Bonhoff Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 (edited) Hi All, Although I'm not a regular armour modeller I do dabble from time to time. I'd recently completed the Revell boxing of Dragon's 1/35 Artilleriewagen and picked up this smaller scale version from a show with an idea in mind. Working on the logic that 1/144 is not that far removed from 1/148 - British N Gauge - I fancied the idea of motorising one. To this end, following some research on interweb, I concluded that a little Kato 0-4-0 chassis might fit in/under if I ignored the difference in wheelbase. A chassis was ordered from Amazon for a very reasonable £12 - Very reasonable indeed if you consider that the chassis came with free p&p from Japan! With delivery only taking a week too. Here's where we are before the off. A couple of hours later, after removing the base of the Kommandowagen, removing all the internal bulkheads from the hull and some fairly extreme trimming down of the chassis we were here. The chassis fits, just, but sits a little higher than the original height. I'll live with that. Does it run though? Click on the picture.... 20170803_001000 by Bonhoff1966, on Flickr Could do with a longer piece of track and a better controller but you get the idea.... All part of a bigger plan. Edited August 3, 2017 by Bonhoff Finger Trouble... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelman182 Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 I DO like that! Train set and model in perfect harmony (well, almost... ). Another good idea for me to adopt and to distract me from actually building things - just what I needed - NOT! LOL! It takes off like a scared rabbit, though. A bit more work on the controller required, methinks. Looking forward to seeing what the bigger plan is... Kev 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted August 5, 2017 Author Share Posted August 5, 2017 Progress has been quick on this one, as you'd expect when there's only 10 parts per railcar. Big hole cut out in the chassis of the unpowered unit to take an old Graham Farish wagon chassis. You can see the difference in wheelbases here but as the intention was to make a running pair I'll take the compromise. First coats of paint. Undercoated with Tamiya NATO black then a first top coat of thinned Dark Yellow. And here's the pair together. Bedstead not yet attached as there's still more coats of paint to go on along with buffers, couplings and fabricating some way of coupling the two together operationally. A yard length of PECO flexitrack has been purchased to allow the units to stretch their legs a bit and I'm planning a raid on the ancestral home to recover a Gaugemaster controller from my dad to deal with the dragster like acceleration. More as it happens. IanJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcrfan Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 Yikes its a bit fast More danger to the crew than the partisans hiding beside the track. If the controller doesn't bring the driver under control you need to consider repowering with a Hollywood Foundary Bull Ant which have very low gearing and can be tailored to the wheelbase you require. http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com Paul 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted August 5, 2017 Author Share Posted August 5, 2017 36 minutes ago, dcrfan said: Yikes its a bit fast More danger to the crew than the partisans hiding beside the track. If the controller doesn't bring the driver under control you need to consider repowering with a Hollywood Foundary Bull Ant which have very low gearing and can be tailored to the wheelbase you require. http://www.hollywoodfoundry.com Paul Hi Paul, Thanks for the link. Even if I don't use it, it might suit my Dad who's working on a 009 layout at the moment. Pretty sure it's the controller (A Hales Blue Prince - as basic as they come and possibly 50 years old too) as my last experience with a Kato chassis (Admittedly that was 35 years ago) compared with the British outline stuff of the time was nothing but favourable. Could be that the controller gives 6v where a modern one will give 1v. Perhaps a resistor in the circuit may tame it a little. IanJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killingholme Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 Ah the good old Kato 'tram' chassis. Countless home-made models around the world have been motorised by that little fella! From experience I have found it will run quite well, but needs spotless track, electrically 'live' pointwork (as does any short wheel base non-articulated loco in this scale) and a high quality controller to go a long way to smoothing out the sort of problems you'll get with a cheap mechanism that has rather crude nylon gearing and no heavy brass flywheel. Is a 1/144 diorama on the cards? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted August 5, 2017 Author Share Posted August 5, 2017 29 minutes ago, Killingholme said: Is a 1/144 diorama on the cards? Could be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 Kommandowagen now complete except decals KR's IanJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted September 26, 2017 Author Share Posted September 26, 2017 The pair are now completed, coupled together with some Albion Tube and now career quite happily up and down the track - Still need to sort the controller out. Just having to convert one of the track sections supplied by Dragon in the kit, so it will accept the slightly narrower N gauge chassis prior to displaying the pair. KR's IanJ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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