Building at least one Belly Tank

[OldNYJim]

This has been on my to-do list for a while, and it became a lot easier now that 3d printing is a thing…

Picked up a print file by Nahuel on Cults3d and started mocking up a simple curbside build based on a 150 gallon drop tank:

A little parts-box digging got it close to being paint-ready pretty quickly - AMT tires, some Monogram showrod tires for the rear, a bomber seat I printed too small that fits this application perfectly:

Toughest thing with making a simple curbside droptank build was making some linkages (which I could’ve sourced from my partsbox if I hadn’t felt like practicing making some rod-ends;

I had a really simplistic build planned for this body - something I have in my head and want to see in real life - and it’s almost ready for paint…but I wanted to build a full-detail version also.  Found this kit online and spent a couple of evenings printing it:

Nice detail, almost snaps together - this one will be fun to just clean up and get into paint too - not a tonne of stuff to add to over complicate this project (but I have some ideas 🤪)

I’ve got an idea in my head for an all-styrene build also, which I’m collecting parts for this week…but I’ll consider this thread a success if I get one project finished at least - ha!  I’ll keep them all in one place rather than litter the site with multiple similar builds that may or may not reach the finish line 

Just getting started on this one but thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[sidcharles]

before the flood, i had a kit from Star Models. vacuum formed body and resin parts.

kit of scratchbuilt, the 3d printed version is the most detailed rendition of a 'tanker i have ever seen.

with detail painting & some bits of wire here & there, i certainly think that box could be checked.

[stitchdup]

is the second version by digital surface?

[eran_k]

Very nice, i also designed, printed and built one some time ago...

[OldNYJim]

On 10/3/2025 at 4:34 AM, sidcharles said:

before the flood, i had a kit from Star Models. vacuum formed body and resin parts.

kit of scratchbuilt, the 3d printed version is the most detailed rendition of a 'tanker i have ever seen.

with detail painting & some bits of wire here & there, i certainly think that box could be checked.

I had not heard of the Star Models kit before - thanks for making me aware of that one!  

On 10/3/2025 at 5:54 AM, stitchdup said:

is the second version by digital surface?

I think so, yes!  
 

On 10/3/2025 at 1:04 PM, eran_k said:

Very nice, i also designed, printed and built one some time ago...

Nice work!  Have you got files for that one for sale anywhere?  Looks awesome!

Tiny bit of progress this past few days - I’ve been mostly cleaning up print lines from all the parts so I can get them into primer.  I’ve been wetsanding larger printed parts lately - keeps the nasty dust down to a minimum:

And if you’re feeling lazy, or have areas that can’t easily be sanded, Vallejo plastic putty mixed with 99% alcohol makes an awesome brushable filler that gets in the recesses and fixes them really easily…and can be cleaned up with water afterwards if you get any in the wrong spot:

Got the body of the first car shown above mostly smoothed out and ready for paint:

And on the full-detail build I think the frame is almost ready for color too:

Just a small update, but sanding and priming isn’t very exciting…more interesting stuff soon!  Thanks for looking!

Edited October 5 by OldNYJim

[OldNYJim]

Coupla little updates to keep this train rolling, especially during priming-parts-hell-week…

Got the frame of the full-detail car into color - I’d been waiting for a project where this nice vintage-looking burgundy would be a good fit, and I think this is a good use for it…

Painted the tires - my favorite combination for printed or cast tires lately is black primer then Tamiya rubber on the sidewalls and Vallejo tire black on the treads:

I’ll follow up with some washes and further detailing, but getting base colors on everything is my main project this week.  If I don’t sand or fix any layer lines for a while after this all-printed kit I’ll be ok with that…

The curbside car I’m building is mainly an exercise so I can see a belly tank in a particular color…first up silver…

…then the particular color I was thinking - pretty unusual choice for a belly tank, but I’m thinking late 60s Hot Wheels Spectraflame kinda look…just something I wanted to see on my shelf…

And as if two weren’t enough…found this 1/72 scale drop tank in my stash…used some prototyping block to make a canopy…would be a fun challenge to make a REALLY tiny one…need to figure out what to do for wheels and axles…

This weekend will be painting a bunch of metal finishes - thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[OldNYJim]

So…spent the week painting a BUNCH of parts - I’ve been playing with acrylic metal finishes lately as an alternate to Alclad…didn’t master them yet but I do enjoy working with them…

Most of the assemblies on the printed full-detail car are low-parts-count but high detail so I’m working with some washes and detail painting slowly to bring that detail out.  More on that when I actually finish something 🤪

Meanwhile, got clearcoat and paint on almost all the parts for the little curbside project I was working on:

It’s just a fun little shelf model, nothing too nuts - wanted to see a 60s pink paintjob on a belly tank, was all…plus I have some weathering techniques to practice …

Back on the ‘main’ car…started getting some flaws fixed on the body that I had sanded smooth previously - had a few sinks and pinholes and dips and stuff that were pretty minor, but that I wanted to fix anyway:

And while I’m on the primer/sand cycle on those pieces, I stated working on a display base - nothing too crazy because there isn’t much out there at Bonneville besides salt and cones and some painted lines:

I was interested to research and see that there’s a big difference between the look of the salt when it’s all dried up and cracked compared to the smooth sandy surface that’s better for racing on…I’m playing with this cracked-earth medium to represent the latter on the slightly raised areas on my mock-up there - here’s a test piece:

And brushing copious quantities on my base:

We’ll see how it looks dried out tomorrow…I made it kinda lumpy and uneven in places hoping for a good variation in the crackle effect, but this stuff seems to layer up just fine if I don’t like it and need to make it smoother…

The center lane that I didn’t paint yet will be more representative of the racing surface - more of a standard salt look, hopefully, and I have some other fun diorama products to try for that this weekend

And that’s it for now - thanks for looking…more soon!

[Kanada Kustoms]

Kool build... Great color!

[Oldriginal86]

Cool little project! Reminds me of a soap box derby car.

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!  I made a TINY bit more progress this evening…

My crackle medium came out pretty well - captured the dried-cracked-salt look of the salt flats, I think (at least in texture…I’ll be painting this entire base anyway so the color doesn’t worry me…)

Also laid down some snow medium and applied some dusted snow medium (all products made for diorama guys - and luckily I’m not smart enough to know the difference between snow and salt) to my base…I wanted to capture both the dried-cracked-salt look AND the powdery loose salt on this little stand, although I’m no diorama expert so we’ll see how successful I am…

Painted some cones too - more on them when I get there…

Back on the car - got the body nice and smooth and shot some nice glossy black base on the bodywork:

And tonight, laid down a little chrome:

Then I broke the little brass tip on my airbrush, so that was the end of my evening’s fun for one night…but I like seeing those parts in mirror finish…

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Spex84]

Thanks for sharing your techniques and progress! These builds are both very cool. I'm impressed that you've gone for chrome on a 3D printed body, haha! 

The crackle-finish mud looks perfect.
The Vallejo filler/alcohol trick for filling layer lines is fascinating. I'd love to give that a try.

[OldNYJim]

On 10/21/2025 at 11:54 PM, Spex84 said:

I'm impressed that you've gone for chrome on a 3D printed body, haha!

Yeah - I could’ve picked an easier subject than something such an organic shape with all the layer lines.  In this case tho, I’m only really using the chrome base to layer acrylic metal finishes over…but it might be fun to do an actual all-polished body at some point.  Thanks for the comments! 
 

Speaking of those metal finishes, here’s this weekend’s little update…so my goal with the body was a bare metal finish with some visual interest - not really patina’d and worn, but not chrome-polished either.  I used a combination of different Vallejo acrylics and just gently built layers until I had in front of me what I had in mind originally:

I went super-thin on some spots to let that chrome look show through (the highlights on the nose show the effect) to give hopefully a more realistic looking metal finish than I would’ve got with just straight acrylic over a black base.  I’m not totally done yet, but it’s about what I had in mind…

Got the engine mostly assembled - it’s REALLY low parts-count but also really well detailed, so there was a little detail painting to be done on this one, but nothing too hard:

Got the wheels and tires painted and mated…these will get some salt-accumulation before this build is done, plus some little knock-offs that I’ll add right at the end so I dont…well…knock them off…

Did a little paint detailing to the frame, plus some washes and some chipping and some light detailing like that…I’m still not awesome at brush painting little details like this thing needed, but I’m getting slightly better, slowly…

And in between working on all that stuff I was working on my little display base; I took the version I had in my last post, shot it all black and then started building up layers of color to simulate my fantasy Bonneville scene of a loose salty track running through the dry cracked-salt-and-mud.

Black, followed by tan for the cracked portion and dark blue for the salt:

Then a bunch of layers and stippling with the airbrush to slowly bring the colors to where I imagined them being…

…it looks a mess but it’s getting closer…

Still not done here, but it’s definitely heading in the right direction.  Fun fact - upon researching the cones they use at Bonneville some of them have a tan/yellow band painted on top.  Why?  I have no idea, but I used some reference pics and painted some cones I had in stock to match the images I found online:

And a quick mock-up of my still-to-be-weathered pink car, the base and my cones:

I started individually brush-painting some of the little flicks of salt (you can see a coupla three of them next to the cone up front there) but there’s a lot of them and I ran out of time…but more soon!  Thanks for looking!

[Kanada Kustoms]

Engine and chassis look great... Really like the pink car too, again, great color!