Here is my new project, a 1/10 th scale trailer for my rock crawler. I was going to 3d print it, but decided that it would be a better project if I scratch built it from materials I have in my collection. I swapped two odd sized buggy wheels I had for a very nice pair of wheels with Tamiya tyres on them. I am not sure if the wheels are Tamiya ones or not, doesnt matter, they are perfect for my project.
First job was to find a suitable axle, I ended up using 2 front axles and hubs from a magazine partwork rc car I got from a neighbour years ago when he figured out he would be better spending about 1/4 of the money and buying one that was ready to go. Anyway, the hubs have already been used on an rc car I built to use motor etc from a dead electric heli, the car was incredibly fast but ended up getting rolled a lot. I used the front end of the car again on a trailer for my 1/24 scale crawler truck. Now they are on their third contraption. The wheels needed thin tubing added inside the hex drive pieces to match the smaller axle diameter, just as well I keep everything in case it comes in handy! 😁
I made up spruce top and bottom mounting rails to hold them the right distance apart and proceeded to build a 3mm liteply base with 3mm x 10mm spruce frame around 3 sides of the underside and a 6mm x 10mm bit at the front where the tow hitch arm is going to be fitted. This has all turned out quite well so far, next was to build a frame for the top, again, 3x10 spruce with 3mm liteply corner gussets and filler pieces to make the top flat. 4 corner uprights and gussets has given me a nice box frame. Not tried the wheel assembly back on it yet, will save that for later.
After hijacking someones post on mayhem with pics of my Vic Smeed Vivacity, I was seriously thinking of building a half-ish scale version and looked at prices for 1/32 ply. Jeezo, prices have sure gone up!
Well there goes my idea for using ply for my trailer sides and top!
I am lucky enough to have thin aluminium printing plates (litho plate) given to me by a friend that used to work printing newspapers. I have had a small number of these for about 15 years, saving them for a nice project. There are a few small creases, scratches and dings from storage, house moving and more storage, but I think I can avoid the worst of them.
I still have to decide how I am going to do the rear door, but I made a start on the outer skinning, here is what I have so far. I am very happy with how I managed to get the corner folds so nice, and it hasnt even been glued on yet.