"Bendy Bus" VW Doka / 5th wheel camper kitbash

[Mini Me]

Andy, once the paint goes on they will blend right in...Excellent work on your part, keep it coming:thumb2: Rick H.

[Guest]

Thanks all. Time to get cracking on the front half now :smiling3:

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
Looks great to me. Lovely neat work. Good idea to stick and then cut using the etch - problem solved and their lengths look spot on.
Jim

[Tim Marlow]

Nice tidy job on the Louvres Andy. Front half should be entertaining....

[yak face]

Louvres look superb andy , excellent problem solving , cheers tony

[Steve Jones]

Just popped in to see how you are doing Andy and you dont disappoint. Some wonderful scratchery. Great to see your work.

[Guest]

Thanks everyone, good to see you're hanging in there with me.

Just to give you an idea of why things have been a bit tricky up to now, I took this picture of the as yet unmolested Samba. As you can see, the floor and "chassis" are two separate parts. The idea is to fit the engine & running gear to the chassis, mate the two parts together, then wrap them in the body panels which all have location slots in the chassis. Because of all the chopping around I needed a reference point, but couldn't mate the two levels together yet as for one it would make fitting the engine very difficult (assembling it keyhole surgery style within the engine bay), and also I wouldn't be able to get under the floor to reinforce things when I start to chop out for the 5th wheel/turntable.

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I've managed pretty well so far working just around the floor, having trimmed a few areas of the chassis to allow it to squeeze in afterwards, but as you can see the front panel is located totally on the chassis, it doesn't really touch the floor at all. So what I've ended up doing is using the offcuts from the louvres to fill in the gap and give a reasonable sized glue area. There isn't much clearance to the chassis so had to keep it small, but it's all worked out ok and the front is now pretty sturdy. Like the rear window, it'll be solid once the roof is on, but obviously I can't fit that yet or I wouldn't be able to access the interior at all :smiling5:

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Doing it this way also left gaps around the floor in places. The chassis would normally fill these to an extent, but it would still look a bit ugly with the doors open (at this point I'm still hoping to have working front doors)

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So I cut and glued in some very thin card, and removed a corresponding thickness from the top of the chassis in that area.

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[JR]

Quite amazing Andy, that body several pages back looked fantastic. Great work and skill mate, you must be pleased.

[Guest]

Thanks John. Yes, I think I peaked too soon showing the money shot of it mocked up :smiling5:

But I'm really pleased with it so far and enjoying the process, which is quite different from anything I've done before. I can see me doing more of this kind of thing.

[Guest]

So, after Ron's brilliant guide I thought I'd have a go at brush painting the underside of the chassis. Let's just say I think I'd better pick something less complicated to practice on next time, and any colour other than white :smiling5:

After 5 coats of AK3 acrylics over a light grey primer, some of it is starting to look white but the paint has definitely gathered into all of the nooks & crannies, the problem I usually have with a brush.

Coat 1

Coat 2

Coat 3

Coat 4

Coat 5

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I'll see how it looks in the morning once dry but it's already clogging up the detail and still needs a few more coats to be fully white, so may end up stripping it, and picking something less taxing to try my hand at brushing!

With that taking most of the afternoon it did give me several hours to work on other things. The suspension parts and some interior bits have been clipped off, cleaned up, primed, sanded, re-primed & most of them painted with MRP black, giving a nice satin finish.

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The engine parts were already primed, but I also managed to assemble & paint them, along with the gearbox, heater pipes, battery and subframe. These were all brushed. I'm pretty confident with small parts like this, it's just big areas I struggle with. Practice practice practice I guess :smiling3:

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I'm tempted to add some detail to the engine in the form of wires and suchlike, and there are several decals to add yet, but since it'll probably never be seen I'm not sure I want to put myself through it! Will mull it over.

[minitnkr]

Early money shots? This project is progressing beautifully. Love the engine work so far. PaulE

[outrunner]

Looking great there Andy, will you be having a hatch for engine access? if not then I would not bother with engine detail, unless you really want to.

Andy.

[Guest]

Thanks chaps.

Yes Andy, the engine hatch can be opened but I doubt there'll be much room to do so once the trailer is on, unless I pose the combo at a wierd angle.

I suppose it's more about me knowing it's there, and good practice for the future. If I mess it up there's a spare engine from the Samba kit :smiling5:

[SimonT]

Morning Andy - you look to be having fun with this one

Can I ask why you didn't convert the body to the square corners of the pick-up before adding the louvres (louvres look good btw)? Given the amount of work you are doing in the chop department it wouldn't have taken much to square them off

Also, have I missed something - why brush paint when you are a sprayer and spraying gives a better finish?

[Guest]

Definitely having fun Simon. It's mostly blundering through and learning as I go, but it's enjoyable.

In all honesty I didn't notice the corners until I was doing the louvres, and wondered why mine were so stubby compared to the real thing. A closer look at some pictures showed the T1 was much squarer than the later T2 I owned. I guess I should have researched more beforehand. To fix it now would be beyond me I think, as I'd also have to rework the back corners of the cab section to the same radius too (they are already inaccurate but I like the way they've turned out)

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Note that one has a completely different type of louvre too.

As for brushing, it's something I'd like to get that hang of as I can see it being a useful skill to have, another string to my bow. I clearly need a lot more practice before I go live though!