JohnWS Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: ... Soon I'll have to tackle the tracks, and I'm rather short of clues on how I'm going to go about this job. ... Hi Steve, One option is to purchase 1/24 tank tracks. They may not be perfect, but could be an easy solution. e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/heng-long-Tank-Track-for-Abrams-T90-Leopard-A5-on-1-24-scale-UK/222660664662?epid=888649309&hash=item33d79c1d56:g:AqQAAMXQHDlRbkZT https://www.rotor.sg/home/2185-plastic-caterpillar-chain-track-1-pair-for-heng-long-124th-scale-rc-tank.html Another far-out option to consider could be to put the Panzerhaubitze in a seascape (a river crossing) with the tracks (or lack of) covered in water. (then you could post it in the Maritime section ) John 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 Gidday, or stuck in very deep soft mud. (Mud wrestlers not required 😥) Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Model Mate Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 modern tracks are a frighteneing prospect, that's why (so far) I've stuck to WW1 types with simple plate tracks. They'd be a bit of a nightmare to cast in resin I presume. Maybe 3D printing link and length? I know 3D printing could be considered "not proper" scratchbuilding, but I think you could be forgiven in this instance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Model Mate Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 Actually, if you got 3D prints of long lengths of track, you might be able to cut them up where necessary for individual links(?). That would minimise your printing costs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 2 hours ago, Model Mate said: modern tracks are a frighteneing prospect, Frightening for you perhaps @Model Matebut ‘Bandsaw Steve’ knows no fear...☠️ and quite possibly has no sense either! 🤓 1 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Model Mate Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Sounds like you have a plan....? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorby Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Model Mate said: Sounds like you have a plan....? I always have a plan... ... the trouble is that I often get to plan 'F' before I get it right. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 5 hours ago, Model Mate said: Sounds like you have a plan....? I do! It’s to pay off the house, accumulate some superannuation and then retire. As for plans regarding how to make the tracks... Nothing... 😳 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaastav Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 On 30/07/2020 at 18:27, Bandsaw Steve said: I do! It’s to pay off the house, accumulate some superannuation and then retire. As for plans regarding how to make the tracks... Nothing... 😳 Yes, yes not having a plan from tracks is all very fine but what about the original plan of having the sailing howitzer? Tracks are temporary, water is eternal... Nuff said 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted September 3, 2020 Author Share Posted September 3, 2020 Well here’s an important update on this project. I am still planning...😀 But I still don’t have a plan...🥴 Getting there though... I think. 🤔 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Gidday Bandsaw, Aren't plans simply a basis for change? Seriously, I think planning is good, it can ( occasionally ) prevent errors and disasters. It would be a shame to make a major stuff-up now. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted October 22, 2020 Author Share Posted October 22, 2020 Making Tracks Well folks - it's been a while. Although this post is called 'making tracks' most of it is actually about failing to make tracks. As outlined above, the two things that I thought would be especially challenging about this project were the wheels and the tracks. The wheel production went very smoothly; however, the tracks have been a different story. I"ll take you through a few of the ideas that I tried and then show you the method that I think is actually going to work. My first attempt was a sort of half-hearted experimental attempt at doing something with gridded sheet plastic and strips of textured evergreen card. The result was a fairly precise geometrical shape. Precisely wrong that is... As you are probably aware I have a fairly lax attitude to accuracy but this held no resemblance to anything in the real world, so I put it to one side. Attempt number two was a bit of fairly far-out lateral thinking. About a year ago I picked up a large embroidary grid at a sewing shop in the belief that one day it might make a good grid over the top of a deck opening on a sailing ship. I cut a strip off that was the correct width for some tracks and fiddled around with seeing if I could make it look like a tank track. I couldn't. Especially since no glues really hold to this slippery plastic very well. I then faddled around with some long cable ties, which due to their surface 'ratchet' texture held some feeble promise but again, no cement would hold and besides, they were way too thin. I also tried some of those reinforced plastic strapping things that hold cardboard boxes together when appliance and so-forth are being delivered but no joy. Then I had a brainstorm. If I wanted something to represent flexible tracks why not build something out of a truely flexible material. So I went to bunnings and bought a sheet of roofing lead. Yes - lead... Pb the toxic metal. You know the stuff. I cut two long strips of the stuff and laid them out thus... this was looking promising I thought. See lead is nice and flexible and promises to wrap around the wheels quite nicely. Note the gloves - lead really is quite nasty stuff to get all over your fingers so when playing with this stuff please wear gloves and wash your hands frequently. I then tried sticking some wooden track pads on and started to see the problems. I could probably stick the wood on with two part epoxy but I couldn't help but think that the layer of flexible lead underneath would sooner or later make the glue give way. I tried sort 'embossing' a pattern into the lead by bashing the sharp end of an old screwdriver into the surface but I couldn't get an even pattern for depth or distribution. At this point Bill at the local modelling club was offering to give me some spare 1/35 track from one of those gigantic WW2 Paper panzers. Even though it was 1/35 scale it was about right for width but the track pattern bore no resemblance at all to a modern track so held off; a generous offer though Bill - much appreciated. Then for my birthday I got a brand-new vac-forming machine and thought I would try this. Make a vac-form of the tracks - complete with the sticky-out little knobbly bits that stick out between each link. If I made a few of these I could somehow stick them together and make them all line up and make a set of tracks. Here's the first attempt about to begin. in fact by the time I had got this far I was pretty sure this wasn't going to work and when I found that the only vac-form plastic I had was clear stuff (and not the much easier to form white plastic) I figured correctly that the idea was doomed. Yep! it was.... Stupid... So now it was looking like giving up and 3D printing. But one day during an idle moment I was flicking through my previous posts on this thread and noticed this photo. Complete with a comment about how easy it is to carve plastic. And this got me thinking. What about carving a tread pattern onto a strip of nice thick plastic and then building something from there. Well the actual carving did not work so well but the idea was there - finally - and in the end an old fashioned Olfa cutter came to the rescue. followed by some vigorous but quite careful work with a triangular section file. Here the tracks are upside down - the tread is facing upwards - but you get the idea. Now I made a little cutting jig and cut out about 150 or so little equal lengths of 0.75mm evergreen rod. (Note that in the background you can see my 'proof of concept' piece.) The evergreen rod lengths sit beautifully in two out of every three slots in a strip of textured evergreen plastic glued onto the top of the tread strip, and it just so happens that the slots are spaced at exactly the correct distance to allow the teeth on the drive wheel to engage with the rods - very much like on the real thing. This is not finished yet but I think that I've finally worked out how to do this and should have the tracks sorted fairly soon. Let's say in a month or so. So in the end the answer was fairly straightforward - just carve / file the necessary detail into a strip of plastic and stick bits to it until it looks kinda OK. I'm still not quite sure exactly how I will make this wrap around the drive wheels and so-forth, but I'm confident that I'll work something out. Till then. Stay safe... Bandsaw Steve 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMK Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Steve, That is hard core. Well done in problem solving. You’ve provided a glimpse into my nightmare future for a 1/16 M113! Keep up the great work. Cheers, Greg 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartH Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Wow. That is a hell of a lot of work that has gone into this. Fantastic to read all your thought processes! For the curvature of the idlers/drive wheels could you not make single individual links and by placing/gluing one at at time gradually conform to the shape of the wheel. That's how Tamiya do their 1/48 AFv's..you basically get about 5 or 6 individual links for each end to connect the main upper and lower long straight sections. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted October 22, 2020 Author Share Posted October 22, 2020 1 hour ago, StuartH said: For the curvature of the idlers/drive wheels could you not make single individual links and by placing/gluing one at at time gradually conform to the shape of the wheel. Yep - good suggestion. That’s the plan at this point. 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Gidday Steve, I've been monitoring this section religiously, waiting for another update, not realizing your problems with plastic. Is it too late for an idea? Cut strips from thin white styrene sheeting, say 0.25mm and attach the tracks to that. The thin sheet will wrap around the wheels quite easily, I would think. If you need thick plastic then try wrapping the strip around the wheels (or any other former) several times to get the thickness you require. I actually did this on my model of HMS York, to make the round base of the catapult. Thin styrene wrapped around a piece of dowel until I got the correct diameter. Several layers of thin styrene also evened out any bumps in the dowel. HTH. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted October 23, 2020 Author Share Posted October 23, 2020 Good suggestions Arnold. I think that something along those lines is likely to be the outcome. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafetyDad Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Delighted to see that you're back Steve! Excellent and engaging post on your track problem-solving and +1 from me for the thin, flexible plastic backing to allow you to create a curved track around the drive sprockets and idlers. Keep going! SD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendie Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 if you'd just done it as a waterline model you wouldn't have needed to worry about those tracks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Gidday, I guess some modelers like Hendie just don't appreciate the joys (read soul-destroying frustration) of a challenge. 😁 Regards, Jeff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 On 24/10/2020 at 08:16, ArnoldAmbrose said: Gidday, I guess some modelers like Hendie just don't appreciate the joys (read soul-destroying frustration) of a challenge. @hendie’s soul cannot be destroyed. It is eternal; never-ending... just like some of his WIP threads! 😀 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Gidday Steve, any progress on the tracks, submerged or otherwise? Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 Yes as it happens! I hereby commit to an update this weekend. Things are moving forward! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redshift Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 Awesome progress! Is there anything that carving cannot solve? Should be wood not plastic, but we can overlook that this time... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 2 hours ago, Redshift said: Is there anything that carving cannot solve? Should be wood not plastic, Actually, that’s not such a bad idea! 🤔 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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