Kipsley

Hiyas. To anyone following this build, I have not given up on it. I've just had to take a break from it for a while as my dad has been in hospital. Nothing too serious, but enough that I've had to divert my attention somewhat. Never fear though. The Digger will get built and finished....... eventually. Stay safe everyone.

This all does make sense. I had no idea that a track could weigh so much, and those true life pictures have a lot of slack in those tracks. I used to operate a 25 tonne excavator, and the mechanics were forever making sure the tracks were tight. The one time I did lose a track was due to a fluid leak in a tensioner. It just refused to stay tight. Anyhow, I have learned da great deal, so my day is not lost. Tank tracks do sag.... and quite a lot apparently. 👍

What Tamiya colour should I use?

Came across this today and thought I'd place it here as an idea for a potential scratch build. This was a real WWI tank and is a based on the chassis of the Matilda. I love strange things and I think that one of these days I'm going to get myself a Matilda kit, and build this. Anyway, thought I'd share in case others wanted to have a go, and also as it's just kinda interesting.

Some tanks have the drive sprocket on the front and some have it on the back. I've noticed a lot of tank models like to have the tracks kind of draped over the upper guide wheels, and so was wondering...... were they really like that? I seem to think that if this tank began to move forwards it would be looking at losing a track. I'm I right? Because as soon as that drive sprocket begins to turn it will pull all that slack out and the track would be very loose in front. So should tracks be tight? Not my model btw.

Took me three days just to make this one part, but this is the main assembly for the clam-shell bucket that goes on the front. This part is shown insitu, but it won't be properly fitted for quite some time as everything else get's attached to this one part and I need it off the Terrier for now.

This is all fantastic information. I never knew the facts about tank tracks. I really thought they were just plain old iron and would rust if left a while, but the constant moving around over sand and gravel kept them clean. The Terrier I am building has a welded steel shell (see? I checked) and will definitely rust, however I'll not have any rust effects on my finished project as I think the crews would have looked after their machines pretty well. I'm ex Army Reserves, Medic from an Artillery Regiment, and I can tell you our gun-crews kept those Howitzer Field Guns in prime condition. They were not ALLOWED to have rust on them. So with my current project, and given I only have pictures to go by, I have seen diesel stains, water stains, scratches, mud (lots of mud), dust (loads of that to), boot scrapes, and even a cup of coffee that was tipped over the side. No rust though. But....... not to be a smartie-pants, I never knew a Mosquito was made of wood. I would have been the one to have weathered it like it was made of metal 😳 I'm learning so much here. I think I'll stay 😆

Posted in another forum about a guy who had some (pretty good) rust effects on his tank. His post read: "please comment freely as I'm still learning". I pointed out that rust on tanks in active action was almost unheard of during actual wartime. The tank generally just didn't survive long enough to actually accumulate rust. That and the constant grinding of metal tracks through dirt, dust, and sand would leave tracks metal and bare, and relatively rust free. Average life expectancy of a battle tank in a war zone was measured in hours, sometimes days. A few might survive a few weeks. But even during peacetime, those of us who have ever served in the military would know that equipment was constantly being cleaned, repainted, tested, practiced with. It just never sat idle. A modern Abrams would never be allowed to rust during peacetime (or some poor sappers are going to find themselves cleaning that tank with their toothbrushes at 3am). So while Mr "I want to learn" took offence when I pointed out the above, what do you all think about rust on a tank? I have seen dioramas of abandoned wrecks and such, but that's just different IMO. I'm talking about active, working, in the field, tanks.

Happy New Year everyone. I took a break from the model over the Christmas period because it was driving me mad. I'd build a part then fit it only to then realise it was too big or too small, so I'd build it again, and sometimes even a third time. Grrrr. Anyhow some pictures to show the progress so far. As you can see I've been working on the excavator arm mostly, and I have even managed to make it posable.

Thanks for your help and input ivan-o. It does look better. With regards on help and advice, I've been looking around at some of the other builds in progress so far, some of them being non-printed scratch builds. I am stunned by the level of detail and the workmanship.. or should I say "craftsmanship" that is going on here, so please please please, if you see me doing something wrong or it can be done better, or you just want to share you knowledge..... you won't ever offend me. I look at some of the scratch builds here and I then look at my own model, and I realise how much of a rookie I truly am at this. 😆 Oh..... and stay safe in the new year.🥳

Progress so far and we have begun construction of the excavator arm. It looks a bit rough at the moment but I am far from painting it up yet. That blue stuff is my homemade filler. Its acrylic paint mixed with talcum powder. Works rather well to fill in cracks, seams, and the odd small hole. I didn't clean up the digger before taking shots so she looks rather dusty, and I fixed the wheels. The whole thing needs to be detailed but I'm still doing the major construction first. I did have this bright idea of using a plastic pen case to make the rams but found out that my Tamiya glue doesn't work so well on non styrene plastic. So I have ordered some tube styrene from China as i also found that no hobby shops around my carry styrene products. I don't own a 3D printer so this Terrier is being built by hand. This is gunna take awhile. Anyhow, Merry Christmas everyone.

Back together again, and it looks more to scale now. Had major troubles with that rear road wheel and I will try to fix it. If I can't...... well, that's what mud is for. And my two sappers seem reasonably pleased.

Well, no picture this week as there is something heavy sitting on my tank as something that won't stay in place is trying to dry. Anyhoooo, I said I could live with the tracks being a bit low, but every time I looked at it Sapper Johnson (He's one of the little crew guys) keeps yelling at me to fix it. He's quite insistent. So given it's my days off I've had a day of destruction happily ripping off the tracks, then the entire undercarriage. At this point I thought "Hey, let's measure this thing and compare to the real one". At 1/35 scale it should be 80mm in height, 84.5mm wide, and 265.7mm in length (overall). I always knew I was a bit tall so I figured "Since I have the undercarriage off...." and out came that big stanley knife (yes, that one) and I chopped 5mm off the bottom. I then ripped off the right side skirt as I was never happy with it, and made a new one 1mm wider as even that was bugging me (that and Sapper Johnson kept pointing at it - He's so OCD). At the moment I have the right side suspension, road wheels, and track back on, and the whole thing is sitting on its side with a very large and heavy book on it. I have no idea where Sapper Johnson has gotten to, and secondly, I don't care. It's late at night, I have tomorrow off, so I'm going to watch Star Trek and have good stiff bourbon. Thankfully, no injuries today.

Your input is always valuable to me, ivan-o. Thank you.

But wait. On refection I think I see what you may mean. It's the distance from the top of the track to the guard. It's a little too much.... And you are right. It is. When I first began building the initial shell I had to take a guess at where the front leading wheel would be (that's the wheel that has the tensioner attaches to it and keeps the track tight). At the time I had no wheels and was going to scratch build them. As you know I ended up using the wheels from a 1/35 scale Abrams and they are just a little too small. In fact, I even had to make the road wheels noticeably bigger. When I placed the leading wheel and the rear drive sprocket on, they had to be even, but that meant they would be a little low as I had to align the leading wheel to the drive tensioner or it would have looked odd. At the time the difference didn't seem much, but once I added the left guard and the rest of the superstructure on the right side, it did tend to be more noticeable. Thing is, it seems even more noticeable in the pics. At this point in the build it would be a major undertaking to fix it, and it's no big deal to me at present. but well spotted. 😉