The latest line up of HO scale construction vehicles I have built. The road graders are metal toys that I updated and weathered a little. The road rollers are and the small bucket loaders are mostly 3D printed on a home printer, an Afinia, and are based on prototypes.
Payloader, little bucket
I designed the these Payloaders based on a single photograph.
They are a little small for printing at home, but with a little work, they are, in my opinion, acceptable, if you hide them a little.
I designed it without the hydraulic cylinders, but with a place to mount them. Although, the parts are so small, they did not form well.
To avoid ridiculous amounts of support material, I exploded the drawing into a printable form.
I lot of little pieces to glue together, but not too hard.
I used brass tube and wire for the hydraulic cylinders.
Road Roller
I ran into a 1940's road roller at a gas station. It was on its way to the scrap yard, so I am pretty sure these are the last pictures ever taken of this machine. I also ran into a second old machine, the one pictured with the tires still in place, in my travels.
I designed most of this while showing my 3D printed items at the Worlds Greatest Hobby Show when it was here in Kansas City. By the way, LOTS of young people at that show. All the people that say the model Railroad Hobby is dying, were not at that show,
I generally draw the finished, assembled item I am planning on printing, then I decide how to explode it for optimal printing. In this case, I felt the only acceptable way to make the rollers, was to use 7/16" brass tube, so I only printed the end plugs.
I started doing test prints at the show, and by the time I made all the adjustments, reprints, redesigns, etc., I had most of the parts for four road roller, so I gave one away, and built three.
The wheels, tires, and mounting system were all printed separately, for various reasons, but if nothing else, it made them easier to print. The mount has a pin on it, and the wheels have a dent, to they would align.
As I assembled them, I tried different ideas on the rollers, as the printed center axle did not look too good. In the end, I feel the best option was printing a hole, and then inserting a styrene axle. They are NOT made to turn, they are just for looks, but the axle on the front wheel is out in the open.
I generally prime all my 3D printed models. I did paint each of these with a different type and color of paint, just to see what I liked best.
I reality, just about any paint will work. I have yet to have one fail on the primed ABS.
A few bits of wire, and some scraps of styrene for the pedals, and they are ready to go to work.
Road Graders
These are metal toys that I picked up a various trains shows. The orange one is a newer, slightly less detailed version. The yellow one, is a Mercury Lil' Toy. I arrived missing some tires, and had been played with hard.
The orange one was in pretty good shape, only a few nicks, so I applied a little weathering to the nicks. The main issue was the blob they called a steering wheel. I finally decided the only option was to cut it off and replace it.
I replaced the steering wheel with one I 3D printed.
I also 3D printed an air clearer for this model, and added foot pedals and a gear shift. I also designed and 3D printed the tires.
The yellow model was sandblasted to remove all the only paint, and then painted with Krylon old Caterpillar Yellow.
I don't care for the yellow wheels on the orange model, but with some weathering, at least they are not shiny.
I have since found another road grader, and it not only needs tires, but the grader part as well. More items to design and 3D print.
Other vehicle blog posts I have done,
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