My tank transporter fetish is way out of hand...

[BUCKY]

Those winches look fantastic! Great work, dude!!

[Beekster]

Dec 13, 2017 15:58:32 GMT -6 BUCKY said:

Those winches look fantastic! Great work, dude!!

They're from Don Mills Models.   He makes white metal castings for various truck-ish things in the usual scales.  A lot of firefighter stuff, in particular.

[JCON]

Well done on the rework!!!

[Beekster]

And now for some details on the trailer. It is almost entirely scratchbuilt, and there was a lot of scrutinizing of images before the dimensions were worked out. It scales to about forty feet long, give or take, and it's based on an IDF indigenous design. The ramps were originally workable, but they got glued down this afternoon. The plastic is now old and brittle, and I won't be making clanking noises and driving a Sherman up on it anyway. The brake glad hands are scratchbuilt, and I'll talk about the wheels later in this post.










I don't know what I was thinking, but those rollers and fairleads on the gooseneck all spin! Must have thought I was going to winch something onto the trailer. The walking beams are simple structures; there's no springs or shocks or brake hardware under here. There's no room, and none of it would be visible anyway. I originally had the wheels already on, and a single axle holding the walking beams in. I cut that out this afternoon and will make new axles so that each beam acts independently, and I will be able to remove them if required.

Now, about those wheels...I'm sure you're wondering about them:



The design of these trailers was similar to the Rogers M9, which the IDF was already using with the Diamond T 980/981 tractors. This design is basically a scaled-up Rogers. So I wanted to find tires of about the same size, and decided that the old Tamiya FLaK 36 88mm gun had what I needed. I asked around for spares from modelers who had built their gun emplaced, and got what I needed. Now, the wheels themselves weren't quite right and I wanted something closer. I settled on modifying the centers from the ChMZAP-5247G trailer that comes in Trumpeter's MAZ-537G kits (I have resin wheels all around for mine). The rims with six spokes, closer to what the real ones look like, are seen at the bottom of the picture. They came from Monogram Snap-fit Mack Firetruck kits. I bought a couple for the wheels. The other rims are from the Revellogram Makc R700 tanker kit.

I'm sure there are inaccuracies galore with this trailer, but it is surprisingly difficult to find images of the real ones from above and empty. I chose to add the rectangular panels above the wheel stations to make it easier to build, figuring that when a wheel change was needed the bolts would come out, a couple of screw eyes would go in, and each plate would be lifted off; the tractor's own winches could do it if an A-frame was set up on the load deck with a snatch block to run the cable through.

[BUCKY]

That's a tidy looking trailer! Looking forward to seeing it finished!!

[JCON]

Looks cool and sounds believable!!!

[Dukemaddog]

Simply magnificent work! You surely have mad skills here.

[Beekster]

Dec 14, 2017 11:23:04 GMT -6 Dukemaddog said:

Simply magnificent work! You surely have mad skills here.

Thank you, sir!  I've said it before, but I believe most of us on these boards can do this.  Having the right tools is huge, along with reliable references and dimensions.  A trailer like this really isn't all that hard, though the gooseneck is a bit tricky.  To do that, I use the plans that Kent Hopper and I drew up several years ago.  I photocopy the drawings, cut out the gooseneck, and use Elmer's glue to tack the patterns to sheet styrene.  Cut them out, and tack the two sides together with drops of superglue, then sand them so their contours are even.  Dissolve the superglue with debonder, sand off the residue, and start adding stuff like the flanges.  Several crosspieces will be required, so use a NorthWest Short Line Chopper II tool to cut them from sheet stock and a NorthWest Short Line True Sander to square them up.  Very straightforward, really.

[Beekster]

Sigh...
This is the cab floor, then (2010, when I started this) and now:



Those X-brace structures are fragile, and because of other issues were repeatedly stressed when dry-fitting the cab. Both seats have broken twice already today, and I'm done with this. I have concluded that my previous methods were, to paraphrase a great line, unsound...

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm slicing out all that X-brace structure entirely, and measuring the inside dimensions of the seat trays. Then it's off to The Chopper to cut a bunch of rectangles, ones that fit snugly inside the trays and others that are smaller. I will laminate them to make a bellows, as if these X-brace structures were covered with a vinyl or canvas dust cover. Should have done this at the beginning; the result will be quite solid. I'll take and record the measurements I need before I head off for a gaming session.

Oh, and here's the instrument panel, modified to a DM configuration, and populated with 1/43 scale race car instrument decals from France:

[JCON]

Sounds like a much better plan for the x braces!!! Happy gaming fella!!!

[Beekster]

Dec 14, 2017 14:01:57 GMT -6 JCON said:

Sounds like a much better plan for the x braces!!! Happy gaming fella!!!

Thanks!  I will be continuing to pick away at the Japanese position on Saipan with my two Marine divisions, while slowly landing and organizing the US Army reserve division..

[JCON]

Storm those beaches fella!!!

[Beekster]

Oh the breaches were stormed by midafternoon on the first day and I was creating gaps in the Japanese positions to exploit inland.  Now, at nightfall of day two, I have turned one flank and am threatening the other, though I am certain that my opponent will bug out during the to night turns to take up new positions in the rear and shorten his defensive line.

[JCON]

LOL, sounds like you have him on the run!!!

[Beekster]

Dec 14, 2017 19:16:02 GMT -6 JCON said:

LOL, sounds like you have him on the run!!!

Too early to say.  But the free set-up is definitely a much more volatile game, especially if the Japanese player guesses wrong or partly wrong about where the Americans will land.  I chose beaches that were spread out and didn't allow for good mutual support, but were where his initial placement was weak.  I took a lot of casualties clearing the beaches, but not as many as we did historically.  He, however, probably stayed too long trying to kill me on the beach in one location.  Once I got a foothold, I started killing units he could ill afford to lose.  I've probably inflicted 50% losses on the 47th Separate Brigade near Charan Kanoa, and if he doesn't bug out overnight that formation is doomed.

Back to the tank transporter tomorrow, I promise!

[JCON]

Which game are you playing? Online or just a disk game?

[Beekster]

Dec 15, 2017 9:15:56 GMT -6 JCON said:

Which game are you playing? Online or just a disk game?

Good, old-fashioned board wargame with paper map and cardboard counters.  Unit size are companies with some attachments like tanks as platoons.  Ten-sided die used to resolve combat and morale checks.  Game turns are two hours during daylight (0500, 0700,and so on through 1700) and two night turns.

[Beekster]

OK, back to the truck. This morning I created seat bellows with laminated rectangles of .020" stock. The image is a little dark, but shows the effect:


image hosting websites free
The driver's side piece is ready for paint, and the passenger side is shown built up but not shaped. I used a triangle file to make the contours of the bellows, and I like the effect. I wound up with a bunch more rectangles than I've used here, so I put them aside for use on either the IDF version of this truck or the Mad Mack. I haven't decided yet if I will cut up the cab tub on that one.

[JCON]

Those look way cool!!!

[Beekster]

And a bit more of the trailer:






I have shot the underside with flat black, along with the insides of the ramps and the chain holes in the deck...a pre-shade, if you will. It was pretty cold in the garage this morning, and the thinners (Model Master and a little acetone) were equally cold. That accounts for the sub-optimal coverage and texture since the paint didn't flow through the airbrush as well as I would like. I'll make one more pass with black to even things out, but I'll put the thinners inside the house overnight to get them to room temperature. I won't be overly concerned about how this looks, since no one will see it unless they have a dental mirror and a pen light. Some of the shiny areas are water; it isn't fully dry after I sanded the deck to remove overspray around the chain slots. You can also see the end of one of the new axle shafts I made. Accurate? Lord, no. But if that mirror and penlight are deployed, it will at least look busy and plausible...Shep Paine's good ol' Creative Gizmology at work.