TOPIC:

He looks very much like a lorry driver, no longer a laid-back American military reserve

Rear lights done ... there was no way I was going to be able to get LEDs to the back of them if I made them a permanent fixture, so I cheated a bit & put M2 screws through the unused portions:





Work on the drivers seat started with a back-of-a-beermat sketch, then something a bit more dimensioned ...






I scanned that in, redrew it & printed out a few copies - I've finally found a use for that box of non-stick (or at least low tack) A4 sheet labels...





Basic structure of seat done:





Seat done, I make it 60 parts

It's a bit flat on the back & squab, but that's deliberate to match the shape of the driver. The passenger seat I'll try & make a little curvier.

Great looking seat

Built the 2nd seat, pics should fill in some of the gaps from my method ...


"Shrinking" bottom of seat by cutting portions out of the middle:





Complete set of cushion parts ...





... made from 3mm sheet this time, note sculpting:






Impromptu clamping jig arrangement for seat back angle (tape removed for clarity):




Clamps on headrest & arms are not the greatest quality, but they're superior to clothespegs in that they exert a lot more pressure, and the tips are free floating so stay parallel regardless of the width of the thing they're clamping. Seat base angled part is so irregular it needed a lot of tape (since removed) to "clamp" it while the parts set. Lots of trimming required, the part had to be very over size to cover all the angle/direction changes.





Top is a lot more regular so gets a much smaller bit of sheet; arms/headrest dremmelled & sanded to shape:





Quick clamps (even mini ones) like this can exert an awful lot of pressure, or you can be quite delicate with them...





... & that's it done. The driver fits surprisingly well in the contours, but I couldn't have known that until I'd built it, so it still makes sense to have made a "flat" one initially - although I was briefly tempted to make another "curvy" one, even though you can't see the difference with the driver in it

Part count is now up to 607, plus another 187 if you count the skip

Those seats are work of art!
The level of detail is unbelievable...

Truly amazing Jonny, you make it look so easy

Thanks for the positive feedback, chaps

Something none of my previous scratch builds haven't had is much detail on the insides of the doors, so I thought I'd remedy that this time...


Rough sketch of door card as modelled on 1:1, plus 2x size drawing (so when it's scanned, reduced & printed on sticker paper it doesn't look 1/2 so rough





Back of card is already 2 layers, infills are a bit thicker & have door latch & window winder points dremmeled down, "correct" number of segments in upper area has been reduced from 18 to 12 to make things easier ...





All stuck in, along with latch & winder. Holes in winder aren't "correct" but they looked really flat beforehand.





I know the cab floor is dull but it took some time to nibble it down to a shape where it can actually be fitted with the seats attached





Starting on seatbelts (I did the stalks on the seats, so "had" to do the rest ...





Rough looking reel boxes ....





... prettied up with sanding, skinning the fronts, and making the rest of the fittings:





... and held in with blu tac. I don't fancy my chances of painting these glued in, so I'll paint them separately & superglue in after.

Ok, I visited the Tamiya museum and Hobby Square in Shizouka last Thursday and they had some very nice things (semi custom static kits) but this beats most all they had on display.

Working on the dashboard & associated bits has mostly been an exercise in juggling & re-measuring over & over, but it's beginning to bear fruit.

Starting on basic dash profile box, steering column, and "hump" (where the engine cover intrudes a long way into the cab):






Starting on instrument panel & centre console sections: