Red Neck Motor Home
#1
I came across this pic a few years ago. It was posted by Mike Chambers. I saved it and only recently stumbled on it again when I was cleaning out some files. I am building a farm diorama and I bought a pack of LifeLike trucks. I have way more trucks than I know what to do with, so when I saw this pic again, I got the idea to scratch build it just for the fun of it. Here is the pic titled "Red Neck Motor Home"

   

Here is the truck with the modified frame. You can see the duels drying in the background.

   


Here is the card stock frame for the living quarters.

   

Here is the truck in paint.

   

The camper with boards. The wood is left over from other projects.

   
Clowning around with trains.

[Image: BusterA.jpg]
#2
The back porch.

   

The door. I turned the door knob in my power drill. Still needs hinges and paint.

   

This is a mock-up just to see how it is coming together.

   

Thanks for the kind words. I have made a little progress. I got the front bumper put on the truck.

   

Someone said there should be a banjo someplace. Well that seemed like a challenge to me. This is my first attempt.

   

I'm not happy with this attempt on the banjo and so I am going to have another go. I should of used styrene for the round part instead of wood. Also a few more details I think I could add. Funny how seeing a photo of our work can point out the flaws. The unblinking eye.
Clowning around with trains.

[Image: BusterA.jpg]
#3
I have this plastic chair. Perhaps you noticed it in other pix in this thread. I didn't like it. All wrong for this project.

I had thought about building a chair as though it were made out of raw tree limbs, as some folks do, having a very rustic look about it. But my problem is I don't have a ready supply of the right sticks to do the job.

Next best thing, I think, is an Adirondack type chair. I found some plans on the Web and shrunk them down to the right size, printed them out and spent the better part of last night gluing it together. So here it is.

   

I like that pic, but it isn't very clear. So here are some better pix.

   
   

The chair is a paper sculpture made from laminating 3 pieces of paper together with a glue stick. The top piece having the pattern printed on it of course. Then cut out the parts with an Exacto knife. I found the laminated paper easy to cut, cheaper than styrene and glued up easy with white glue. The slats on the seat are cut from only one sheet of paper. The chair glued together a little off square, but while the paint was drying and the chair was soft, I nudged it in to square, or close to it.

I have a Dude, LPB who had a lousy paint job. I stripped it with brake fluid and just had to repaint him for this photo shoot. I painted him with Acrylic paint and I am not happy with the results. The paint is soft and scrapes off easily and it builds up too thick. So he is destined for the BF bath again for another try. He is the first LPB I ever painted.

Come on Dude. Have a seat.

   


If we ask him nicely, Dude will rip us a new one with his rendition of "Foggy Mountain Brake Down"

   
Clowning around with trains.

[Image: BusterA.jpg]
#4
kind of nice how this particular LPB seems to hold the banjo. If I glued it to him then I could position the hands as if he were playing. That's nice, but not what I originally had in mind for my back porch. I was originally going to just have the banjo sitting in the chair, something like this.

   

You see, I don't think I want any people around the motor home. I guess I could, but I am torn. On one hand it would be neat to have a little blue grass band and some folks sitting around listening or dancing, but it was my initial intent to have a static scene. Like someone just put things down and walked away. Another consideration is, right now I don't have the LPB's to populate the scene. Well, not painted anyway.

I know there are a lot of fellas who build unpopulated scenes and vise-a-verse. I would be interested to know what your take on this subject is.

Back to work on the truck now.

A bit more progress to report. I finally got all the mullions in the windows. A slow tedious task for sure, but I am happy with the results.

   


I got the frames for the roof put together, so I sat it all together for a mock-up pic.

   
   

I realized that to be a roadworthy machine, it needed mirrors. So last night I set to making some. They only have a base coat of rust on them and the green needs a touch up, that all will come to pass.

       
       
Clowning around with trains.

[Image: BusterA.jpg]
#5
Last night I made the exhaust system and put the roof on. I have to tar paper the roof before I can attach the exhaust, but here is the bare roof

   
   


The chimney and part of the tar paper roof. Still needs some powders to add tone.

   

I put the exhaust on and I found out that it is not a good idea to put CA glue on wood as it bleeds uncontrollably. Still needs weathering.

   

I made an antenna out of some fine brass wire and a styrene rod.

   

One to show how things are shaping up over all. You will notice the chair and banjo is on the back porch.

   
Clowning around with trains.

[Image: BusterA.jpg]
#6
Now you may have noticed that I haven't posted for a while. I still have been getting things done a bit at a time. Perhaps I'm not completely done on this build, but I am saying that's enough for now. There are a few more things to add once this gets a home on a new diorama I am planning, but in the meantime, I have a few surprizes for you followers of this thread.

Here's the mobile real estate.

   

Out front there is a patch on the edge of the roof, rust on the grill and bolts to hold everything in place.

   

Here is the whole passenger side. Everybody needs a ladder, you know.

   

I never did get flowers for the window box.

   

The back porch has a few things added. That's a corn liquor jug beside the chair. My printer is such a piece of junk that this is the best licence plate I could print.

   

I made the lamp. Turned it out of styrene. The shade is tin foil.

   
Clowning around with trains.

[Image: BusterA.jpg]
#7
A joke I made for you guys.

Every modern motorhome has a Biffy, well so does this one!

   
   
   
   

Of course, a trailer like this needs the correct coupling to the main rig.

   
   
Clowning around with trains.

[Image: BusterA.jpg]
#8
I was having so much fun turning things out of styrene. I also made the following, except for the milk can for the sour mash.

   

I had fun making jugs.    

The whole shootin' match ready for the diorama.

   

So there you have it. This goes in the "Done" pile for now. I hope you enjoyed my little surprizes.

One more obligitory "With a penny for scale" pic.

   
Clowning around with trains.

[Image: BusterA.jpg]
#9
This one is a classic that we were able to retrieve from our old Academy. Many accolades and comments could not be brought over, but all the progress photos are here. The original thread was created during March and April of 2006.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD


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