I've decided I'd like to make a from-scratch vehicle. The RTV from the Marvel issues #6-7. The problem is that I have no idea where/how to start.

Does anyone know good places to learn about making toys out of wood? Has anyone here worked with styrene before?

Any thoughts, guys?

Well, the point with that vehicle was that the joes could put it together with only a few persons, and the pieces were very comprehensive. Square or circle shaped. Both those are very simple to make in wood. Your local library or internet has tons of guides on carving basic shapes in wood.

http://www.woodtoyz.com/WTCat/LinkPages ... Sites.html
see if you can find anything here...

I like this idea, and I hope you make it. Could easely be an awesome custom.

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Start with a deep breathe.

After that, plan everything out on paper. Works for me!

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I was actully thinking of building one - my plan employed using the BTR parts to get the cabin and wheels- I was then distracted by a bright and shinny object

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Well I just finished my Halo 3 Warthog from scratch so I might be able to help you out a little. After looking at the comics the RTV is going to be quite large so you may want to stick with Styrene for the rear end section and the hand build the front section one piece at a time. For my warthog I basically figured out what I was going to use for the chasis and then after that was built started working on the body panels one piece at a time. You definately need lots of glue for this so you might want to stock up. I would conentrate on the vehicle body itself first and after you get that finished work on the suspension for the tires. Check out the link below and it shows a bunch I pics I took along the way on my warthog custom so made it will give you a few ideas on how to go about building the vehicle sections.


http://s157.photobucket.com/albums/t62/ ... 20Warthog/

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Personaly if you're thinking of scratch building, I'd start off finding a chassis.

Take a look at Joe or other properly scaled vehicles and find somthing that you think you'll be able to kitbash

I think Styrene is the way to go...it takes paint well, can be shaped and cut easily, and will fit the look of Gi Joes better than wood would.

Best advice...prototype with Posterboard... once you've got your Chassis sorted...use masking tape and poster board cut into the shapes you need...once you've got the look you like, cut the tape away and you've got the patterns to trace off onto your styrene sheets

Once you move to the actual gluing stage...I've used Hot glue as a "tack weld" to hold peices together and then glued them with Plastruct's CA plastic cement.

I've not used it for any Large projects yet...but I'm more than quite impressed with the Cyanopoxy i picked up from a Coolchem.com...i posted a thread about it in this scetion a week or two ago.

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I think this is a real cool vehicle to do.

I haven't built anything from scratch, so I can't comment on that.

My only thing would be that if you decide to build extra pieces, that you could make a dio of the JOEs unpacking the vehicle and assembling it.

Maybe use popsicle sticks to make the wooden crates they were airdropped in...?

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I have to confess, I don't know what the vehicle in question looks like. So, I can't give very detailed answers to your question. Any pics available?

Step one: Plan everything very carefully. Are there any moving parts? Any removable parts? Is there a base vehicle available, or are you going to have to scratchbuild the whole thing?
If you have CAD or drafting abilities, draw yourself at least a preliminary layout of what you're going to need.

I highly recommend styrene as the material of choice for the body. You may find it necessary to reinforce some of the chassis or suspension with other materials, such as wood, brass, or even steel. But styrene is a very forgiving material, is readily available, finishes well, and is easily formed.

If your subject has compound curves then I definitely recommend styrene, especially if you have access to a vacuum-forming machine or can make one yourself. Nothin' beats being able to make more parts for yourself when something goes wrong!

Hope this helps. With some more information I may be more helpful.

I'm still fighting to finish my airplane I started. I got up to Halloween and ran into the problem of time. From Halloween up to now, so many things have happened and stopped me from getting back to my customs that I'll have to rethink what I'm doing once I do start.

But when I scratch build, I try and map out everything that's box shape. Anything that looks like it'll be an easy box shape to build, I go with that. Once I have my box shapes, i start piecing the boxes together. I'll slowly work up to the curve parts and everything else until I've actually go something that is pretty much looking like I want it to look.

Mostly it's all about trying to look past the item and working everything out into shapes. When you break it down to simple shapes, it doesn't look as hard to build. The little detail parts can be added after you get the main body built.

That's assuming any of that makes sense?

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Thanks for the advice, guys. It's deeply appreciated. I purchased a book on working with styrene.

I also fought the urge to purchase styrene right away, deciding to actually read the book from front to back first. I think I'll have to start with something less ambitious than the RTV to start with. Maybe a small building or room...

Merry X-Mas, too!