Blackadder's Landkreuzer P500; Der Wühlmaus

[Wolfshade]

Wow. I know that your work is painstaking, but things ike this really put into context the labour of love that goes into every little aspect.

[Blackadder]

Well you have to look at rivets as a minor part of the overall scratchbuild. Granted it's tedious but if you listen to talk-radio or sort of watch a movie/tv or (god forbid a sports event) while you do it you'll be surprised how much you will accomplish subliminally. I use to watch my grandmother knitting afghan doilies while watching TV and think how can she do this without slashing her wrists but it does work. You'd be surprised how much you can accomplish without consciously putting your mind to it.

[Blackadder]

Tread Links 1.02

Okay so the tread links are cleaned and the excess bits of plastic sanded and cut away; the rivets filed down to a uniform height, we're ready to install the front end link plate. I glued all the link to continuous strips of styrene leaving a slight gap between so I can cut them separate once the glue dries. this is so much easier than cutting each individual piece plus all the front strips are of a uniform height.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/llrREyj.jpg[/url]


A closeup of the rivet rows and the tread pattern reveals slight anomalies in the spacing and placement but the casual observer will not notice, "Hey that rivet is half a millimeter too close to the other."

[url]http://i.imgur.com/DMHHxGy.jpg[/url]


Government Work.

[Blackadder]

Helpful Tip On Filing Rivets:

The key is where I said "rough cut", (if you look at the second picture [previous post]you will see the cut rivets are nowhere near uniform in size or shape.) I glue them on and file to the proper height. The problem is the type of file. Small rivets require a steel emery board (Diamond fingernail file)



or they will drag off. Larger rivets naturally can take a coarser file.

[Blackadder]

A Big Dividend:

More than likely an exercise in complete lunacy but to have accomplished this pays me a big dividend; thumps chest over heart, here.

I gave up on this project half a decade ago because I couldn't conceive of making treads and by treads I mean plain old run of the mill tank treads, not FW Baneblade treads. I really, really, really, coveted those skull treads and every so often I would look at this uncompleted model and think, "Someday I'll make this work."

Well today just a few minutes ago it became a reality and as I savor the result and a well made Martini I am sharing this moment with all of you.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/njFbp76.jpg[/url]


[url]http://i.imgur.com/zECI63y.jpg[/url]


Cheers,

[Kirsten]

those are amazing. you are still mad of course, but one hell of a talent.

[Darren Richardson]

Yep you are Mad in an utterly BRILIANT way Blackadder, now I so want to see this finished!

[Blackadder]

High praise for what is ostensible a compulsive mental disorder.

Thanks for the replies.....

Bogie Chassis:

Revamping this tank requires a new set of chassis for the bogie wheels. The original chassis were pretty primitive and my skills have increased over the years.

These will provide much better attach points:

[url]http://i.imgur.com/XUH53pe.jpg[/url]


[url]http://i.imgur.com/7V2tYPM.jpg[/url]

[Blackadder]

The Track Blocks:

My original track blocks were an abysmal failure and I discarded them. These new ones will be much sturdier and easy to work with.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/IBxX1Re.jpg[/url]


Note the 6,3 X 2,0 MM centering strip I am using to align the bogie wheels, much better than the centering spine of the original track block.

In the image below I know the centering strips don't look like it (I had to measure myself) but they are 12,4 MM from each track well wall.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/AUVcPWr.jpg[/url]


So now we have a true and sturdy base on which to mount the wheels.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/9GPvGfV.jpg[/url]


Next; The manufacture of the drive and idler wheels:

[Blackadder]

Years Ago:

When I was a budding scratch-builder I made the bogies for this monster. Having already been apprised pf how outlandishly over-sized it was I search around for a shortcut to make the over-sized road wheels.

So I have a complete set of bogies made out of a 5/8 inch dowel for the axle, a 7/8 inch OD ABS tube (I don't know where that came from) and I went to the dollar store and bought a couple of packets of felt tip markers,

[url]http://i.imgur.com/xNljHtG.jpg[/url]


cut off the end plugs and beveled the inner vanes.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/vHznqfW.jpg[/url]


and there you have it , 16 reasonably detailed road wheels with a minimum of effort and talent.

And there for some reason I let the project drop.

Had I used my head I should have noticed that even if the drive wheels were larger in diameter, they still had the same sized inner core. (I actually just noticed that as I type this.... Ha!)

Anyway that's where we are today; trying to see if we can't improve on that other fellow's work.


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