This is the second post - my first one last night vanished.
I recently bought the
Space 1999: Nuclear Waste Area 2 Diorama Set w/ Bonus Moon Buggy kit at a deeep discount on Hobbylinc. I never cared for the series, but this kit has some good LED lights, useful shapes, an acceptable vacuformed Moon surface and a second 1/24 scale "Moon buggy" - actually a 6 wheeled
Amphicat.The Amphicat/Moon Buggy looks like a cramped ride for the two 1/24 astronauts (or 1:1 humans) so I decided to rescale it to 1/35, make it electric and add two extra wheels. There's an 8 wheel Amphicat that doesn't look at all like this.
I've been wanting to design some tires, and this was a good opportunity. I duplicated the kit axles in 3D as well and added a framework that slips into the existing slots and holds the wheels in place:
The white on the wheels is resin dust stuck when I wet sanded some of the parts. Even though the resin looks almost black, it's actually clear. I only had about 100ml left, so I added some concentrated alcohol based black ink - it makes the details stand out, but leaves a white dust when sanded. BTW, while a clever idea in principle, in practice, the fine charcoal? pigment settled and I had to stir the resin up with every new print. It may work better with a dye based ink.
Here it is with two 1/35 figures. It's still a relatively small vehicle:
While the tire design printed out well on the first try, it took three iterations of the hub/wheel to get a design that worked well:
1 - tire, separate tire walls with integral hub.
2 - tire with walls, separate hubs.
3 - tire with walls, hubs connected.
The tires are pretty thin (0.75mm, to save on resin) so lining everything up is harder than it should be.
Here's the tire and hub (or wheel) design:
My tires are a bit wider than the kit tires. This led to a problem later on:
I copied the kit axles exactly and built them into the axle support. Since my tires are wider, there's a deeper hole on the outward facing side, even though they're held in place securely. I'll have to print mini "hubcaps"
connectors.
Here's the front view. I just noticed that I have the engines upside down (the electrical contact should face up) and the treads are backwards:
Luckily it's an easy fix. The wheel assembly is press fit into the body and easy to remove:
The fit isn't exact - I had to sand it down a bit - but once glued in place, it should straighten out.
Next, I have to figure out the seating arrangement - I think the driver in the middle works - and I have to add shock absorbers to the front and rear.
