Flipping a Country Camper project....

For a long time, I have had a project in mind to flip a Barbie Country camper into a food truck. The idea came to mind a long, long time ago from a Dollhouse Miniature Magazine August 2005 from 1:12 scale Joann Swanson Joe's Burger trailer project. I have held onto the magazine ever since and always wanted to create a burger trailer or truck in 1:6 scale. 

These are some photos of the cover of the magazine and the beginning of the tutorial of the food truck/trailer. Joann, a gifted 1:12 scale miniature artisan, made hers out of matboard, foamcore and spare parts off of a toy truck and the plastic pieces off of  Chrysonbon kits as well as silver spray paint and paper and odds and ends. 

This little camper is in very rough shape. It still has its plaid tent, which is torn at the top a little bit, but I will be doing away with that section. I will also be taking the stickers off of it and spray painting the orange into silver and maybe painting the seats red. 3/16ths foamcore fits perfectly into the slots to make the walls I need to with windows for the customers. 

The idea of using a Barbie country camper instead of building a trailer like Joann's tutorial is I already tried to build the trailer out of foamcore and it just wasn't sturdy enough out of foamcore. I needed to use either a lightweight balsa wood or thicker matboard or something that could be sturdier and I did not have that. Also the trailer just wasn't feasible because it would need a 1/6 scale truck to pull it. I was browsing ebay and saw the vintage country campers and saw some of them being sold cheaply as parts and thought - I could customize one of these! I had seen these customized by the GI Joe guys into agent vehicles, and thought - why not a food truck, or an ice cream truck? I can get lights, and other spare parts from the hobby store to make it more 'real' looking. 

I plan to spray paint the vinyl wall sections , they snap right out of the plastic easily. The tent section I will sell on ebay, I already have the sleeping bag and stool up on auction, to recoup my money I have invested in it. I don't mind saying that the auction I bid on this at some elderly couple bid against me and I bid until I got it- I probably paid way too much for it but I wanted it and would have paid this much for it- with shipping- $25 - if I had purchased it on ebay. So I guess it is all in how you look at it. With selling the tent wall section, the stool and the sleeping bag I can probably make my money back on this project and not feel guilty. Plus I want to make burgers, french fries,  and hot dogs to display for this truck! I know my GI Joes will love this. 

Luckily, I already have one of these vintage campers with the vintage box, in very good condition for my collection. I had one of these as a kid and loved it. I'm currently looking for the beach buggy with all of its accessories too. 

All for now- Lisa