@hellnbak said:

I don't remember what kind of vehicle the cook used to get back to the hotel, was it another Snow-Trak?

Anyhow, came across some sort-of interesting photos and thought I would pass them along.

Thanks for the nice comments guys, and the pictures!

The cook drove a Thiokol Imp...it appeared again near the end...here's a picture from the movie.
(BTW, Stephen King is currently writing a sequel to The Shining!)

Of course, the other famous snow cat from Movies/TV is The Chariot from Lost In Space. This was a modified Thiokol Spryte.

Rick and Lloyd, thanks for the nice words! There are quite a few resources that I've discovered for the Snow-Trac...it is a beloved machine and I've found several owners groups online that have lots of pictures. One of the most helpful resources that I found was a parts manual with exploded drawings of the entire vehicle!

Another interesting bit of trivia that I discovered was that the FBI used one of these back in 1971 to search for D.B Cooper - the infamous hijacker who jumped out of a 727 near Portland OR with $200,000 and was never found. That machine is still in use today and is privately owned.

Here's an update with two SkecthUp views and a couple clay renders. Going to start working on textures now.

Oops!

I love the power lines, especially the one with the birds! Very unique. All of your work is so amazingly beautiful!

@rangerrick said:

Morning Coffee

It's actually national coffee day here in Canada. Are we addicted or what!
Model from the 3Dwarehouse by Yellow Jacket Productions....with some tweaks.

Awesome Render!
Happy National Coffee Day! What a great idea...is everyone going to Tim Hortons?

Thanks for all of the nice comments!

Here's an update showing work completed on the interior. Pretty simple stuff...these machines were very utilitarian.
Just a driver's seat, and two bench seats along the side.

You can't see it here, but the gas tank was inside the passenger compartment as well, under the bench seat in the rear.

@hellnbak said:

I'm working on a convertible version, will post pics soon.

Sorry, but it can't compete with this model I found of a Jaguar XJR9 in the 3D Warehouse.

Amazing model...I can see why it has been downloaded 149 times.

http://tinyurl.com/6jpcevs

@krisidious said:

All of Robert's creations are custom, each piece is hand blown by Robert and his team in a state of the art facility in Redmond Washington.

(www.robertkaindl.com)

I would love to know how he transports those chandeliers!

I think I have the overall shape of the body nailed down....going to start working on some details inside the cab now.

BTW, if you saw the movie "The Shining", you might remember seeing one of these featured in it.

@hellnbak said:

This is gonna be a nice model! Can you show us some other examples of your work?

Thanks! You can see most of my stuff over on my Flickr group here: http://tinyurl.com/3e9sx6b

Thanks for posting this. When I first joined this group, his railway models were one of the first things that really excited me... I was just thinking the other day that I would do a search to see if I had missed anything new. I hope he is doing okay and we hear some good news.

Really nice...I especially love the way you drew the tree!

Beautiful....thanks for sharing it Markus!

@dmhmaestro said:

i tried going on youtube but i could find any good tutorials . can you maybe tell me how to add some exterior lights ? and one more thing i would like to darken and add contrast to he whole thing is it possible ?

You can either model exterior lights, or get some from the 3D Warehouse. To have these lights actually "work" you will have to use a rendering program like Kerkythea.

For some contrast, you can change the angle, lightness, and darkness of the shadow settings: Window > Shadows
And, you can export an image (rather than using a screen shot): File > Export > 2D Graphic
After you export a 2D image, you can adjust it using Photoshop or whatever tool you have.
You can also edit hue, saturation, and lightness of your textures by opening them in the material panel and clicking on the "edit" tab.

Here's my advice for what it's worth...if you want your models to look good, you are going to have to add more detail to them. Things like door and window mouldings...more detail around the eaves, a foundation, window panes, etc. Also, you are going to have to be more accurate with things like wall thickness, window and door sizes, etc. to make the model look good. Try modeling the house you live in, copying it with as much detail and accuracy as you can, and then you will have a better idea of how many edges and details there are to a house. Then figure out how much of that detail you need to include to make your models look realistic. Also, study some of the great examples in the gallery here and decide what you like, and try to figure out how to duplicate it. Play around with styles and maybe try out a rendering program.

I think this looks really, really good - and I'm looking forward to seeing more details! I like how you did the wing covering between the ribs.

Thanks for all the nice comments!

Here's an update showing work completed on the fenders and hood.

BTW, note the deflector shield over the rear set of bogie wheels. This was used to prevent the snow fall-off from the crawler from getting on the wheels and increasing their diameter - which could cause a failure of the crawler track due to the increased tension.

These vehicles were also used in the Sahara!

Dave, thanks for posting those, I REALLY enjoyed them and have added both artists to my Flickr contacts!

I thought that it might be nice to post some images of a model that I'm currently working on; the Aktiv Snow-Trac ST4.

These were produced in Sweden from 1957 to 1981 and many of them are still in use today. They had a VW engine that developed about 40 hp and also used the transmission from the VW van and many other VW parts. One of the unique design innovations of this vehicle was the steering mechanism, which used a device called a "variator" to divide up the power going to each track set, increasing the power to one side while decreasing it to the other. This allowed steering with very little power loss, unlike other designs that used braking mechanisms.

Anyone my age may remember the cool Matchbox model of this vehicle. It was always my favorite one, and was the inspiration for this project. Hope you enjoy it!

Here's a reference photo:

Here's what I have so far with the crawlers:

@fletch said:

A couple more.

Just beautiful...and so real I can almost hear echoes!