1/35 Frankentruck

[Frank3k]

A few years ago, Story sent me an old Omega-K (later, ICM) 1/35 Ural 4320 cargo truck:


https://www.scalemates.com/kits/omega-k-35001-ural-4320--120605

It's a very detailed kit, and many parts (like the front wheels and the rear suspension) can be made movable, without resorting to overscaled parts. The skill of the mold makers was beyond the capabilities of the molding technology at the time, but the kit can be built and detailed without much trouble. It's a good example of a 1990s good quality ex-Eastern European kit.

I built most of the chassis and started working on the cab when the idea of a cab over engine (COE) version came to mind but it seemed like a difficult conversion.

The kit sat unfinished for 2-3 years; along the way, I found the 3D files for a 1/16 scale Kamaz COE truck. I thought of scaling the cab down to fit the Ural chassis, but converting STL mesh files to something easily workable was more effort than I wanted to expend and other projects grabbed my attention.
Last week, I looked at the files again, drew the outline of the existing cab and just made my own. I used the STL files and pictures of the various Kamaz trucks for inspiration and finally had something that I could print. It's Kamaz-ish.

This is roughly the goal and inspiration, although it's not quite a Kamaz 43113



I tried a few quick filament prints to get something that would fit the chassis and based on that, I sent the latest version to the resin printer, where it's printing right now.
I broke my long term habit of making the windows glue from the inside of the cab, which has always been an annoyance. Let's see if gluing them in from the outside is an improvement:



Exploded view. The upper cab shell is one unit, which helps hide the supports inside and minimizes supports damaging the exterior:


The instrument panel is a copy of the Kamaz 4310 IP. The radio is one of my previous designs. Some of the other knobs and switches are inspired by the interior of the HEMTT. The seats are generic and I'll probably reuse them in other builds/designs:


There's enough room in the cab behind the driver and passenger for a bed and plenty of supplies and equipment. After seeing Buzzbomb's post-apocalyptic MRAP, I may turn this into a post apocalyptic (or post Russia) vehicle.

[Buzzbomb]

There's enough room in the cab behind the driver and passenger for a bed and plenty of supplies and equipment. After seeing Buzzbomb's post-apocalyptic MRAP, I may turn this into a post apocalyptic (or post Russia) vehicle.

Happy to be of service sir 

That is great design work and there is certainly room for more Softskin options like this.
Recently saw the International Acco truck in 1/35 as used by the Australian Army on BNA . Did a lot of miles in the back of these during my Army days, plus they were used in Vietnam, but at $156 AUD for the kit,which would be about $2 worth of resin, you sort of think not just yet.

So great work, looking forward to seeing how the prints come out.

[Claymore]

Wow, beautifully detailed design work.  Hugely impressed! 

[Old Wombat]

Beyond me but the shots look good, if a bit squarer & more flat-topped than the KAMAZ. 

Recently saw the International Acco truck in 1/35 as used by the Australian Army on BNA .

The ACCO F.1 looks like a really nice kit ... But, yeah, $156 is a bit steep for a truck

Still, not much more expensive than the $100(+/-) of the Trumpeter 1/35 M1078 LMTV Standard Cargo when it came out - in "real, what your dollar could buy" terms (it's still in the $90+ RRP range).

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Nice to see this project getting some attention.  The COE looks great.  Hope the fit is perfect. 

[Frank3k]

Here's the cab on the truck. The resin is splotchy because I let some of it sit in the printer tank for too long and the pigment separated. Perfectly ok, though. The parts have some dust on them from removing the supports and sanding. I knocked the mirror off of the driver's door. The passenger door still has its mirror in this picture,  but that was knocked off five minutes later. I expected this, so there's room to replace the mirror support with wire.

The kit wheels are too big for the vinyl tires, so they look a bit wobbly in these pictures. The tires are pretty nice, so I'll trim them until the wheels fit. If that gets too tiresome, I'll just print new tires:



Here's the cab with the wheel arches. I'm not loving them; I may just add mudflaps or reprint them:



The front bumper looks OK. I'll add a PE mesh behind the grill. The small vertical bars on the grill are supports; I may leave them in. I'll also block off the area between the chassis and the front of the body.



The dashboard came out OK:



I also have an Italeri M923 A1 "Bigfoot". I shortened the chassis a while ago, but haven't had the motivation to finish it since the main attraction - the bigfoot tires - are crap. But looky here, the cab fits and looks good! I'll have to remove and reattach the fender to allow the cab to move forward a bit. I guess I'll have to print another cab:

[Frank3k]

I found a couple of spare wheel arches I'd printed to correct the ICM 1/35 Renault AHN truck that I built. They fit well; some sanding, trimming and a mudflap at the rear and this section will be good to go:



I don't have any suitable tires for the Italeri M932 truck, so I started working on some tires. They probably won't be exactly like the Michelin tires on the real M932, but far better than the kit tires. I found a cross section of a weighed tire, so I may try to make a sagged tire. Here's the rendered and shaded versions of the WIP (not sagged):

 

[apophenia]

I found a couple of spare wheel arches I'd printed to correct the ICM 1/35 Renault AHN truck that I built. They fit well; some sanding, trimming and a mudflap at the rear and this section will be good to go ...

Wow! So that fit was just happenstance? Amazing   

Your Michelin XZL R20 renders look great so far! Interested to see how they look when weighted 

[Frank3k]

Stephen - the arches just happened to fit. Pretty amazing.  I went ahead and printed out a couple of extra cabs with the doors closed and with and without wheel arches, plus mudflaps and separate arches.  This project has expanded - I started out with making just the cab for the ICM URAL, then the old Italeri M923 Bigfoot (not 932...) joined the party. That kit's tires are awful, so I started to CAD a new set.

I've always been curious about how to CAD a sagged tire and how to add the wavy sidewalls caused by the radial supports... I saw it as a skill-building challenge. So, after a couple of days ofCAD  work, I have these - almost ready for the printer:

The front tires. The radial pattern and lettering may be a bit too much, but we'll see once they've been printed:





The rear tire is pretty much the same, just a different hub. It's hard to see the tire sag:



I have seven tires that are going through a final check. Each is different (sag in a different spot re the lettering). I didn't make an unsagged spare - the seventh tire will have to do.  I was surprised to see my pretty powerful computer struggling a bit, but the tires are more complex than they appear.

Not great, compared to after-market resin parts, but not terrible either. These are not exact copies of the Michelin tires, though. This is a hobby not a job after all.

[Claymore]

Wow! Great work Frank. 

[apophenia]

Wow! Great work Frank. 

What he said! Your computer work here is a thing of beauty, Frank 

...
I have seven tires that are going through a final check. Each is different (sag in a different spot re the lettering)... tires are more complex than they appear...

Putting the sag in varying spots to have the individual tires rotated to differing degrees is one of those details that will really pop on the built model! Nice 

... These are not exact copies of the Michelin tires, though. This is a hobby not a job after all.

True. But, if it were a job, Michelin SCA should be paying you for depicting their product so well 

________________________________

Off on a tangent ... I do wonder why corporations' marketing department take so little interest in seeing their products depicted in scale form. It just seems like good exposure to an enthusiast part of the tax-paying market (and probably better value than most of their adverts placed in often obscure trade mags). [/tangent]

[Frank3k]

Thanks, Stephen. To answer your question - I think corporate lawyers probably get involved since they have to protect the brand, somehow.

...

I printed 2 sets of tires, 14 in total (I paid for the build plate and I'm going to fill it up, dammit!) Here's Steve considering opening "Steve's Bigfoot Tire Emporium":



The tires are just out of the curing station, so they still have some supports visible and small dings. It's hard to see where the sagged section is, but if I put the tire on a flat surface, it will roll until the sagged section (which is thicker, therefore heavier) is facing down.

Front tire. Some small supports (and dings) are visible.



Rear tire. I had to drill the attachment hole in the back a bit deeper since it was too shallow:



The radial ribbing isn't very visible and not really close to the reat tire, but it's good enough. I used the published dimensions for the Michelin tire compared to the ltaleri tire. I may have used a larger tire dimension, but the Italeri is a scrawny tire any way you look at it:



On the shortened M923a1 chassis. The cab is a new print. I taped the mudflap on:



The back tires are loose and slightly twisted. They are close together, but when pushed onto the axles, they're about 3mm apart. Close, but since they're at a fixed separation I don't think it would be an issue in the real world.

Somehow I've ended up with two parallel truck builds. How did that happen?

[Buzzbomb]

Oh.. those wheels are super good.

Excellent work there

[Old Wombat]

Excellence across the board there, wheels & cab! Brilliant work, Frank! 

[apophenia]

Frank, your XZLs are things to true beauty    (And "scrawny" doesn't begin to cover those Italeri shirt-buttons!)

... I think corporate lawyers probably get involved since they have to protect the brand, somehow.

Yep. Óðinn forfend that any good product publicity should slip past the legal department 

On the ribbing, it is subtle but I wonder if they will pop back out with a bit of paint detailing/weathering?

... Somehow I've ended up with two parallel truck builds. How did that happen?

 

[Frank3k]

I did screw up on the tires; I went with the largest quoted diameter I found online, which makes them considerably larger than intended. I have to measure the gap between the rear tires, but it's around 3mm. The tires are 2mm larger in diameter than they should be. I'm not reprinting the tires, so more plastic surgery! Of the two tricks this one will definitely be the Frankentruck. The Ural mods are sedate in comparison and will lack the violence I'll inflict on the former M923.

[Kerick]

Is it possible to move the axles slightly farther apart? You’ve probably already thought of that.
Will this be a civilian truck? Lots of possibilities there! The cargo ideas will be unlimited. I’ve been watching this. Classic whiff!

[Frank3k]

Fixing the wheel separation was a lot easier than I expected. I just cut off the four axle attachment points for the wheels, glued four square posts on the outer edges of the axles, drilled suitable holes and reattached the wheel attachments. I reinforced everything with CA. The axle isn't symmetrical, so it took some care to get everything in the right positions and all the tires to line up. This out of focus image shows the mods:



I should have made the lower posts longer to keep the axle distances the same, but I later made a small spacer to keep the back of the tires aligned.

Just a test shot; the rearmost wheel is a little wonky because it isn't quite in its "sagged" spot. The gap between the tires is now 7mm, which should be good enough:



I'll try to paint both chassis this weekend.

[Kerick]

Beautiful beast!

[Buzzbomb]

And that is fixed 

[Claymore]

Great work Frank! 

[Frank3k]

I'm making some progress. I'm building two trucks, so progress is slow (plus I have to keep checking which truck I'm working on). I saw the Italeri Mercedes-Benz Wrecker Truck:



and liked the front bumper, so I borrowed the idea for the repair truck version (based on the M923 chassis) and designed and printed something similar. I also made a utility box/cargo area. Steve will need a ladder to get to some of the equipment in the top cabinets :



I'll add a no-skid plate for the space between the cargo box and the spare tire:



This version of the bumper had some minor printing errors; it's just held in place:



The Ural 4320 version has seen some progress as well:



The kit tires looked good at first, but they have strange swirls and cracks in the vinyl. They're not as visible under the paint, so I'll keep them. The KUNG box is straight out of the box (right now) and it fit the chassis quite well. I had to move the fuel tank, a few mm to the left, but that was the main mod.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Really liking that maintenance box you created for the one vehicle.  Looks like a real practical bit of kit. 

[Old Wombat]

Both coming along nicely, Frank! 

What are you filling the space forward of the tool box on the M923 version with? 

[Frank3k]

Thanks guys - The space in front of the tool box would be for either welding gases or tools/equipment for the box. it could also be a way of climbing into the box without a ladder (at least a long one)

Jeff - the tool box should be about the same x and y dimensions as the box on the Unimog 404:



I may reprint it with some minor changes. What looks like supports on the four corners of the top surface are actually vent holes to prevent any resin in the hollow boxes from pulling the box off the build plate, either from suction forces or weight. I should add at least one, maybe two more per side to act as supports for a canvas top. I also have two small drain holes near the cargo floor that would act as drains for water on the real vehicle, but acted as resin drains on the print.

I also need to add internal supports to the empty side boxes. The walls are pretty thin and can warp (in or out).