[dataway]

I absolutely loved building models as a kid and young adult. Can't say I was ever great at it. Still don't find myself patient and precise enough to do a great job. Some people are just amazing at it.

I remember as a 10-12 year old we'd have the neighborhood model "trading rally" remember all those extra parts they would include with the kits back then. Various tires, wheels, spoilers, blowers and such depending on which "version" the model you wanted to build? We'd gather up all our spares, and the remains of destroyed models and trade components with the other kids so we could build our monstrosities of smeared paint and globs of glue that comprised our "Custom built" models.

Good times.

[Shiny]

I started down a path of building replicas of cars that meant something to me at the time....so far it's been about 1 per year .

I am not a skilled modeler, nor committed to the art, but it's fun to immerse in the nostalgia.

These kits and my work are nowhere near the detail you're creating.



The 70 LeMans I now own (and keeps me in this forum) is our 2nd, so that's on the to-do list, but there is no exact kit. Kits for 70 GTO are scarce and expensive. I plan to try and modify the nose of a 72 GTO kit. There are also cast "resin" parts sold online that could help. I'd love to have a 1/24 dataway engine for it!

I'd also love to have my LeMans driveable and find a way to get it painted! Something about wishes and horses....

The Ford had a 327 Chevy so I bought a standalone model of the engine and transplanted it. A dataway 400 would look good in any model.



Mike

[dataway]

None of your stuff has a giant glue finger print on the windshield so you are ahead of my game Yours look great to me. Can't wait to get my move over so I can do some old school 1/24 building.

I think I'll do that math and figure out how to scale my prints from 1/10 to 1/24 and see how one turns out.

I also have an urge to print an engine out at something like 1/6 scale just to see what kind of detail can be captured.

[dataway]

None of your stuff has a giant glue finger print on the windshield so you are ahead of my game Yours look great to me. Can't wait to get my move over so I can do some old school 1/24 building.

I think I'll do that math and figure out how to scale my prints from 1/10 to 1/24 and see how one turns out.

I also have an urge to print an engine out at something like 1/6 scale just to see what kind of detail can be captured.

[dataway]

Well, here is the same CAD block file printed at 1/24. I'm frankly amazed it did as well as it did. This is printed at the finest resolution and highest quality settings I can produce. About .0023" inch layer height, and line width about .008" line width.

While it's certainly recognizable as a copy of the larger piece it would take some changes to make it print a bit cleaner .. basically changes that would reduce the detail some, details that just end up little tiny blobs. Kind of like trying to write a letter with a caulking gun (on a microscopic level).

Holding it in your hand it looks quite nice. I'd call it acceptable. I'll print out some more pieces and see what a whole engine looks like and how it goes together. Could probably ship in a padded envelope in pieces.

More accurate measurement is 0.875" long, or 21" full scale. That's got to be within an inch of the real thing I think (bare block).

[Shiny]

That is excellent! Very impressive!

[dataway]

Big brother and little brother.
Hard to capture with a camera, zoom in enough to show the details and you see flaws the human eye doesn't process when you are holding it in your hand, zoom out to hide those flaws and the details are lost too.

I know as a kid it would have been an engine I was proud to put in my model

New respect for the die makers for some of the high end Japanese model companies.

When scaling things down some details just go below the threshold the printer can replicate .. it tries though, but the results are hard to predict.

I'm seeing that at about 1/8 scale I could replicate just about every bit of detail you'd see standing in front of the real thing at a few feet away. But the model would end up about 24" long.

Scaling is interesting, some unusual math involved. Scaling to half the size, means 1/4 the volume and some things are counter intuitive. Kind of like building scale model hydraulics, you make them half the size, you have to double the pressure to end up with the same relative power. For while the length of the levers is only decreased by half, the area of the hydraulic pistons are decreased by a factor of 4.

For modeling look at it this way ... hold a 1/24 model two feet in front of your eyes, that is a scale distance of 48' ... how much detail can you see on a real GTO at 48' away? Hold the model 1 foot in front of your eyes ... that's a scale distance of 24' ... how much detail can you see on a real GTO at 24' ? Ideally the levels of detail would be approximately the same ... no cheating by using reading glasses

[Greg Reid]

You guys truly amaze me.

[dataway]

Got the air cleaner and lid pretty much done. That chrome lid just isn't going to turn out great without some post processing (chrome paint of some sort).

Will start working on some kind of simplified model to represent the carb shortly. Intake is quite the project, lots of time in that so far, but about half done.

And a quick questions ... do you guys prefer the full size images included in posts, or do you prefer to have the thumbnail images to click on?

[dataway]

Slow progress

[4zpeed]

Originally Posted by dataway

And a quick questions ... do you guys prefer the full size images included in posts, or do you prefer to have the thumbnail images to click on?

Easy enough to enlarge and insert once uploaded, what ever's easiest for you, man, impressive stuff, hats off!







Frank

[Shiny]

Thanks for the updates!

What's the wall thickness on the air cleaner? Nice details!

One blast of paint on the lid will probably smooth it out. Another great job on that one!

The intake does look like a bear. I wonder how that was originally designed? I wonder if they actually had dimensioned prints or just models? Clearly it's more complicated than circles and squares.

Wow!

[dataway]

The minimum thickness I can print with any level of structural integrity is around .020" (scale), which equates to 0.2" real life. Those air cleaner walls are 0.035" scale, which would equal 0.35" real life. Could probably go thinner there, that would be a pretty heavy duty cleaner in real life at more than 1/4" thick

I tend to print the first examples with a safety margin to see how they print, then tweak them down to a more accurate dimension. That air cleaner base came out first try, the lid took about five redesigns to get it to print properly.

There is also assembly to consider, there has to be enough surface area to glue one part to the other. Although ... I guess I could try to find a tiny stud for the carb and mount the air cleaner real life style. But I'm sure the scale stud would end up being like 1" diameter in real life size ... and pretty sure you can't find 1mm or like screw size 2 wing nuts

And yes I'm playing with the idea of drawing up an air filter to go in there. I'm still learning this scale model thing ... I had numerous failed lids before it occurred to me I could make the bottom of it flat since it won't show anyway. The printer really didn't like the hollow space under the lid.

[Shiny]

0.020" is impressive to me for a printer dispensing molten polymer.

Nice!

[dataway]

It will actually print .008" walls .. but this would be a detail printed on some other part of the structure, something that thin couldn't serve as a structural component like the side of that air cleaner base, it would print ... but would be very fragile to handle.

Here is the basic shape that will serve as the carb. Obviously spending a lot of time on something only 1/2" square and so many small details that would be all but invisible wouldn't make much sense. Specially since it's covered by the air cleaner.

[dataway]

Got the distributor done.
Brought a spare up from the shop to measure.

Here is the model, and resulting 3d print of the cap.

[4zpeed]

Awesome detail, my thoughts go to what I could use for plugs and wires...








Frank

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by 4zpeed

Awesome detail, my thoughts go to what I could use for plugs and wires...








Frank

Individual copper strands sprayed dark gray I'd say.... mighty tedious though.

[cnc]

I guess depending on gauge u might be able to find something to fit in grey coated wire ….without stripping and painting. Any idea on gauge size?…using pin drill for reference..awesome work by the way…

[4zpeed]

Originally Posted by cnc

I guess depending on gauge u might be able to find something to fit in grey coated wire ….without stripping and painting.

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Individual copper strands sprayed dark gray I'd say.... mighty tedious though.

I was thinking just pull the copper out of some small electrical wire, black, grey, yellow, dull it and use the plastic. Be easy to take some of the wire and use it to connect the dizzy. Then use some small pieces for the plugs, heat it up and insert it in the head like the dizzy but leave a bit exposed, paint it white for plugs.

I'm gettin these visions and a uncontrollable urge...


Frank