My GASLANDS Car...Can I Rise to the Occasion?
Carrying on from the introduction to the series of projects that I intend to undertake in this genre of model making - see 'Return to Gaslands' post [opens in new window] - I started to plan the first of the three vehicles I want to build... The 'Capture Pick-Up'!
Turning an ordinary Matchbox car into a post-apocalyptic war rig can be as straight forward as applying a suitably 'Mad Max' style paint job (or rather rust job), but I wanted to include some customisation as well.
The fits job in my plan for this Dodge Pick-up was to replace the standard wheels as I wanted something a little more aggressive. Luckily for me THINGYVERSE is awash with custom Gaslands accessories and add-ons including a wide variety of chunky wheel types. I soon found some likely candidates...
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| Above: Gaslands - Wheel Upgrades, from THINGYVERSE. |
My only issue was what size to choose - standard car size wheels or did I want to go all in with a crazy monster truck design?
When it Comes to Equipment...Size Really Matters!
As I have already found out with my N Gauge vehicle project my FDM 3D printer has some limitations when it comes to printing very small models. Even with an upgraded nozzle (0.3) the resolution my printer is capable of negates very small detail and - as everyone seems to agree - small scale model printing is really the realm of the resign printer. But, as usual, I like to check these these issues out myself.
So, I printed out a test wheel, not only to check to quality of detail at this scale but also to help me work out how I might attach new wheels to my Matchbox car.
Well, as you can see from my video the quality of the print at this size was acceptable (not terrific resolution, but OK). So this scale of model - 1/64 - is probably about the limit of what you can expect to get reasonable detail out of a EDM printer.
Wheely Useful or Wheely Stupid
OK, so I have my wheel design and having looked at the samples I was swayed towards the idea of doing a monster truck. But, while this sounds an exciting prospect it was one that meant I had additional issues to solve, principally how to attack monster wheels to a car chassis.
There was a bit of déjà vu here as this is the very issue that scuppered my old 1/24 Mad Max build, as I could never work out how to realistically model the monster truck suspension!
Luckily, at this smaller scale of Gaslands modelling 'reality' doesn't get in the way of making a cool looking build and I don't have to work out realistic mechanical solutions to how I attach stuff to my rig. That said, by sheer coincidence I happened across a Hotwheels monster truck in Poundland which I bought as an example of how to build up the raised suspension...
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| Above: Top - the Hotwheels Monster Truck. Bottom - my Matchbox chassis. |
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| Above: How Hotwheels modelled the raised suspension. |
Looking at the Hotwheels example I reckon I could scratch build something similar to these raised suspensions for my Matchbox chassis. I might even have a go at 3D modelling this.... Hmmmm?
Whichever way I replicate this for my pick-up truck this will represent the bulk of the scratch building for this model. The other main job would be to build the iron cage I have planned for the flat bed. Everything else is minor or cosmetic work.
(Though I haven't yet decided on the paint job.)
In my next post I should have the raised chassis completed and will start on some of the body work customisation.
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