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Post by kabdriver on Jun 23, 2018 18:10:16 GMT -6
So, I've been wanted to do a scratchbuilt SOMETHING for ages - really put my building skills to the test but I wasn't sure what...until last week I found some pics from an old contest on here where everyone built a Paddy Wagon. There was a TONNE of cool builds, and I got some cool ideas of what I'd do if I built one of these...so I figured I'd make a start today. Progress on this will be pretty slow - I've actually got a Paddy Wagon kit here that I could modify, but I figured it'd be cool to do something inspired by that kit, but completely my own. Take some ideas from it, and kinda make them related, but completely my own idea.
I'd usually start with a chassis for something like this and start building around it, but I've got some parts that I'm waiting on...so here goes nothing with making my own c-cab from scratch.
I took the rough shape of the 'stock' Paddy Wagon cab side panels (shortened 15 scale inches to make this thing look more stocky and aggresive) and roughed them out in Plastruct sheet:
Then, after cleaning them up a bunch and getting them symmetrical, I recreated the molded in trim lines with half round bar in a couple of different sizes. The straight lines were easy enough, but the curves took a little work. It was a case of gluing a little, bending the stock gently, gluing slightly further down the bend, glue some more and so on until I had the curve I wanted securely in place:
I connected the straight edges with mitre cuts to make them look nicer, and so I can sand them flush when the glue sets overnight. The first one took about 2 hours, but the second only took about 90 minutes as I'd cut measured and sanded all the trim pieces already in duplicate when I did the first one. One down, one to go!
I need to let these set up over night as the plastic is pretty soft in places, but tomorrow I can clean them up, use some small amounts of putty if needed and get them all finished up and looking nice!
Just a small update - these took me basically ALL DAY today  More soon though - I need to make a roof next. Thanks for looking! |
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Post by DVS on Jun 23, 2018 20:55:06 GMT -6
Cool  Looks like you're off to a great start. I'll be watching this. |
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Post by chromecop on Jun 24, 2018 2:46:21 GMT -6
Nice bodywork!!!
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Post by patw on Jun 25, 2018 14:21:38 GMT -6
Nice one James!
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Post by kabdriver on Jun 25, 2018 15:01:31 GMT -6
Thanks fellas! Made a couple more parts here...
The easiest part for this whole build is going to be the rear section of the roof. I narrowed it 10 scale inches compared to a stock Paddy Wagon, as it looked too wide now that I've shortened the body...
I made a couple of small corner pieces for the rear of the body, with a raised edge made of plastruct round bar:
I bent some aluminum sheet for the front part of the roof, and after some trial and error got the curves to match the lines of the sides:
Et voila! It's starting to look like a thing!  |
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Post by davemarek on Jun 25, 2018 21:00:12 GMT -6
Awesome!!! love the idea
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Post by plastimatic on Jun 27, 2018 8:07:43 GMT -6
Great stuff.
Gotta love a C-cab!
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Post by kabdriver on Jun 27, 2018 16:28:04 GMT -6
A little more scratchbuilding fun...made a cowl from Plastruct sheet (this took AGES):
I layered and laminated thin sheet together to get the curves, then sanded it to shape...it's almost done in this pic, except for a little square of sheet in the middle on the top there:
With that done I can start the floor:
Scratchbuilt a trans tunnel - nothing fancy but something just big enough to let the trans clear...
And now I can start working on the interior pieces and the partition!
More soon!
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Post by kabdriver on Jun 30, 2018 21:39:16 GMT -6
A little more progress...
Found some tires that I think will work for this thing - I love these!
And now I've got the tires, I can start work on the chassis. I want something without a zee, like the chassis in the Paddy Wagon kit...plus I want this thing to have some SERIOUS rake, so this'll work fine:
And now I've got the bones of the frame made, I can start laying parts out and working out axles and whatnot. I had the idea of a straight axle with a single-sprung suicide front end so I started assembling that tonight:
And now I know roughly where that will go, I know how much room I have left for the engine (and thus how far back to set the cab on the frame)
Haven't decided on an engine yet - maybe a Hemi?
More soon!
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Post by Bert on Jul 1, 2018 22:20:37 GMT -6
I'm digging this build. I look forward to seeing it finished. Is it going to have a mountain motor?
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Post by kabdriver on Jul 5, 2018 14:33:41 GMT -6
I'm digging this build. I look forward to seeing it finished. Is it going to have a mountain motor? I think I'm going to use this Hemi seeing as it's laying around doing nothing...no idea what it's from though - any ideas anyone?
Meanwhile, I found some springs that will work for the front and rear end:
Next thing I need to do is figure out some linkages to hold the front and rear axles in place. I really like the ornate trailing arms that Tom Daniel designed for the Paddy Wagon, and after thinking for a few days how to make something similar (and scouring Michaels for seomthing that might work) I decided to resin cast some copies of the kit pieces so that I can just modify them.
I hope this old rubber's still good...
And finally, I picked up these cool stamped brass whatever-they-ares from Michael's clearance bin for a buck...might be good to make the steps on the back, or add some detail somewhere? 
More soon!
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Post by modelcarfan on Jul 6, 2018 8:34:01 GMT -6
scratch building a model car is a challenge and is fun. Makes it very original to your collection. I have scratched built a car myself last few week and is whew a really good venting moments ! way to go !
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Post by kabdriver on Jul 6, 2018 15:49:54 GMT -6
scratch building a model car is a challenge and is fun. Makes it very original to your collection. I have scratched built a car myself last few week and is whew a really good venting moments ! way to go ! That's so cool man, what did you build?
Meanwhile, I made a bench seat for the front:
And a smaller one for the 'passengers' in the back...
Made front and rear engine mounts:
And with the engine in place for good, I could start working out where the grille shell will go and what it'll look like. I made a few with subtle differences and settled on something slightly simpler than the kit piece, but still kinda cool:
I'm going to cast the grille shell, some suspension parts and the headlamps in a brass-infused resin mix so they look like real metal parts (because they almost are!), so the final job for now was to scratchbuild a headlamp...these will be the same on both sides so I just made a single one. Looks cool though, I think!
More soon!
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Post by modelcarfan on Jul 7, 2018 14:01:44 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2018 19:44:34 GMT -6
Wow, this is great!
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Post by atenzapower on Jul 8, 2018 13:58:27 GMT -6
This is cool. Good job
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Post by kabdriver on Jul 9, 2018 21:07:47 GMT -6
Thanks for all the nice comments everyone!
Whilst I'm waiting for my resin to arrive I got on with some more little bits and pieces. First up, I got a steering wheel picked out:
Pedals installed - the foot-shaped one is from Replicas and Miniatures, and I made the brake from scratch:
They make some nice stuff!
I was also waiting for an oval stencil to come so I could make a porthole in the partition - kind of a reference to the side portholes on the Paddy Wagon. I scored it out, and added a lip of thin styrene sheet:
Added some bars, to stop the passengers getting to the guys in the front 
And now the partition's done I can start to piece the body together, slowly:
And a quick mock up, to keep me motivated and make sure everything fits ok. Looks cool, I think!!
More soon!
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Post by kabdriver on Jul 16, 2018 18:11:39 GMT -6
Made a little more progress on this thing - each step takes a little while because I'm building most of it from sheet or bar. First up, I got the body assembled finally:
Made a billy-club looking shifter...I'm going to use some mini o-rings to make a grip for it once it's painted:
Did some work on shaping and tidying up the ornate suspension linkages and figuring out how they'll mount on the chassis:
Once I'd got the body assembled I could start making some upholstery for the interior:
I'm starting to get close to being able to get some paint on this thing! I'm thinking a pearl candy blue for the body, and I want to try a kinda satin-gold-chrome for the chassis and drivetrain if I can figure it out. More soon!
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Post by modelcarfan on Jul 17, 2018 2:07:37 GMT -6
Looking good !  |
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Post by kabdriver on Jul 21, 2018 8:45:59 GMT -6
Got some more done this week...first up, got the floor and the chassis glued together so I can paint them as one part:
Got rear trailing arms mounted...I'd made some resin parts that copied the Paddy Wagon kit but they were so delicate I kept breaking them...
With the suspension locked down, I can get the driveshaft made and in place:
More work on the front suspension and axle...nearly done with this now, apart from some linkages
With the chassis done I can start doing some work on this parts box engine:
I cheated a little here and used some stuff out of my engine parts stash:
Found some carbs and pulleys that will work:
Fabricated a pair of scoops from some tube and sheet:
Something like this:
Fabricated a rear step from brass:
And finally, started to get some paint on the interior pieces - this is a Createx hot pink with some thinned Tamiya clear red misted over the edges to give a little fade:
More soon!
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Post by patw on Jul 23, 2018 0:42:18 GMT -6
Coming along very nicely James!
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Post by kabdriver on Jul 23, 2018 2:19:41 GMT -6
Thanks for all the nice comments everybody! Tiny update, but an important one...got the body far enough along I could throw some paint at it!
This is just the base color - it'll be a deeper shade of blue when it's done...got some fading to do with some candies here. More soon!
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Post by showrodjohn on Jul 25, 2018 5:58:40 GMT -6
Looks great. What did you use for the upholstery I like it.
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Post by kabdriver on Jul 27, 2018 13:47:48 GMT -6
Looks great. What did you use for the upholstery I like it. Thanks John! I used this stuff - it's meant to be for tiles for architectural models I think, but I liked the pattern:
Got a little more done here....did some Winfield-y kinda fades and got the paint sealed under a coat of clear so I can mask for graphics and not risk hurting it: https://www.instagram.com/p/BlnRV3Sj0kg Got some graphics designed so I could cut paint masks for them: 
Cut them out: 
And then did the drop shadows for the lettering on the side panels: 
And shot some clear over that too - again, to protect in the next stage of masking:  More soon! |
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Post by TooOld on Jul 30, 2018 3:48:06 GMT -6
Some excellent fab work going on here , love the details like the porthole w/bars . . . great job !
I'm not sure but are the valve covers upside down ?
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Post by kabdriver on Jul 30, 2018 5:20:10 GMT -6
I'm not sure but are the valve covers upside down ? Thanks buddy! And yeah, probably |
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Post by kabdriver on Aug 1, 2018 11:39:26 GMT -6
Got the lettering done!
Ready for clear and polish!
Meanwhile, I got the chassis and drivetrain in primer (and spent some time levelling everything out nicely and filling and little imperfections):
Got it in a thinner Gold Leaf color:
And faded some candy yellow on to make it a little more gold...  More soon! |
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Post by bugaboo on Aug 2, 2018 8:33:48 GMT -6
I'm not sure but are the valve covers upside down ? Thanks buddy! And yeah, probably Well, they are australian valve covers, thats why  |
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Post by kabdriver on Aug 2, 2018 10:59:48 GMT -6
Yep, they're from an Aussie Hemi! Haha! I guess I wasn't watching closely enough when I mocked the engine back up |
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Post by hobbybobby on Aug 3, 2018 10:46:49 GMT -6
Fantastic scratch building, so far, Jim, and the painting with the graphics is fabulous! |
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More soon though - I need to make a roof next. Thanks for looking!
