Jürgen M.

OK, the belly doors are assembled and they kind of work too! Not as precise as I hoped but OK enough! They won't be in permanent use anyway! It's just a feature I wanted to include! VID_20240611_195256~2.mp4

These are the new doors with integrated gears. A first try showed that they work! Had to split up the doors in three parts each though in order to get the gears printed. The single gears go between the doors and meet in the middle! Hope to get it all assembled this evening!

Well, they almost fit perfectly but there was a bit of warping for some reason in this Print which you can only see when fitting the parts together! Can't be due to design fault in this case since I just cut the trailer apart in the 3D drawings and separated the parts without changing them. Anyway, it almost fits perfectly. There is a small gap at the top on the left trailer side but I can cover that up easily! It's getting there!

? Thanks for the compliment Rockford! At the moment I´m printing the new components. Wasted some filament but I´ll be happier when it works!

Nice build! If you have any hub caps from car kits they normally fit quite well. I used hubcaps from a 1:16 Chevy Nomad as hubcaps on the rear wheels of my Revell PB Black Magic wrecker! They're about the same diameter as the tops of the air cleaners! Maybe after market If you don't have any!

The second part of the trailer body is finished! I used the vertical crossbars as overlapping latches so there won't be any gaps visible! Hardly at least!

Looks nice! Something else indeed!

Just had an idea! I'll have to print the doors again though. I put the gears at the ends of the door latches where the axles go through. Then two more between the doors. That way the movement is transmitted directly via gears and the pulleys are history!

Generally the doors open by Hand but not yet by the drive gears. There's a bit of a tight fit of a door on one side and If that's all it is it should be reparable! When you turn the gears with your finger one of the doors moves but not the other one! Should of course be the other way around! If you moves one door the other one should moves too! I'll get behind it! It would probably have been better to just use gears without the pulleys! I keep learning!

I did it! ? Now I have to allow the glue to dry till I try out the doors! Wouldn't want the whole thing to come apart again! The tension rises!

I'd love to take that one in a cross country trip through the US! Even there it would be a real eye catcher!

That's a very authentic looking truck model! Beautiful! I Loved building my 4070 a lot! Hope yours was as easy to build? (meaning they precise fit of parts and good quality of the kit). It's still and will Always be one of my favorite models! Thanks for sharing!

Very nice truck! Is that a purchased metallic coat or a self mixed one? Looks awesome!

One side is assembled! The other side will be tricky since I have to fit in the drive axles and the doors in one! ? I'm gonna need 8 arms, 100 fingers and nerves of steel... ...and when it's done a lot of hope that it'll work! ?

These are all necessary parts: The drive axles with gears and pulleys have to be installed with the rubber bands right away because there won't be space to do it after assembly. It's going to be a really tight matter putting 8 axles in at the same time and aligning them to fit in the holes. The spacers at the ends then must be pushed into place so the axles don't slip out again.

I'm Sure that will turn out great! Surface looks really good! Keep going!

Beautiful job Gary! ?

The parts for the doors drive are finished! This is how they're located: The rods are steel. The pulleys are for the previously mentioned rubber bands. The gears will drive eachother to create a counter wise turn of the door axles! And this is how they're located on the axles.

Thanks! It will be a pain in the ... putting the gears together! Actually the gears will only be responsible for the counter movement of the doors. The gears themselves will be driven by a sort of belt drive for which I'll be using orthodontic rubber bands. You know, the kind they use for braces! They're short enough and can endure high strain. I'm cutting the axles to length and then I have to see that the glue hits the right places or it will never work!

This is about what it's supposed to look like when it's assembled: The break drums are Just there to hold the doors in place! I'm printing the last parts I need to assemble the doors and connect them to the "bathtub"!

? I actually did that in the beginning! It does become a bit boring after a while though! Hope everything does fit together properly. I'm printing some small stuff in between now, the middle part of the trailer will be started this afternoon!

This is the rear part of the trailer! The hydraulic oil Tank fits! Have to create the oil lines with brass rod. The cross members Front and rear, ... This large part took 26hrs to print. The rest of the parts won't be finished before monday afternoon!

This is the bottom opening of the belly! Came out of the printer quite nice! and an upside down view: Now the big parts are in progress! Had to split the top part of the trailer into three due to the size of the printing bed but I assured an aligned fit with overlapping latches. I'll show you when the first parts are printed!

Wow, Looks really great. Your precision is just awesome!

Thanks! Hope they work! They should If my simulation was correct! Unfortunately I accidentally deleted it so I couldn't check again before printing! I could create a new one of course but actually it's too much effort! I'll just wait till the parts are all printed and then we'll see! ?