cteno4 Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 just ran across this nifty little etched metal car transporter trailer on plaza japan: http://tinyurl.com/mgujfx nice unit, not cheap, but perfect if you are into vehicles! you can use a tomytec truck for your tractor with this trailer and a set of wheels from some truck you have to salvage from. Made by PairHands which i guess is one of those little boutique japanese model makers that you rarely see outside of japan. kudos for plazajapan for putting this out world wide for the rest of us! i have been planning a small new car lot and this will be perfect to have there unloading some cars. if its really cool i may break down and get a second to just have out on the road somewhere as they are very impressive fully loaded! cheers jeff Link to comment
Darren Jeffries Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 This is cool. Looks fiddly to put together. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 Hoping its not too bad. the etched metal things like this i have done in the past are actually pretty straight forward to do. it is fine work, but hopefully not horrible to do. mainly filing and CA gluing, then painting. will end up costing about $50 for the fully loaded unit to be assembled, but will be very unique and really make the car dealership scene offloading cars. my luck will be that tomytec does a car carrier this fall for $10 in 3 different colors! hey they are already doing the train car and heavy equipment carriers! i had a food cart about 2/3rds scratch built when they announced the food stand series... cheers, jeff Link to comment
bc6 Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 Thats a nice little project to work but not for me, I have no patience to do detail work. Please post pics when its completed. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 Just got mine. very nicely done etched metal product. will be a bit of work assembling, but should not be too bad. most of the work will be in painting it all. Mike Bloes posted some pictures of his in process and how he cut a tomytec tractor's rear axle off to move it back for the final longer tractor with its overhead rack. he also found that you can use the spare tires from the tractor (stored under the frame) on the trailer! thanks mike! going to be a fun little project for later in the summer after other projects are done! Plaza also just posted an RM model kit for a 4 car parking rack (2 high by 2 wide). not cheap at $20, but interesting. i have been looking at making these out of stock styrene for a while now and think that may work just as well and be a whole lot cheaper! not sure if the tire traction detail will even be noticeable at any distance and could be simulated with a custom printed decal of diamond plate patter. http://tinyurl.com/n7sl87 plaza also has the rm etched metal tv antennas and satellite dishes. the dishes could probably be simulated with a small sequin and fine wire. any respectable city in the world now days has to have the dishes all over the place! want to find a combo of parts to mass produce these. http://tinyurl.com/kwomk8 cheers, jeff Link to comment
Tenorikuma Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 What kind of glue do you use for assembling an etched-metal model? Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 CA glue is the usual for etched metal if you glue. i use the thicker gel ca glue for these and apply it with a toothpick very sparingly. also if you are going to paint the metal its best to wash it well first. folks also will solder them. Mike Bloes pictures i posted of his assembly are actually soldered. soldering of metal parts like this takes a bit of practice and experience to do well, its a tad different than soldering wires. cheers, jeff Link to comment
Martijn Meerts Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Epoxy / 2-component glue can be used as well, some people recommend it for the heavier parts. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Yes CA glue does not do so well on spot joints that will take a lot of force. cheers jeff Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 from bill answering a question on jrforum, good references if you are doing a car transport trailer: I dug into Japanese language Wikipdedia and found a few pages with photos. This is a general truck page with several tractor photos. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BB%E3%83%9F%E3%83%88%E3%83%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9 A car transporter photo taken from the back. Be sure to scroll down for more car transporter photos. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB:Car_transporter_003.JPG In some cases the car transporter won't have a separate tractor. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Car_transporter_004.JPG Fuso Super Great http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB:Fuso_Super_Great_001.JPG Another car tranporter tractor. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daiko.jpg> More trucks. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E7%94%A3%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AF%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3 A Hino related page with all kinds of vehicle photos, trucks are at the very bottom. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%88%A9%E7%94%A8%E8%80%85:Ypy31/%E7%AC%AC2%E3%82%AE%E3%83%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC Bill Robb Link to comment
SubwayHypes Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 post up some pics of that car lot when its done, i myself am planning something similar once the tomix kit comes out. Link to comment
mbloes Posted July 27, 2009 Share Posted July 27, 2009 I completed my car carrier over the weekend (only a month after I started it!). I’ve uploaded some photos, including some “action shots” here: Don't forget to view in large / original size! Just some notes on the assembly: Note that, if you want to detail any of the lower level of the trailer, you cannot assemble the entire trailer prior to painting. In my case, I assembled everything but left the three top racks out prior to painting. This allowed me to detail the lower rack of the trailer – more specifically, painting the tracks a light grey. I couldn’t be bothered to figure out a rotating rear wheel. I just glued the rear wheels directly to the wheel well. I used two spare tires that are installed under the Tomy Truck Collection tractors. I decided that I wasn’t going to “fool around” with different configurations as it is just to delicate. As such, I decided on a “fully loaded” format. I attached the cars with a little silicone seal, doing the lower layers first and then installing the top racks. I went for a “blacked out” wheel look on the tractor and trailer. In addition, I painted the cars’ wheels a gloss black to simulate that there are no hubcaps installed yet. Thanks MB Link to comment
bc6 Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Thats a nice looking car carrier mike Link to comment
Bernard Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 MB - Not only is it impressive work on the car carrier but I wished I had seen the work you had done on your overhead station! I like the models you kitbashed for your effect. You have some inspiring ideas. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted August 3, 2010 Author Share Posted August 3, 2010 ran across this hobby shop that makes these. they appear to sell finished car carriers utilizing this kit. also non articulated trucks and a few different designs. wonder if there is more than one kit available or these are just cleaver kitbashes. there appear to be a few kits there, but no pictures or clear explanations. http://homepage3.nifty.com/PAIRHANDS/newpage1.htm cheers jeff Link to comment
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