scratch building

tstockton · Post by **tstockton** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:39 pm

Cris,

VERY nicely done! I also like the way you've used the "bad" castings to make wrecked vehicles, not letting those castings go to waste! Are these 1:285 or maybe 1:300 scale (or thereabouts), or are they around 1:220 (Z-scale)? Just curious.

A note comes to mind, though -- I doubt there's any way to find out for sure... but I know from anecdotal stories from HO-scale model railroading -- sometimes when a company goes out of business, another company will buy their molds / tooling but not immediately cast new pieces. While I seriously doubt you're going to have any problems with this, I just wanted to be sure you're aware of a possibility of someone with possession of the original molds to take note of your efforts.

I've thought of doing the same with some pieces I have (again, in HO-scale) from companies that are defunct. I always figured that if I'm doing it for my own personal use and not to make ANY kind of profit, others have pointed out that the current owners of those molds found out I was doing that, I could get caught in violation of laws.

By the same token -- I've also seen where folks have made castings from molds made from models and sold them under their own name -- and not been "caught".

Not trying to be a "wet blanket", but wanted you to be aware of this (admittedly rare) possibility.

Once again -- VERY nice work!

Regards,
Tom Stockton

tstockton · Post by **tstockton** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:51 pm

Cris,

One other comment for you... if I can find it again, I'll post a link -- but on one of the Z-scale model railroading boards, I saw where a gentleman was making his own car models in Z-scale. I'm not sure what he was using as a base, but he took "three-view" line drawings (side, top and front and/or back), affixed them to his base block, cut away the portions around the outside of those lines, then carved / sanded the "interior" lines, ending up with a pretty good rendition of those cars. Among others, he did a late-50's Cadillac, complete with tail fins and all!

Of course, we only need to look at GHQ's outstanding models to know it CAN be done... doing it is probably way beyond my skills, but maybe you could do them. I imagine that a box van might be a good place to start trying, as it seems to be a relatively simple shape...

I don't recall GHQ saying anything about it... but I wonder if there is some medium that might be easier to work in (other than styrene) but still tough enough to make master molds from? Hmmm...

Regards,
Tom Stockton

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:18 pm

tstockton

Thanks for the information. I looked a long time on the internet before I tried casting the cars. If some one has the molds now I haven't seen any of the cars for sell on the net, but if they are I'd gladly buy more of them and destroy what I've made

. The vans and the rest of my stuff will be scratch built so I don't think I can get in much trouble. I had thought of 3d printing, but the cost stopped me.

I never planned to sell or give away any of the castings as I didn't think I had the right to. I was just wanting some ground clutter for urban missions. The cars I've figured to be around Z scale, the company that sold them had models that jumped between 1/220 and 1/300. The vans are my standard 1/300 scale mash up. The one thing about Instant Mold is that its reusable and I destroyed the car molds to make molds for the step vans.

You have brought up an interesting point. I remember reading some where (maybe here in one of the threads) about whether you had to license a vehicle's design to make any copies. I presume its for selling them. It would really put the brakes on my VW designs I want to do

.

RedLeif · Post by **RedLeif** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:35 pm

Hi Cris,
I missed your 'Longest Day' tribute. Very Cool.
As to wwII civies, i'd love to see a GMC- Buick - 4 door Master Sedan of 1941, otherwise known as a staff car. But the 1938 version of the same thing was a popular civilian car. The Ford 'Fordor' of 1937 and their 'Tudor' of 38 or 39 would be great pieces to have.

Thank you for sharing.
leif

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:06 pm

Finally did a few KDF type 60. The master was carved from hardwood with a little model putty. Nice rough out. Might redo when I get better. Interesting to read that the majority that were made were taken by the High Command for staff cars.

The only major exterior difference I found was the rear windows, early bugs had 2 small ones. Also found several pictures where they were open topped and used a canvas cover (like the one I tried in the foreground.)

Growing up in the 60's you know I had to paint at least one like this (can't see well in the pictures, but yes those are flowers on the hubcaps):

RedLeif · Post by **RedLeif** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:47 pm

outstanding!

"the majority that were made were taken by the High Command for staff cars."
I guess Hitler, Goering and the like snapped up all the Mercedes 770k's. While the lowly Generalleutnant had to settle for a Kafer.

redleif

6mmwargaming · Post by **6mmwargaming** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:32 am

Hi Cris

I made a list a while back of "Classic" European cars for the cold war era. I think you could add some more French, Italian and Eastern European cars to the list.

Station wagons - Volvo 240 station wagon, Ford Cortina MKIII or MkIV station wagon,
Coupes - Citroen 2CV, Jaguar XJS, Ford Capri
Sedan - Mercedes SL and SE sedans (60s and 70s), Fiat 125 (also as a Lada), BMW 5 series
Hatchback - VW Golf Mk1
SUV - Suburban, Toyota landcruiser
Van - Ford Transit Van, chevy van

I'd also say a VW Beetle but H&R make a very nice one in their WW2 range which I would use rather than trying to make one.

Also this site is good for scale drawings

http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/cars/

Cheers
Kieran

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:59 am

Thanks for the info. The list will come in handy in planning. I was thinking of doing a few popular WW2 European civilians and maybe some from the 50's. First I'm going to have to do a '71 Dodge Charger SE. (BIG tip for anyone. When you go to pick out a color to paint your car wait for a sunny day and take the book of paint chips OUTSIDE. I didn't and my sunfire red Charger looked orange in the sunlight

.)

I've been using the site you listed for some time now. Its a great resource and where I came across the prints for the trains I scratch built.

Didn't think to check H&R. Will try them next time.

Cris

6mmwargaming · Post by **6mmwargaming** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:54 am

Nazgul wrote:Didn't think to check H&R. Will try them next time.

Its the ex Armstrong models one and I have a picture on my site here (lovely mode land much better than the old H&R)

http://6mm.wargaming.info/page215a.shtml

Cheers
Kieran

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 8:06 am

Thanks for the info.

Here's a few staff cars that raced across the work table.

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 1:08 pm

Nice thought, but Pibber and others are far more gifted. I'm just an old guy with a single-edge razor, jeweler's files, and a 6" steel ruler who's having fun putzing around. I'm still experimenting with materials and may eventually wind up silicone molds and liquid plastic. Of course there's that 5 pounds of alloy I have left from my GHQ purchases

.

6mmwargaming · Post by **6mmwargaming** » Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:09 am

Wow those look great Nazgul. Closeups are never that flattening when its microarmour stuff.

Cheers
Kieran

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:33 am

Just need to add the fenders (

) and bits. (If I ever start something like this again would some one PLEASE slap me.)

I realized that its not the camera, the pictures degrade when I reduce them to 30%. Any suggestions?

RedLeif · Post by **RedLeif** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:52 pm

More amazing models from Cris coming up!
Keep up the imagination and awesome work.

redleif

dragon6 · Post by **dragon6** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:04 am

Nazgul wrote:I realized that its not the camera, the pictures degrade when I reduce them to 30%. Any suggestions?

Set your camera to the highest quality it allows.

Why are you reducing the photos to 30%?