RC Nerds is a name you might have heard before. The Polish designer behind the brand, Pawel Krupecki, has one of the bigger RC scaler and crawler accessories shops on Shapeways, and we recently shared a model featuring RC Nerds parts on an incredible “Back to the Future” replica truck.
Now Pawel has built a new project car, and it’s a truly amazing transformation of, essentially, a toy into a hyperrealistic scale re-creation of a legendary classic truck. What’s more, it proves that 3D printing can help you achieve details that were once only possible for highly skilled scratchbuilders.
After releasing a bunch of upgrade parts for the Pro-Line Toyota SR5 HiLux body, Krupecki’s new project is again a body by Pro-Line. But, this time he chose the new 1966 Chevrolet C-10 truck body and the got busy drawing up tons of detailed parts to give the C-10 a more realistic look.
Pro-Line body shells are known for their durability, but unfortunately also for their lack of detail. Lights are usually just stickers, and the front and rear-end of the truck are pretty flat. Pawel has addressed this by creating a detailed, 3-dimensional grille with a mesh insert, Chevy badge, and working lights — with an additional bumper that matches the grille’s contours perfectly.
There’s a lot more detail added to the rest of the truck, too. The side mirrors, window wipers, rear lights, door handles and latches, B-pillar trim, badges, and even the fully detailed dashboard and steering wheel are all 3D printed and designed based on many detailed photos of a real 1966 Chevrolet C-10.
Krupecki is not only a 3D designer, but also a talented scale modeler, so he knows how to combine materials very effectively. He used a mix of different Shapeways materials for his parts, to make sure the parts are cost effective, yes, but most importantly, that they have the right surface finish and level of detail. After printing, all of the detail pieces have been carefully prepped and painted. Tamiya’s Fine Surface primer and some light sanding was used to create a smooth surface for further painting, which is a great trick, especially for Strong & Flexible plastic prints.
Since this truck is based on a model from the 1960s, a lot of the trim pieces needed to be chrome. This is where BHDA is the perfect material choice for the smaller pieces such as the lights, door handles and mirrors. As BHDA not only has great detail, it also has a very smooth surface perfect for painting chrome.
The body was painted in a metallic blue colour close to an original Chevrolet paint shade, and finished with a matte clear coat on the outside to make it look less like plastic, and give the car some patina.
Real balsa wood was used in the bed to add to the realism. You can also spot RC Nerds‘ 3D printed rear lights and door latch in the above picture. The lights use a lens printed in Frosted Ultra Detail finished off with a red clear coat to keep it nice and transparent.
The Alclad II chrome paint doesn’t work for the smaller pieces, so fine-tip pens were used to color in the badges.
Alclad II was also the paint of choice for the clear light lenses. A clear lacquer was used after some light polishing to make the Frosted Ultra Detail prints extra-transparent.
The body sits on an Axial SCX10 II chassis, just like Pawel’s previous builds. The chassis fits perfectly under the Pro-Line body, and combined with the small Tamiya tires, it has just the right stance. With all the added details, it’s easily mistaken for a real classic truck.
The photos were taken on the beach by the Baltic Sea. Despite being far from its American roots, the Chevy looks right at home!
Even though this truck was only just finished, Krupecki is already working on his next project: a Toyota 4Runner. Follow RC Nerds on Facebook to keep up with his progress as he develops the new 4Runner parts.
If this car has inspired you to build one as well, all items used in this build are now available in RC Nerds shop. What will you build next?
Pictures by RC Nerds
Good and its interesting