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Post by dogfish7 (R.I.P.) on Mar 9, 2021 15:55:44 GMT -6
Always amazed by your mini-engineering pieces Beekster! You have my full attention.
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Post by Beekster on Mar 16, 2021 15:52:05 GMT -6
Amidst other stuff going on in life and with model projects, I decided it was time for some mindless activity so I started on tracks for the Madill. The good news is, one run is complete:   The bad news is, I still need to order a set of tracks. Having settled on steel tracks, I intended to use up some sets of old RHPS T49 and T54E1 spares and some leftover T62 shoes as well. And that's what you see here. Unfortunately, these old sets appear to have some very brittle pins so I lost a lot of shoes to pins breaking while assembling the run. The collapsed suspension means that I'm using more like 75 track shoes rather than 79, but the sprues I have left only add up to just under 70. If nothing goes wrong. So, I'll be placing an order with Panda Plastics for a couple more T49 Three Bar Cleat sets for stock. Each set has enough extras that I will be able to finish this and still have two full sets for stock. They give you 29 sprues of 6 shoes each (I just opened a set of T54E1 to check and counted them), so 174 shoes per set. A standard short-hull Sherman uses 158 and a long hull 166, so with what I have on hand the extras from a single set will get me what I need. Unfortunately (for me), Panda Plastics does not sell the sets of spares like RHPS did back in the day, which had half a dozen sprues for 36 shoes plus end connectors. Just one of those would complete this job. |
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Post by JCON on Mar 16, 2021 15:54:28 GMT -6
That looks great!!!
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Post by dogfish7 (R.I.P.) on Mar 16, 2021 16:20:34 GMT -6
Wonder if they ever used the Duck Bill tracks on these?
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Post by Beekster on Mar 16, 2021 17:26:38 GMT -6
Wonder if they ever used the Duck Bill tracks on these? I've never seen them. They wouldn't have added much to stability when rigged out for yarding, and these machines rarely seem to move through really soft ground. They plod along logging roads and park at landings carved out for them to work, both of which are graded dirt with compacted gravel surfaces. And oddly enough, considering the stability issues, I've only ever found photos of one fitted with HVSS:   This one is S/N 700042, a very early machine. I suspect the HVSS was added later, note that the fuel tank has been moved forward, and the cab is on its side for transport. There is evidence of attempts by users to widen the tread to increase stability. These VVSS units with spacer blocks were photographed by me down in Eugene about four years ago:   Note that these are different from the E9 setup seen on remanufactured Shermans and TDs, so this must be a home-grown thing done by the operator. The green color is also unusual; I've only seen one other yarder painted green. Going the other direction, this is the wreck of 70220 in the same yard where I shot the bogies with spacers and several other yarders. Note that this unit wears M3 bogies! Those must have been grossly overstressed by the all-up weight of the yarder, with their smaller volute springs.    |
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Post by dogfish7 (R.I.P.) on Mar 16, 2021 17:49:48 GMT -6
The GREEN, coulda been mold or moss.  6 sets of BOGIES!!??  |
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Post by Beekster on Mar 16, 2021 17:59:42 GMT -6
The GREEN, coulda been mold or moss. 6 sets of BOGIES!!?? Pretty sure it was paint. Though badly worn, there were traces of it everywhere. Moss would grow most readily on surfaces that remained wet the longest after rain. Each yarder had six bogies just like a Sherman. If you're focusing on the second photo in the wreck series, what you are seeing is two burned wrecks in a row. Both were being parted out when I visited. |
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Post by Beekster on Mar 18, 2021 11:42:08 GMT -6
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Post by JCON on Mar 18, 2021 11:56:43 GMT -6
Looking the part now!!! You should switch to odorless thinner... |
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Post by Beekster on Mar 18, 2021 12:20:23 GMT -6
Looking the part now!!! You should switch to odorless thinner... I'm cheap; I use the generic stuff from Home Depot or Lowe's. Do you have a particular brand you favor? |
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Post by ARMORGUY on Mar 18, 2021 12:33:19 GMT -6
Totally blown away! What a great subject, this will be a prizewinner.
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Post by JCON on Mar 18, 2021 13:12:09 GMT -6
Looking the part now!!! You should switch to odorless thinner... I'm cheap; I use the generic stuff from Home Depot or Lowe's. Do you have a particular brand you favor? AMMO Mig Jimenez Enamel Odourless Thinner... www.migjimenez.com/en/weathering-products/139-enamel-ouderless-100.htmlI order directly from him with my paints and weathering stuff... have never had a problem, in the mail the day after I order... I use paypal and it converts the money easy peasy!!! |
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Post by Beekster on Mar 18, 2021 13:27:01 GMT -6
Totally blown away! What a great subject, this will be a prizewinner. Perhaps... Contest judges would actually have to know enough about the real thing to understand what they are looking at. It's been my experience that unless the thing has a swastika on it, most IPMS armor types tend towards cluelessness. They'll recognize the Sherman bits on the bottom, but be flummoxed by everything else. Still, one can hope! |
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Post by JED on Mar 18, 2021 13:34:01 GMT -6
Looking great
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Post by dogfish7 (R.I.P.) on Mar 18, 2021 15:28:56 GMT -6
Simply awesome work, there Beekster!
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Post by Beekster on Mar 19, 2021 12:24:27 GMT -6
I knew things were going a bit too smoothly. I've been doing some test-fitting after yesterday's grime session, and found that the front cover wasn't fitting as well as I remembered. The gap where it overlaps the front bedplate seemed too large, so I decided to fix it:  Bottom edge scraped to remove paint and additional .020" x.020" and .010" x .020" strip laid in. Over the weekend I will file and sand until the fit is where it should be, then prime by hand with light gray (close enough to Tamiya spray) and respray the orange in the affected area. This rework won't really slow things down much. The other bare spots on the rear bedplate are prepared for attaching the top deck. On the plus side, I fitted the floor planks in the front compartment, which forms something of a sponson over the tracks and makes for easier maintenance access:  Friction holds them in place perfectly, and they will get splattered with the oil & grease mixture when I add that to the gears, brakes, and clutches, not to mention the hull floor. |
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Post by Dukemaddog on Mar 19, 2021 15:13:49 GMT -6
Totally blown away! What a great subject, this will be a prizewinner. Perhaps... Contest judges would actually have to know enough about the real thing to understand what they are looking at. It's been my experience that unless the thing has a swastika on it, most IPMS armor types tend towards cluelessness. They'll recognize the Sherman bits on the bottom, but be flummoxed by everything else. Still, one can hope!
That may be the case (although I am an IPMS armor judge) but this vehicle would be entered in civilian vehicles/trucks or more appropriately: Miscellaneous. There you wouldn't have to worry about flummoxed armor judges. LOL!
Most impressive work too. This is stunning work.
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Post by Beekster on Mar 19, 2021 16:00:34 GMT -6
Miscellaneous or commercial vehicles, I should think. It is certainly commercial, just as a bulldozer is. One thing which will be interesting when the time comes to show this will be the reaction to the scale, if categorized as commercial. Smaller than the traditional 1/24-1/25 of most cars & semis and larger than the more petite 1/43 of some of the more esoteric sports and racing cars. I too have judged for IPMS in the dim, dark past; but haven't done so in quite a while. In the Pacific Northwest, there aren't any AMPS chapters or shows which I would prefer (though this subject wouldn't qualify except for a special sort of Most Unusual Sherman category). The focus on perfection of finish that IPMS favors falls flat for me; their rules don't take into account the difficulty of what is being attempted with a project (and I do a lot of conversions & scratchbuilds) and those efforts usually fall short of commercial kit perfection in execution. Weathering too is quite subjective, and my style tends to leave tide marks in places. So too does actual fluid evaporation in some cases, but I've been told that tide marks are a no-no. Oh well. I've had my share of builds published in magazines in past years, which is more than recognition enough.
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Post by JCON on Mar 19, 2021 18:29:17 GMT -6
Looking good!!!
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Post by Beekster on Mar 22, 2021 11:46:33 GMT -6
Substantial progress, small setbacks. I have slathered on a lot of the MiG Oil & Grease Stain stuff, and it really makes the gears and hull floor look like a mobile Superfund site:  Also, the top deck is on for good now, and the two hoses coming from stuff on the bottom surface of it have been carefully put in place. The left front of the deck isn't sitting down in the photo, that has been fixed (I think) and is taped in place to dry. The rear shot shows white space where the two assemblies have been joined, and .020" rod laid in which will be hit with liquid glue again later and textured into weld seams.   Yes, there's damage to the orange paint and there will be a bit more before I've finished work on these areas. I anticipated that, and will use the airbrush at a narrow aperture and low air pressure to add color and blend for as many coats as it takes, then a spritz of Dullcote to seal and dull the finish. Needless to say, that will be rather time-consuming though the gloss orange ought to dry fairly quickly since the surface area is small. And it's supposed to start getting warmer, being officially spring and all. Adding the deck for good revealed a problem with the exhaust pipe. I wasn't careful enough earlier and the muffler section I made to hide the joint where it meets the pipe coming off the engine wouldn't clear a delicate part coming down through the surface from the round tank on top of the deck. I tried to fix things, and got this:  Yep... I busticated it. Peering in through the right side, the pipe join will be very, very hard to see unless I open the big screen door. So the way forward is to fabricate a new pipe, perhaps with muffler outside the deck (not uncommon) and an open end rather than the flapper I fitted to the first pipe. |
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6 sets of BOGIES!!?? 
