I bought the Tamiya 1/35 Quad Gun Tractor from an online friend, back in the 1990s. I started it around 1995, but put it away after I screwed up part of the body shell. It's been bouncing around in my closet since.
A few weeks ago, we watched the Rifftrax take on the otherwise unbearably bad 1966
"Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D". I liked the Daleks' saucer and the
1959 Morris JB commercial van (also seen at around 15 seconds of the Rifftrax promo).
Hey! I could use the otherwise good chassis and interior bits of the Quad and a 3D printed body to make a heavy duty commercial vehicle!
I found some drawings (with dimensions) of the Morris JB and it's a considerably smaller vehicle than the Quad. Knowing the limitations of FDM 3D printing, I knew I wasn't going to be able to successfully replicate the curves of the original truck. After several tries (especially of the front) I came up with a design that I could print successfully and would fit on the Quad... so inspired by the Morris JB, the Quad Commercial:
That's not a cloth top; it's the printing artifacts caused by a slightly arched roof. Luckily it's all ABS:
I'm tempted to re-do everything but the front and roof out of sheet styrene:
The front of the Morris JB narrows; I decided to provide more interior room, so the headlights are in the body. The original grill was a huge printing failure. This is a good enough replacement:
I may be able to squeeze the original radiator and part of the hood in place of the grill, but it may look even worse.
Plenty of storage room and a nice winch and tow hook: