Working on a 3D model of the Family Truckster

Took a break from the Truckster to work on the stuff up top. The blue suitcases figure prominently, finally figured out that they were American Tourister Marble Blue Hard Sides. Tried to find one, but they want way too much money for them online, and the local thrift shops never seem to have them, so I just winged it. Can't figure out what the brown ones are, so I guess I'll have to wing it there too.





I've been criticized for putting way too much detail into things that won't really be seen up close, but that's just me. I like details.

The gold club bag and sleeping bag are just WIP's, a lot of work to be done yet. The bungee cords will have to wait until everything is done and in place. The position of everything up there changes from scene to scene, so I guess I'll just go with whatever feels right.



Well, gotta hit the sack

Steve

 

Nice work I must say!

The Truckster had green wall tires when new..... NEVER noticed that until today and I've seen the movie how many times?

 

Yeah, no kidding! I never noticed it myself! Oh, and BTW, if you model the "airbag," it was a Hefty trash bag...we used the same ones when the movie came out!

 

Wow, fantastic modeling!
I've tried my hand at it and made a few game friendly lower poly-count cars over the years but mine all need a bit of virtual bondo and sandpaper work.
Well done!

 

For a guy who seemed as disorganized as Mr. Grizwold was, his garage is certainly tidy (at least from this photo) I wonder though... how many push brooms does one person really need?

 

Been away for a while, sorry, busy around the old farmhouse. Received my service manual CD, had high hopes that it would show me a lot of detail but was very disappointed. No photos at all, just a bunch of line drawings that weren't even all that accurate. It did let me add some details but not much....

Of course had to have the famous gas lid...

which was used only in one scene, the hilarious gas station episode....

It wasn't even functional, just for show. They retained the real gas lid, which can be seen popping open during the big crash scene...

A funny side note -- Chevy Chase revealed in an interview that he wasn't supposed to actually throw the license plate, just rip it off the car. He was very lucky he didn't hit the lady, came very close.

And yeah, the close up of the wood grain looks terrible in the gas lid shot above. I tried and tried to find a decent texture for it, but came up with zip. Ended up just making textures from the screen cap below....

Used several enhancement programs but it still sucks. But I haven't given up entirely, I'm still trying to find a roll of contact paper that matches what was on the truckster. Maybe someday.

Being in the station wagon mood, I went back through my models to see if I had modeled any, and came up with a few. I had started work on a '56 Chevy Nomad a long time ago, hadn't gotten very far so I played with it a bit and this is where is stands for now...


Still rough, lumpy with things just sorta roughed in, parts and pieces missing, many textures still needed. etc.

I used a model of a '56 Bel Air that I had been working on years ago...

The body is crap, I was concentrating on the frame and firewall details...

Someday I hope to get back to it and add a lot more detail, the wiring, plumbing, whatnot. Ahhh, someday.

I also had started a Nomad version of a '57 Chevy, I'll post some photos later. Came across a number of models that I would like to make a wagon version of...a '55 Buick, a '53 Buick, a '59 Buick, a '56 Ford Sunliner, a '55 Chevy, a '58 Chevy, a '59 Chevy, a '60 Chevy, a '61 Chevy, a '40 Ford, a '59 Cadillac, well, you get the idea. Also started work on a '71 Vista Cruiser.

Well, gotta go. Thanks to everyone for the compliments, much appreciated.

Steve

 

Sure glad Spring is here. All that white stuff on the driveway must be pollen from all the Spring flowers! Gotta love Michigan.

Here's the '57 Nomad I mentioned earlier. Don't look too close, I just moved some stuff over from the '56 Nomad and sort of adapted it to the '57. Lots of work to be done yet...

I just modified a '57 Bel Air that I had done back in 2011. It holds a special place in my heart because it was my very first effort at 3D modeling. I wanted to learn SketchUp so I found a basic model online and decided to learn by modifying it. Took a lot of time and patience, everything I did was new to me. But it was incredibly fun, sort of like when I got my very first computer way back when, a Commodore 64. I've never had so much fun on a computer since, everything was new and exciting. Anyhow, here are some before and after shots.....




I'm not saying it's great, I made a lot of mistakes and my modeling method was crude but hey, I didn't really know what the heck I was doing. But I do think it's a definite improvement over the original.



I wanted to give it a detailed interior, nobody else seem to do that, they seem to just mainly concentrate on the exterior.

Tried my hand at a hot rod version. The results were less than spectacular, but I learned some more stuff about projecting textures...

Well, gotta go for some coffee.
Steve

 

Your work is incredibly impressive!
Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

Any chance you'll share your 3D model? I'd love to use it in a YouTube video I'm making about the 70s and 80s.

-Retro80sGuy