DaytonaTim

Your pretty close Jim.........acutally it is 1/43!! This is a test I ran for the Frosted Ultra Detail material. I wanted to push the material to its limits of thickness and detail and it did very well in both catagories. This body will remind you of a vacuum formed slotcar body. It is only .020 thick so it is flimsy but the detail is all there. If you look closely at the back of the car you can see the Bugatti emblem. Keep in mind that no finish work has been done to this body at all. All I did was soak it in Blech White for about an hour, washed it off, let it dry, and hit it with a very very thin coat of primer to bring out the details. This material FUD is the best plastic material Shapeways offers. It has the smallest minimum thickness and the highest detail capabilities........it also has the highest price The material that is a very close cousin to FUD is the Frosted Detail material (FD). This is the material I recommend for most parts. I have had identical 1/12 scale carbs and jackstands made in both the FD and FUD materials and I could not tell the difference between them. The best part is that the FD material is only about 60% of the cost of the FUD. These new materials are a game changer. They are the materials that are allowing TDR to break into the 1/12 and the 1/16 scales. So if you are looking for these smaller scales, just click on the 1/8 scale parts in our catalog. If we offer the same kit in 1/12 or 1/16 then there will be links in the text to take you to the listing for these smaller scales. To see what I mean, just click this link and you will understand. http://www.shapeways...tml?gid=sg93489 So you guys that like the 1/12 and 1/16 scales, stand by, we will be expanding our products into these areas. It will take some time and some redesigns of our produts but it will come. Tim

Don your timng is perfect. I just got something in from Shapeways. Let's play a game.........can anybody guess what scale this body is?

We built this kit for the exact reason why car companies build those "super-premium cars"....... to push ourselves....... to improve ourselves. Just look at what has shaken out of this project. Now we can produce sheet metal parts, whe have developed a way of making wooden steering wheels, we are expanding our markets into the overseas areas, soon I will be looking into the use of water cutting equipment to produce photo etched parts, we are using new materials......and on and on and on.... You will never know what is over the next hill unless you put out the effort and go see...........

Guys, we are creating a new industy here. Rapid prototyping or on demand manufacturing is in the very early stages right now. Three years ago when we first started this little venture, to print a model out to this level of detail and surface finish would have cost $15,000 to $20,000 in printing costs alone!!!!! The technology is improving and the cost is coming down. Someday you will be able to print these parts out on your desktop 3D printer, in your own house. If you think we at TDR are motivated by money......... you could not be further from the truth. Modeling is a passion for us. Tim

Harry, that is not as easy a question to answere as you would think. We offer the Package-kits in multiple materials and these materials have different prices. But I have crunched the numbers many different ways and here is how they shook out. 1) We are offering the kit in a curbside configuration (I still need to upload the unique curbside parts). You can build a curbside kit for about $1000 2) For the whole chassis, engine, and body kit you are looking at about $1600 to $2100 depending on the materials you choose to have your parts made in. Now that price can be reduced also by building your sheet metal parts yourself. I am going to publish the instructions and the 8th scale patterns for all the sheetmetal and post them in our Google documents archive. So you can download them and print them out to create your own styrene sheeting or your own aluminum sheeting. Of coarse you will be able to purchase the sheet metal from TDR if you desire, So, like I said, it is not as easy to answer your question as you would think. I have been concentrating on getting this new SW store up, so time is kind of tight. I will list our sheet metal kits, and multimedia 427 SO engine in our old catalog here in the near future. I hope this helps some

Ok....... It has been a long time coming........ Syd has been shaking down this kit for the past year and is rapidly approaching the finish. We hit a few bumps in the road but with Syds help we have made design changes to correct the problem. The new TDR 427 is breaking new ground in many areas and is changing the way you will build models in the furture. Gone will be the days of setting around wishing you could purchase this part or that part to customize your latest build. We have broken up the TDR 427 Roadster kit into multiple "Package-kits" that will allow you to purchase the necessary parts in smaller groups and allow your model to grow at a rate you are in control of. Heck.......just think of how much space you will save in your model room when you do not have 5 large scale models setting on that shelf.....and under your work bench......and maybe in your wifes closet.....!!! OK, enough chit chat. Here is the link to the new Shapeways store front for TDR Innovations. TDR Innovations by tdr.innovations on Shapeways The new store front only has about 40 some kits in it. It will be growing over the next couple of weeks. You will find the individual "Shops" over on the right hand side of the page. These shops are a convient grouping of our kits to help you find what you are looking for. You will find two shops that contain all the printed parts for the TDR 427 Roadster, they are the "TDR Roadster Frame Shop" and the "TDR Roadster Trim Shop". Since the Package-kits in these shops are designed to produce a specific project, you will find them numbered. This is the recommended order that the modeler should purchase them in as his project grows. This new manufactureing process has really opened a whole new world to TDR. We will begin to offer individual parts for you the modeler to buy. You will be able to purchase as many Holley carbs as you want, and maybe pick up a new Nitrous Oxide kit, and what the heck throw in a universal kit too...... Just think of TDR as your "Model Buffet" pick out what you want....when you want. One of the major benifits of using the Shapeways rapid prototyping company is that we can now offer our parts in many different materials. If you are on a tight budget, there is an economical material though it will need a little more finish work. If you have a little extra coin in your piggy bank and not much time for finishing well, there are more expensive materials that produce near styrene quality strength and finish on its parts......and some amazing details too.......!!! Now we have limited your selection of materials to just those that we feel will provide a good quality part for you. You do not have to worry about picking the wrong material. Not all materials are available on all kits. If the kit is made up of very small high detail parts....we limit your selections to the high detail materials. If the part is large and usually rough in real life...we give you the option of the more economical materials. Here is a brief summary of the materials that we offer our parts in. 1) White Strong Flexiable (WSF): This material is good for the larger parts we produce. It produces a very tough part, has good detail, and is the most economical material for our products at Shapeways. It does produce a "sand cast" finish but this finish is about 1/3 as rough as our old parts that you are use to, so it is smoother than our old materials and it produces better details. 2) Frosted Detail (FD): This material produces a finish that rivials styrene injection molded plastics and produces very very good detail. It is a good middle of the road matial and is my choice for all detailed 1/8 scale parts. 3) Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD): Is the ultimate in detail and finish. I strongly recommend this material if the kit contains tiny parts and it is the only material we offer 1/16 scale parts in. Oh.....thats right.....I need to mention that we are now offering many of our parts and kits in 1/12 and 1/16 scale now too, with many many more still to come. To find the smaller scale parts, just click on the 1/8 scale kits you like and if they are offered in the smaller scales you will find a link to them in the body of the text for the 1/8 scale parts!! The links are at the very begining of the text, so you will not have to search around for it. We plan to offery most of our parts in these smaller scales but we have to check the designs, one by one, and make sure they can be scaled down and printed in these smaller scales. Ok, well go to our new store and look around. Let me know what you like, what you don't like, what kits you would like to see put in the store and in what direction you would like to see the store grow. We are at the begining of this store's development and it is a lot easier to change it now than it will be to change it later. Lastly, I just want everybody to know that our old store at TDR Innovations Home Pageis still acive and still in buisness. Thank You Tim TDR Innovations

The TDR bodies are just that, bodies. They were not made to fit any particular donor kit. The wheelbase and the tread widths for the Miss E matches those of the 1967/1968 Mustang. If the donor kit has the correct wheelbase and tread widths then it should be able to be adapted to the TDR body. Some scratch building is to be expected. Tim

No, I am sorry we cannot. The current capabilities of the 3D printers just will not make strong reliable parts at the small scales. We can make the big part (bodies) in small scale, but we cannot make the small parts (frames, carbs, suspensions) in small scales.

That is the nice thing about using rapid prototyping to print our parts. We have a lot more flexibility when it comes to scales. If you really wanted it, we could offer the bodies in 1/13th scale........but I don't think there are too many donor kits out there in this scale. Tim

Also, remember that his engine will be offered separately from the 427 Roadster Kit. So those of you that want to drop this engine into you Deuce or T can do so. That is one of the things we strive for here at TDR. Gone are the days of having to kit bash your stash of model cars. Now think of it more as a 1/8 scale buffet.....you go up and select exactly what parts you want!!

Hey guys, I just wanted to let people know that I have made up 6 more Multi Media Offys. They are boxed up and ready to ship out if anybody wants to order one. The price on the kit is $100.00 plus s&h Just send an email to "TDR.innovations@gmail.com"

The parts that Syd has been showing you are made of a material called Alumide. What it is is a mixture of nylon and aluminum powder. The printer spreads out a thin layer of powder, about .005" thick. Then a laser actualy melts and fuses the nylon powder together. The aluminum is added to increase the stiffness of the parts. That is why we use them on all the suspension parts, because the added stiffness will be benificial in the highly stressed parts that support the weight of the entire model. I have never broken one of the alumide parts, though I have bent and pushed on them considerably. judging from their stiffness I would gues that they would break but it would take considerable flexing to make it break. I would guess that is very similar to your good ole styrene plastic in this aspect. Now the only reason we applying the CA to the high stress parts is just to add a little bit extra insurance against parts sagging over a very long period of time. We mine as well fill these pours up with something that will add more to the stiffness of the part than just air. Syd will actually be receiving the rest of his parts very very soon. They are made of just the nylon powder. We use the pure nylon parts in the areas that are not stressed as much. Now these parts are very very tough. Our manufacturer has a video on their website showing a creditcard made of this stuff being folded in half and worked back and forth many times without the part breaking. Now, because the parts are made of a dry powder, they are very pourous. This has the benefit of making for a very light part but the pourous surface has to be addressed to achieve the final desired surface finish. We will go into great detail of the finishing process thoughout this thread. Well, I hope this clears up some of the questions about this new material. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are going to offer this kit in a very special way. Because of the unique way our parts are built, we are able to offer the entire kit in multiple "Sub-kits". What I mean by this is that today you can buy the body.........3 months from now you can buy the interior aluminum kit..........in another 3 months you can buy the tires and wheels...........and so on and so on..... That way you do not have to come up with all the coin all at once. You can "grow" into the kit as funds become available.

No, the MF has spent many hours sanding and reworking this body until it is baby butt smooth. So, as with all of MF bodies, the only outer finishing that is necessary is on par with that of an injection molded plastic body. This body is going to have a couple of options for the modeler. You will be able to buy the hood with or without a hood scoop and the modeler has the option of removing the rear wheel flares. Once we come out with the SC optional parts, the modeler will have the option of drilling out the body and inserting a pre-made Lemans filler cap pocket to prep the body for the massive Lemans cap.

LOL........MF........You just had to post that last pic didn't you??!! Now you guys know why I just want to stay in the back room and do the modeling....... Well, MF just about said it all. I will add though that it was sure fun to watch the faces of people when they finally understood how our products are manufactured. Their eyebrows would shoot up and their mouth would drop open just a little bit. Then the questions would start flowing.........It was really fun!

Hey Syd, all the individual parts are designed with 1/8" flanges that are used to glue the panels together. What I did was I used a combination of superglue and 5 minute epoxy. They were both applied at the same time, the super glue gives me an instant bond to hold things together long enough for the epoxy to set. So far I have had no problems witht he glue joints holding, they seem quite strong. Tim

Thanks guys. Boy, I have to say....everything is a tight fit. That is one big honking motor for that little car. We should be getting some pictures of the master body plug sometime this week. It will be nice to get all the pieces of this puzzel together this coming weekend.

Well, this weekend I have gotten a lot of work done. I got the main part of the motor assembled and I got most of the interior items mounted up in the aluminium tub. So I decided it was time for 3 of the 4 main sub-assemblies to come together. I have not adjusted the ride height of the chassis yet, that is why the rearend is hanging a little low. Here are a few pics.

Thanks Dave. This weekend I hope to get the unfinished 427 motor assembled and posted for you guys to see.

Hey Rick. After we get this TDR 427 released I think it will be a good time to take a hard look at our product line and dot some "I's" and cross some "T's"

OK...now for a little surprise While developing the process to make 1/8 scale metal steering wheels on my CNC mill, I had the crazy idea that I could make the aluminium panels for the TDR 427 Roadster too........well..........I think I am on to something!!!! One of the biggest problems with developing a full car kit is "How do we make all the inner panels....yet keep the price down.....RP is some expensive stuff?". Also, any panels that are made of RP material wind up being really thick and it messes up the scale of all the other parts that have to go in the interior. These aluminium panels are only .007" and really take up no room at all in the interior!! The following pictures are of the original prototype panels I made a few months ago. Now things have changed on them since these prototypes were made but I think these will give you a good idea of what is coming your way. I have not been in the 1/8th scale modeling arena very long, so my knowlege is limited. But......I have never seen an all aluminium interior kit for any model kit before. If this is so.......well......I gues this is just another "TDR Innovations" Ok...enough of the shameless plugs......here are some pictures that do the real talking.

Well now that I have the Allison powered trike.......I think I will call it "Road Rage".............done, I finally have some time to turn my attention to test fitting up all the parts for the TDR 427 Roadster. I received a new chassis in the mail. This one is up to date with the motor mounts and some other mounting pins. It came in damaged so I had to fix it, that is why I painted the frame. I ordered up some hardware that would allow me to bolt up the suspension arms and I used water soluble glue on all the other parts. That way I can take it apart after the show, remember this is just a test fitup. Next I will turn my attention to that wonderful 427 SO that AJWheels worked up. Just two weeks till the Toledo show.....!!!!!! Here are some pictures of the frame as it is right now

Thanks Dave. Hey take a close look at the steering wheel.......does it look familiar? My first attempt at that Butterfly steering wheel. Still have some bugs to shake out of it but it will do for this model

Boy...... I knew it was quite a while since I last posted to this thread, but I did not know it had been 7 months!!!! Well, I have been making a big push to get this beast finished in time for the Toledo model show, on Oct 9. The competition theme this year is "bikes and trikes" and my friend Gary Kulchock has been pushing me to get it done. I got it to the point that I can atleast enter it. I still have some things that I want to do to it but I have to stop and get the TDR 427 Roadster ready for the show too........Nothing like waiting till the last moment. I wanted to make something that reminded you of "Mad Max......1946". Imagine some Mustang ace that just could not give it up, once the war was over...... Well here are some pics. Sorry for the quality of the pics, I will try and get some more tomorrow when I can use the sunlight for lighting Please let me know what you think.

That is the work of the Madd Fabricator. He is the same guy that is doing the master for the 427 roadster.