Mastodawn

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 11

Want to see all my 3D-printed 1:64 scale cars? No? Too bad!

Day 1/84: This is the first complete car I ever printed, a Volvo 760 Turbo wagon. There was obviously some learning curve involved; the wheels were too big, and I didn't make the front headrest supports thick enough to survive printing. Not bad overall for a first try, though. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 12

Day 2/84: My second 1:64-scale car was a variation on my first, which I had designed with this kind of adaptability in mind. Using the same bodyshell, interior, and steering wheel, a new dashboard, wheels, and base piece (with integrated bumpers and front fascia) transformed my 760 Turbo into a pre-facelift 740 Turbo. The scaled-down wheel size I used here became my standard size going forward. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 13

Day 3/84: Hey, it's not a Volvo! I swear they're not all Swedish cars...only about 25%. I may or may not be joking.

This Saab 900 Turbo was my first attempt at an opening part, and I took a big swing on the clamshell hood. I didn't get the hinge right on this first attempt, but don't worry—we'll get there. What did turn out awesome was the rear window insert with spoiler and oh-so-’80s louvers. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 14

Day 4/84: First successful opening part—the hatch on this AMC Eagle is simply held in by friction, but it works perfectly, has never fallen off, and even stays open. I'm also still very pleased with my woodgrain painting job. Matchbox has since come out with an ’80 Eagle wagon, but mine was first. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 15

Day 5/84: A successful opening hood—a very successful one, I think—on my Series III Jaguar XJ6. Forward-hinged hoods are easier to design at this scale, because you have a more solid structure at the front of the car for whatever the hinge mechanism is; the cowl area around the windshield can get delicate. But I think I'll have one or two that open the other way later on. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 16

Day 6/84: This was *the* status symbol car of my Orange County childhood, and a mainstream sedan with pop-up headlights is admittedly pretty cool. So, of course, my 1:64-scale Accord has pop-up headlights, too. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 17

Day 7/84: Another modular design—common parts that make it easy to build multiple variations. In the case of the Accord, both sedan and coupe use all of the same parts except for the bodies. The bumpers are integrated into the base piece as well, so I could theoretically also make a pre-facelift (1986-87) sedan with just one new piece, but I never have. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 18

Day 8/84: Second Saab—a new base (which includes the bumpers, rockers, and headlights and grille) and new wheels give me an ’87-91 SPG. Still hadn't perfected the hinge for the hood. This is the last car I made for which I cut tires from rubber tubing. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 19

Day 9/84: This Alfa GTV6 is my first car with printed tires, and the first to have any identification marks on the base. At the time I was still cutting brass rod for axles, and using tiny screws to attach bases to bodies, both extra steps and materials I've since eliminated from my assembly processes. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 20

Day 10/84: A replica of the first car I ever rode in, my mom's ’84 Chevy Cavalier. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 21

Day 11/84: Love a hardtop. This Benz was one of my more clever modular designs, but we'll see more about that tomorrow. For now, I'll just point out a couple of my favorite details: the fine job I did painting the headlamp wipers, and the rear headrests folded down into the parcel shelf. It's tough to see through the grain of the print, but on the trunklid you can also see that this is the first car I made with a badge—that star is so satisfying to make. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 22

Day 12/84: Yesterday a 300CE, today an E320. One of my trickier modular designs; the base piece includes the bumpers, center portion of the front fascia, and the hood, allowing me to do both pre- and post-facelift versions. Essentially, the body and base are two interlocking C-shaped pieces. Also, note that the headlamp wipers pointed in opposite directions before and after the 1994 refresh. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 24

Day 14/84: Here's my third and, to date, final RWD Volvo wagon, using many of the same parts as my first two cars to make a ’94 940 Turbo: the body and steering wheel are shared with both the 760 and 740; the base is shared with the 760; and the dashboard is the same as the 740's. Only the interior and the fun Hydra alloy wheels are new. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 25

Day 15/84: J-body, part deux—where there's a Cavalier, there must also be a Cimarron! My two J-bodies share a main body piece and a dashboard. Both were designed with opening hoods, though both of mine are glued shut due to a hinge design that needed refinement. @slirt, do you have the blue Cimarron? If so, you have the only one with a hood that actually opens as intended. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 26

Day 16/84: My focus is almost always on cars as they appeared in the US market, since those are what I'm most connected to. But for a longtime personal favorite from the "forbidden fruit" category, exceptions must be made, so I went Euro-spec for this E23 745i. Again, one of my favorite details is headrest-related: check out the stanchions for the rear headrests where they meet the parcel shelf! #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 27

Day 17/84: Of course a Euro-spec BMW E23 had to be accompanied by a Federalized version; this one is a pre-facelift 733i in Chestnut Red, a factory BMW color from 1979-81 or so. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 28

Day 18/84: Here's a landmark car in my collection. Not only is this V60 T8 the newest car I've modeled (still!), it was the first car I laid out to print as a one-piece kit, significantly reducing my printing costs—by about 60-70%—and paving the way for my old Shapeways store. Turned out pretty good, too. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 29

Day 19/84: I designed this Lancia Flaminia quite a bit earlier than I printed it, back before the Alfa GTV6 on day 9. I know this because this was the first car I designed tires for, and the tread pattern on these and every other tire I've printed since was the pattern developed by Pirelli in 1956 for the Flaminia's Cinturato tires. Another fun detail that's hard to capture in photos: this was the first car I made with a horn ring! #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Sep 30

Day 20/84: Yes, I know, at this point we are solidly at 25% of my cars being Volvo wagons; I promise this is the last one for a while! And there are far worse places to leave it than with a Flash Green over Atacama V70 R. I have only one regret with this model: later on, I made another one (for someone else) with open spokes on the wheels and it looked so much better it's not even funny. I guess I could do a swap... #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 1

Day 21/84: This is alphabetically the last car in my entire collection, and one of the smallest: the Zündapp Janus! Though, while most of the cars I make are truly 1:64 scale, this one is a burly 1:63. There was an unsuccessful attempt at opening doors on this one—the hinges were just too tiny, so they're glued shut—but figuring out how to make the pieces go together was a fun puzzle. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 2

Day 22/84: The elusive Jaguar XF Sportbrake! This one shows off my limitations as a painter, but I still love the color combo I chose—much better than the greyscale these all seemed to be in the real world. This is also the only time to date I've used structural tailpipes; they hook through the baseplate to hold it to the body at the rear! #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 3

Day 23/84: I believe this is the only one of my cars that I've modified from its original state—this E39 wagon no longer has its original wheels or interior. Those pieces will show up later, but this one got 2003 525iT wheels and front Comfort seats with articulated backrests—one of very few of my models where the front seats are not mirror images of each other. I also added some details later, rings on the headlights and reverse lights at the rear. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 4

Day 24/84: Yesterday's BMW got retrofitted with them, but this Lexus IS300 SportCross was the first car I printed with open-spoke wheels, and the effect makes a huge difference. The yellow paint pops, too, of course! #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 5

Day 25/84: Fair warning: the next few days will be a little Saab-heavy. My 900 convertible *still* didn't have a perfected hinge for the hood—that is coming soon, I swear—but it does have a removable top! #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 6

Day 26/84: The design for this opening dual-panel sunroof came to me one day while I was trying to take a nap. I'm not one to squander a missed nap, so I whipped out this BMW E34 525iT. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 7

Day 27/84: Not a revolutionary model—it's just a combination of the body from my original 900 Turbo hatchback (day 3) and the base from my 900 convertible (day 25)—but here, at last, is the working Saab hood! Credit for suggesting the changes that finally got it to work goes to my eternally patient better half, Johnny. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 8

Day 28/84: A pretty significant reengineering effort went into turning my three-door Saab 900 into a five-door Saab 99 GLE. The 99 has a shorter wheelbase and front overhang, and in the nose job the model was simplified by eliminating the opening hood (just after I'd perfected it, no less). So there's some shared modeling geometry, most significantly the roof, A-pillars, and hatch, but there are no common parts between my 99 and 900 models. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 9

Day 29/84: Another fastback four-door, though unlike yesterday's Saab, the Lancia Beta had a trunk, not a hatch. I modeled this one with the bumpers as separate pieces—they slot in through the body, then are held in place by pegs coming up from the base plate—to leave open the option of someday doing a version with the more attractive (but far less rare) European bumpers. My grandparents had a ’79 Beta, one of roughly 330 sedans sold in the US that year. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 10

Day 30/84: When I opened my Shapeways store, I released models in themed groups of four; this is the third in my group of late-’70s fastback sedans, the ill-fated Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon. Like the Lancia yesterday, it had a trunk, not a hatch, plus the indignity of rear windows that didn't roll down, though the quarter windows did vent, I believe. Only lasted from 1978-80. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 11

Day 31/84: A couple of months after I'd added this Toyota to my Shapeways shop, I noticed the listing had disappeared. I put it back up, then a few weeks later it happened again. Finally, I figured out that selling a model with "Corona" in the name in 2020 was causing some weird problems—I suspect Shapeways was simply shutting down anything with that word, in case it was related to some quack treatment or something. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 12

Day 32/84: Corvairs incoming! I embarked on a project to model every Corvair bodystyle that hadn't yet been done in 1:64 scale, which, spoiler alert, was most of them. I started with the late model four-door hardtop, painted in authentic Willow Green touch-up paint. The interior was modeled in two pieces so that I could replicate the two-tone effect; this one has a gold dash, door caps, and carpet, and Fawn seats and door panels. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 13

Day 33/84: My second Corvair is identical to the first from the A-pillar forward, but after that, things get wild—this one's a ’65 Fitch Sprint, complete with "Astroroof." I was pleased with the Hands alloy wheels, my two-tone paint job, and most of all with the steering wheel, which I gave a wood-tone rim and silver spokes, barely visible in the second photo. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

@autonerdery Why do all of your cars have rough surfaces?

(I am very happy to see them in all their variety and accuracy; I just don't understand the surface.)

Nathan Avots-Smith Oct 14

@kbob that's how they print. I could sand them to smooth them out, but I worry about losing details at this small scale, plus I don't have a ton of confidence in my manual dexterity, or patience. So they stay slightly pebbled.

×

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 8

Day 59/84: For this 1990 Ford Probe GT, I attempted a set of switch-operated pop-up headlights, which sadly didn't quite work, and designing for them led to the nose maybe being a little too squared off. But, if you look closely, you can see the big "GT" embossed in the rear bumper, so it's got that going for it. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 9

Day 60/84: Folks in other parts of the world will know it as the Piazza, but the bottom of this one says Isuzu Impulse. Somewhere under that Giugiaro bodywork is a GM T platform, meaning common ancestry with the Chevrolet Chevette (Vauxhall Chevette, too, for that matter). #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 10

Day 61/84: This Nissan Pulsar NX was not only my first car with interchangeable body parts, it was also my first T-top. How's that for rad! Painting it red was a bit of a cheat, because there was no way I was going to be able to separately paint the awesome diagonal stripe taillights. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 11

Day 62/84: It's always been a little shocking to me that the DiamondStar triplets were overlooked in 1:64-scale in their early ’90s heyday. I went with probably the most obscure of the three; since I made my Plymouth Laser RS Turbo, Auto World has come out with a very nice Eclipse, so now we just need an Eagle! #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 12

Day 63/84: The next few days will be about experimenting with color printing, with the most colorful car out there: a Volkswagen Harlequin Edition! This first one was my proof of concept, with a few rough edges I needed to work out—note the blotchy black trim, and I had to paint over the head and taillights. Note also that there are four different wheel designs! The body is composed of seven separate pieces that slide and snap together like a puzzle. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 13

Day 64/84: Today's Golf Harlequin looks a lot like yesterday's—it has the same color scheme, with a red unibody, but if you look closely, you'll note that it has a full set of Golf GL hubcaps. You may also note that I corrected the color problems with yesterday's prototype; everything you see here is designed-in and printed, which allows for a pretty impressive level of detail. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 14

Day 65/84: Today's Harlequin wears a Pistachio base, and a set of VW "Flying" alloy wheels. I noted before that the body is made of seven separate pieces; the rear doors are one piece, connected across the bottom, as are the front doors, with the front bumper attached. Both sets slide into the unibody from the front, then the interior slides in as well. Front fenders snap on, then the hood, which has a post that goes down through all the layered parts to clip into the base. #WeirdCarMastodon

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 14

The rear bumper and hatch clip on to the unibody separately at the rear, in case you were wondering about the last two parts! #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 15

Day 66/84: Harlequin Golf, variation three, with a Ginster Yellow unibody and "Rondo" alloy wheels. Ginster Yellow was usually exclusive to the GTI in the US; Pistachio was otherwise not available at all. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 16

Day 67/84: The final Harlequin Golf wears the only set of aftermarket wheels I've ever modeled, but how could I not: the iconic Ronal teddy bears! They're a perfect fit for this car. Color printing has some drawbacks—you can't get a true black, and the material's not quite as strong—but the level of detail you can get is pretty intoxicating. Check out the VW roundel; the strokes of the letters and the ring around them are probably each about 0.25mm wide. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 17

Day 68/84: Is this Facel Vega FVS the most glamorous car I've ever done? I'm going to say yes. I also still love the olive over pimento color scheme, and check out those wire wheels. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 18

Day 69/84: We're back to hand-painted models for a bit, but I think I did an okay job with this Audi 5000 S. I'm always surprised by the size of this one—for an ’80s Eurosedan, these C3s were BIG. Aero styling hides the bulk reasonably well. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 19

Day 70/84: I've done some mildly obscure cars before, but this was the first one for which I had no reference drawing or photograph to start from, and I had to draw the car in profile freehand. Fortunately, the Dodge 600 ES is so rectilinear that I was able to draw it directly in SketchUp using their basic line tools! A nearly forgotten car, built on the stretched-K E platform. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 20

Day 71/84: I've never gotten a set of opening doors to work totally to my satisfaction. The doors on this Cressida open no problem—but, thanks to an unsuccessful attempt on my part to replicate the springy resistance of vintage Matchbox or Majorette doors, they don't really want to close or stay closed. Oh, well. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 21

Day 72/84: Here's a variation on an old friend, a wagon-to-sedan conversion of my very first car to make a 760 GLE. Everything under the skin was updated in the process to my newer snap-together assembly standards, but if I similarly updated the wagon body and interior, this sedan could share its base. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 22

Day 73/84: This Datsun Maxima sports one of my better paint jobs. The main body color was a special blend of multiple spray cans, so I had to be very careful painting the details, because I had no touch-up paint to cover any goofs! #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 22

Forgot to mention, this is the second car I've done with button-tufted upholstery, which is a pain in the patoot to model. The other one was my AMC Eagle, way back on day 4.

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 23

Day 74/84: This Pontiac 6000 STE is one of a few cars I've done with a sort of "sandwich" construction, where the rub strip around the center is integrated into the interior piece, with everything below part of the base and everything above forming the main body piece. This makes it super easy to get clean lines on those otherwise hard-to-paint rub strips, and, as seen here, makes two-tone color schemes a snap. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 24

Day 75/84: This is the last Saab I've done to date, an ’83 Turbo sedan variant on my original 900 model, updated to snap together. The theme of the last several days has been mid-range 1983 sport sedans (plus an early 1984 Audi); all of these—Audi, Dodge, Toyota, Volvo, Datsun, Pontiac, Saab, plus tomorrow's car—were the contenders subjected to *Car and Driver's* infamous "Baja Torture Test" comparison from the July, 1983 issue, well worth a read. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 25

Day 76/84: Last of my Baja bunch is this Volkswagen Quantum GL5, known as the (Passat) Santana in most of the world. This was a charming little box to build; I integrated the bumpers into the base to make it easy to get a clean color separation between them and the body, but even so, I think I did a decent job of the details on this one. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 27

Day 77/84: For sheer detail, this Audi is probably one of my best demonstrations of what color printing is capable of. Pardon the grain, but I thought it worth showing the two-tone green and gray interior as well, with wood trim throughout. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 27

Day 78/84: It's Thanksgiving for us Americans, so here's a car many Americans would be thankful to have owned in the 1990s: a Seville, one of Cadillac's few late-20th century bright spots. One of my favorite things about this model is that color printing enabled me to perfectly capture the mega third brake light (sorry, GM, CHMSL) across the rear decklid. #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

Nathan Avots-Smith 6d ago

Day 79/84: This Chrysler LHS has one of the most elaborate sets of wheels I've ever attempted, and I didn't really expect them to print out well. But they came out pretty amazing! #WeirdCarMastodon #164scale #3dPrinting

@autonerdery Noice detail!

Luke Ebersole Nov 27

I used to daily an allroad in almost that color!

@autonerdery VW US were doing some great coke back in the day, with their weird renaming ideas 😆

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 25

@vwdasher my favorite dad joke: It must have been hard to get a job in a VW service department in the ’80s; you had to know Quantum mechanics!

@autonerdery 😆

Eobard Toyotathon Nov 24

@autonerdery chef's kiss

@autonerdery the wagons are so long too, with all that overhang on each end.

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 18

@vwdasher that was the other remarkable thing—the front overhang is only 50mm (1.9 in) shorter than the rear—and that's at 1:1 scale!

Saltysaurus Nov 18

@autonerdery @vwdasher Worst car I ever owned. It is the reason I never bought another car with automatic transmission.

@autonerdery the lovely little 1963 Facel III at Best of France & Italy a few weeks ago 🇫🇷 #weircarmastodon

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 17

@slirt Volvo power!

@autonerdery huh, news to me 👍 I should've looked under the hood 🤷‍♂️

Nathan Avots-Smith Nov 17

@slirt the big Facels used Chrysler V8s; when this smaller body came out (then called the Facellia), it had a four-cylinder engine of Facel's own design, which ended up being disastrously unreliable. The renamed Facel III switched to the Volvo B18, same as the P1800 and 122S.

@autonerdery it had not occured to me to 3D print some Harlequins, you are giving me ideas!

@autonerdery 😍

@autonerdery 😍

@autonerdery Aaah the Exa! I worked with someone who had one, back in the nineties. Always smelt vaguely of mildew, I question those roof seals.

@autonerdery 😍 I had a poster of a white Isuzu Turbo on my wall as a teenager

@autonerdery sold as a Holden Piazza in Australia!

thefathippy Nov 10

Did Holden actually *sell* any?

Not many, that's for sure. IIRC they were widely panned at the time.

Drive, looking back, agrees:

https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/is-this-holdens-worst-ever-car-drive-flashback/

😉

Is this Holden’s worst ever car? | Drive Flashback

It was the most expensive Holden ever in 1986 and it was a dud. Unsurprising then that the Piazza is arguably Holden's biggest sales flop.

Drive

@thefathippy they did but they were hideously expensive so were definitely not a big seller.