in length that will happen when you add the arc to the spring. (You might want to bend the arc when taking the measurement.) Mark where you need the second eyelet to be and know that the bend will happen on the outside of the location. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki The hard part is done. Now to put the arc in the rest of the leafs. Hosted on Fotki The retainer brackets are made from aluminum. The trick to a tight fit is to drill the first hole, bend the bracket around the spring, then use the first hole as a pilot for the second. The bolts are home made. Hosted on Fotki Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petetrucker07 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 This is cool. Im gonna pay attention, i might learn something. Looks good so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Colmer Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 In the last installment you can see I started the chassis. This time I get the major work on the chassis done. If you are going to replicate a 1 to 1 vehicle, you have to take LOTS of measurements. I have a sketchbook full of measurements of the chassis with the 1/25 conversion by each note. That includes the thickness of the rails, connectors, mounts. I had to do a good amount of remeasuring too. I also had lots of photos to help keep track of all the details. One trick is accounting for the thickness of the body. Body mounts have the moved inwards just a bit. So here is the finished chassis before it went out to paint. Hosted on Fotki Phase 1 is the main rails and the stringers that are used the stiffen the chassis. If you look at the rear kick up you can see it is not boxed. Just like the 1 to 1. Hosted on Fotki The basic chassis is done. Still a lot of bracket work to do. Hosted on Fotki The brackets that hold the real radius rods are unique in the they create a box of sorts. The outer bracket is chrome. The inner is welded to the frame. Hosted on Fotki To make a set of matching brackets, I usually make the first one, with guide holes at the ends. Then I make the number of roughed out brackets I need. All the pieces are slid onto straight pins with a thin dab of CA glue between the layers to hold them in place while I match the rough brackets to the original master. One trick I use it to run a black sharpie around the edge off the master so it shows when the other brackets have reached the same size. Also remember to keep the edge of the bracket "stack" as square as possible when shaping. Hosted on Fotki Once the brackets are shaped, douse them with debonder and carefully pry them apart. If they are stubborn, use a little more debonair, but be careful it will soften the surface of the plastic, Hosted on Fotki I decided to add the styling holes one bracket at a time because did not trust myself to make them match by drilling through the bracket stack. I like to start them small and the work out to the final diameter. File, check, file. It allows me to slightly adjust the placement of the holes as I go along. Hosted on Fotki Hope you like it so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olsbooks Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 WOW! Thank you SO much for taking time to walk an imbecile like me thru the process. Your willingness to take the time to detail even the simplest of stuff has taught me far more than you could imagine. Peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Colmer Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 (edited) Time for round things. I did not think I would be scratch building so much of this project. There are just not that many parts available. So I had to make the disc brake rotors, front rims, and rear rims and tires. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki First up - The rotors. I counted the fins on the 1 to 1 rotors because, well - because. My first set were eyeballed and the finished product did not look great. Fin spacing and angle was inconsistent. Hosted on Fotki The second time I used some measure'n tools. The pictures tell the story. (The cut out thing on the far right gets explained further down.) Hosted on Fotki Careful placement and less glue make for a cleaner finished product. Hosted on Fotki The sharpie trick again. This time for even fin height. I am always reaching for that flat file. (Left to me by my Grandfather.) Hosted on Fotki Rotors look good. What you also see here are the hubs and the front rims under constructions. It really a matter of making shapes. Notice I marked the slots, drilled the holes on each end, then carefully connected the holes. Then the center plate for the rim was cut form the sheet. Hosted on Fotki Finally I had to widen the kit rear rims and tires. Fortunately, a big rig kit has LOTS of rims and tires to combine. The trick for the tires was finding an inner tube that was wide enough to support the tire. It came from a plastic candy cane that held little bottles of booze. That's the blue thing. I used masking tape for the final tweaking in the tread height. Hosted on Fotki That's it until next time. Edited January 17, 2015 by Scott Colmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bennyg Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Very cool. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blazefox Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I like it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Colmer Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 (edited) Ben and Steve, thanks for the comments! I am almost out of pictures of how-to's. At this point we are up on four wheels. All the radius rods are from K&S Tubing. The rod ends are scratch built by flattening and shaping one end of aluminum rod. Threads are made by rolling the rod under a sharp blade. It takes practice. The final trick is to thicken the joint ends with epoxy steel so they are not so flat. Hosted on Fotki There are still more parts to build. Rear end and third member. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Making parts is really about identifying shapes and replicating them. Here is the beginning of the third member. Hosted on Fotki Here is the finished product. The kit housing has been widened in all directions. The third member took a lot of shaping and additional shape elements to replicate the 1 to 1 part. Hosted on Fotki Now the master cylinder Hosted on Fotki Again, another assembly of styrene shapes. Hosted on Fotki And finally the steering box. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki That's all for now. Next time we build the roll cage and do the body modifications. Thanks for lookin' Scott Edited January 25, 2015 by Scott Colmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petetrucker07 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Very nice work. Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilrathy10 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Man, this is a nice piece of work.....Way to go on those discs....Wow....That's a lot of work for just a few parts.....Very nice..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Colmer Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 (edited) Thanks for the encouraging comments Clayton and JT. Time for some larger parts. First the body. I thought the AMT kit body looked OK. But when I dropped it on the chassis it did not meet the mounting points. Hmmm. I headed back to the FXI garage and measured the body. When I scaled down the measurements to 1/25, I found the kit body was smaller that I needed. So out came the saw. First the back was widened. Hosted on Fotki Then the front got it. Hosted on Fotki Then it all went back together. I also added some material between the back of the cab and the rear of the doors. Hosted on Fotki Time for a mock up. The stance is a match to the way Louie set up the truck by this time. Nothing like the first mock up. Hosted on Fotki Before I started on the cage I needed the floor in place. I also made the grill shell. Hosted on Fotki Here is the 1 to 1 shell for reference. Hosted on Fotki OK here is what we are making. ...A 2" OD tube roll cage fitting of a hot rod Peterbuilt Hosted on Fotki Well, heating 2" scale rod did not go well. Hat's off to those who can do this. Not a skill I have. Hosted on Fotki Soooo. I went the aluminum rod in the tube route. Just the right amount of masking tape made for a sung fit. Also, instead of filing the entire tube with the rod, I pushed it up to the bend area using the depth sitck(?) on my calipers. Hosted on Fotki There's the finished product. This was actually pretty fun. If I made a piece too short it was was easy to splice in a section using styrene rod to join both ends. Hosted on Fotki OK. Next up is the rear wing and the supports. AKA juggling spiders. Scott Edited February 6, 2015 by Scott Colmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunkypeanutbutter Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Holy cannoli. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petetrucker07 Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Lookin good man. Are they gonna have the 1:1 done in time for truck in for kids in Oct. Very nice work so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tesla Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Wow Scott! You have great building skills. Thanks for the tip on bending the roll cage tubing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mopar - D Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Scott what a fantastic scratch build you have going on here. Thanks for sharing your build and the how to tips to build this. Looking forward to seeing more progress pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bennyg Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Nice progress. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandit1 Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 that is so cool thanks man. now I need to build one that detailed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DumpyDan Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 That is incredible work..............WOW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Colmer Posted May 7, 2015 Author Share Posted May 7, 2015 (edited) Wow. It's been February since my last update. I'm going to school to be a teacher while I work my regular job. So time is not always there. I'm between semesters, so I got a little done. Here's the 1to1 wing. Note all the rod ends and the cool pattern in the paint. Following is how I replicated the structure. For the paint I am going to try scuffing bare metal foil before laying on the candy blue. Hosted on Fotki Note that little clevis joint that's not attached. Those became a pretty tedious part of the wing project. Hosted on Fotki The support bars are a mix of K&S aluminum tubing for the larger diameters bars, and stainless steel for the smaller bars. I did not want to mix metal types, but the brackets on the main bars had to be inset for strength. I had no way to cut the tiny receiver slot in the much harder stainless, so I went with aluminum. They do not make an aluminum rod in the smaller diameter, so I had to use the stainless for those rods. A very good polish will help the two metals have a similar shine. Hosted on Fotki The bolts are from Scale Hardware and the rod ends are from the tuner supply package on the far right. They are larger scale injector fittings that I flattened on both sides. The stems are a little thin so I had to add styrene sleeves to the aluminum rod. Luckily, that replicated the look of the real thing. Note the drill bit size is written on the package. The jamb nuts are hex styrene. Hosted on Fotki There was no easy way to replicate the clevis joints so I had to make 6 of them by hand. I started by using a fine miter saw to cut the slit in aluminum rod and then shaped the joint around that. Hosted on Fotki Ready to bolt in place. The actual wing started out as a Revell 70s dragster piece. The end plates are styrene. This entire assembly bolts together. Getting all the those bars to cooperate was not easy. Small dabs of liquid tape helped keep them in place while I bolted the other bars on. I used a piece of aluminum rod that was smushed over one of the bolt heads as a makeshift wrench. Hosted on Fotki And there it is in place. Hosted on Fotki Next is to complete the bed and get it mounted. Thanks for looking. Scott Edited May 7, 2015 by Scott Colmer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gatorincebu Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 That is incredible! Way beyond my comfort zone. Awesome scratchbuilding and fabricating here. be Well Gator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purepmd Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Insanely cool hot rod! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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