GM Fishbowl Bus

Since several people have requested it, I decided to attempt modelling a GM Fisbowl Bus.
It is now available for sale thru my Shapeways shop:
www.shapeways.com/model/176128/gm_fishbowl_bus___z_scale.html?gid=ug4375

If you don't know about Rapid Prototyping, please check this forum entry

Attached below are several camera angles.

Many thanks to John Bartolo for the prodding encouragement and advice while I was developing this model.

Here's what we were trying to build:


A bit of history about the bus:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_New_Look_bus

Here is the reference picture I used for measurements:


And my final results:

I have not ordered any of them just yet. I like to pass around the computer photos one last time to see if anyone has any comments/suggestions before I go ordering them.

To get a good idea of what the finished models of this type look like, take a look here.
Stone Bridge Models

uh.. Ooops.. the back axle only had two tires..
The model has been updated to include all four.

Thanks to Fred Ladd for pointing that out.

Thanks Mattias, glad you like it/them. The Shapeways site has an oddity when you upload models.. it decides what orientation it likes best. I think it turns things so they can be as tall as possible. If you look thru my shop, you'll even see some things standing on their nose!

That's also why you get the rear-view of so many models instead of front view.. it's their upload software. But it doesn't make any difference to the printing. They could even be printed upside-down and still come out the same.

The doos/windows are closed. There is a "void" inside the model, and two small holes on the very bottom that allow access to the void (think about putting lights in there), but the inner walls do not accurately model the walls of the real bus. It's just a big old cube inside. The reason for the void is to reduce the amount of plastic used, and therefore drop the cost of the model by about half.

Shapeways has a minimum thickness limit of 1mm, which at Z scale is 9 inches. If I wanted to "open the windows", I'd have to make all the support struts a minimum of 9 inches wide, and on the real bus, they're about TWO inches wide. It'd distort the look of the bus pretty badly to try to get around the 9 inch limit.

I would suggest that you try to find TrueSpace 7.6 rather than 7.6.1. There were some features taken out of the 7.6.1 that are helpful for dealing with Shapeways models.

Contact me if you need help getting started. I'll be more than willing to help.