1/35 ChTZ 60 Stalinetz Tractor by Thunder Models.

[JR]

Started well ! ---------------;;;;-----------.
Some very small parts that were quite taxing




The above was hard to hold E10 and E11 while applying touch of TET. But was accomplished.
The. Started to fit the engine to the frame.


The fan assy just doesn't line up it's far to high, so cut it off and glued if direct into the rad . At some point I will attempt to fit a small length of wire to join it up the the engine.
Although the front of the sump is angled it fits well on the cross bar, the rear of the engine fit perfectly into the
gearbox. You would think that would be perfect



After all this work the damned frame is twisted, can't understand why, the engine fitted into the



the marked area, so don't understand why it's twisted.
If it still looks odd it will have to end up as a wreak in a ditch with the villages standing around .
Oh well. I'll carry on tomorrow.:cold-sweat:

[scottie3158]

John,
Sorry to hear about your troubles with this. Are there any large components to be fitted that will bring it back into shape?

[Guest]

Oooh, that looks painful John. I know you won't give up on it though, so good luck.

By, the way, I've found Miniart's 1/35 figures to be pretty good - no relation at all to their 1/16 offerings.

[JR]

John,
Sorry to hear about your troubles with this. Are there any large components to be fitted that will bring it back into shape?

Hi Paul, about an HR after posting I twisted the rad and front end into a better line. Definitely something I'm doing and not the model. The strange thing about this is the way that the engine just linned up so well when it was connected to the gearbox. Decided to press on and build up the under side and leave the top side until last. When I start to fit the running gear I might be able to apply some weight to that and coax the frame. All good fun !

Oooh, that looks painful John. I know you won't give up on it though, so good luck.

By, the way, I've found Miniart's 1/35 figures to be pretty good - no relation at all to their 1/16 offerings.

Thanks Peter, so annoyed as I've read and reread the instructions. Refreshing to hear that the MiniArt figures are ok .:thumb2:


Flat resin roof to repair first thing, all ready and sanded back , just have to give a wipe over with the acetone, mix up the resin, add the catalyst at a mere 2 % and apply. 2 hrs of dry weather a must !
Then back to the model .

[Jim R]

Hi John
You'll sort that twist I'm sure. As you say a bit of pressure when fitting other parts may well pull it back square.
Enjoy your roof mending.
Jim

[JR]

Hi John
You'll sort that twist I'm sure. As you say a bit of pressure when fitting other parts may well pull it back square.
Enjoy your roof mending.
Jim

Hi Jim, in the cold light of day its not looking too bad, I did give it a twist, surprisingly nothing broke or flew off.
Roof edges went well thank you, just had to wait for the sun as it kept cloudling over this morning.
Progress is being made on the rollers and idler wheels, only one error so far ! by THUNDER , incorrect sprue given , of course the parts on the one I was looking at had been used, clue I thought, soon found the correct sprue.
Photos later, can't down load onto this pc as the memory is full . !!!:cold-sweat:

John.

[rtfoe]

You're doing great John...the fact that building started on page one means things are slightly in order.

I remember Tim's builds only started on page ten and most of the time he'd be in his PJ's walking around sounding like mexican maracas pockets full of paint jars jiggling being agitatedly stirred. You'd think he was serving tea when he brought his tray out... ala work table. :tears-of-joy:

Feels like the Ritz (Tea & Cakes) with a casino crap table crowd going on in the background at your builds. Rabble all present and accounted for. No flashing...gonna be a smooth ride...watch out for that scalpel!!!:smiling6:

Cheers,
Richard

[JR]

You're doing great John...the fact that building started on page one means things are slightly in order.

I remember Tim's builds only started on page ten and most of the time he'd be in his PJ's walking around sounding like mexican maracas pockets full of paint jars jiggling being agitatedly stirred. You'd think he was serving tea when he brought his tray out... ala work table. :tears-of-joy:

Feels like the Ritz (Tea & Cakes) with a casino crap table crowd going on in the background at your builds. Rabble all present and accounted for. No flashing...gonna be a smooth ride...watch out for that scalpel!!!:smiling6:

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks Richard. Coming to the conclusion that I'll never be a clean modeller no matter what I do there is always glue marks on my builds. If I use a smaller brush then I do not get enough glue on and bits drop off, then I apply far too much and it runs everywhere.
No good bothering about it. Some of these parts are so small the even the slightest glue melts them.
I've removed 10 u bolts in plastic from the rollers going to make copper replacements , seem to remember doing this on the ChTZ 61, which had a very similar drive train.
Bit of mud and no one will be the wiser !
John .

[JR]

Afternoon all .
Here at Race Towers the battle continues, sorry to say although I rate this kit highly there are some parts that I just cannot do. The kit is far better than I am as a modeller.

Although there are some missed No's on sprues, which is so simple to proof read in the beginning for Thunder as you can spend time looking for the parts, esp when looking at the sprue in question you see the parts have already being used. Then you question if you have used the wrong parts some where else.:worried:

I think the main problem is the size of some of the parts for me, , less than a mm think and 6mm long, and of course very thin. For example some u bolts.


Now these go above D15 and fit over the end of the shafts.


:smiling:

Well I tried to fit, looked worse when Id finished so cut them off. I remember on the S61 I actually made them out of wire, but have decided not to bother.



Nice sub assembly of the foot plate.



Bit out of focus , that's a a rather too close up of the fitted plate. The small hole at the centre of the photo was so tight a
Diamond file was used to open it, now not many parts had to be cleaned up, but with such small locating pins problems soon came to light .


:anguished:
The front idler wheel caused a lot of trouble .

Part C36 being the problem, those pins I could hardly see and there was no feel as you attempted to fit . Once glued on the slot the stepped part was supposed to slide onto the frame.
Well they just didn't , the gap was too small , in the end I hacked them and half the outer rim of the wheel and just glued the wheel in place.

As for the tracks................................ great ! loved them. OH NO YOU DIDN'T I HEAR YOU SHOUT, OH YES I DID.



Made up from 3 parts, I glued the right hand part on first, had to drill 5 holes including one in one of the right hand part.
Once all the drilling was done it was a matter of gluing all the right hand parts with the hole and when fully dry the left hand fitted easily into the pin hole and then into the two holes in the plate. So good was this that you good feel and hear a click as the pins engaged.




Ok not the cleanest look track but they are together.

It ends up looking like this.



Yes there's a good gap, try as I may it just didn't want to join up , even with CA. Will I use filler, no can't be arsed !!!! sorry.



Still have that twist, and nothing I can do the get it any better.






I messed up the front PE name to the rad, the PE should have also gone around the fuel tank, but they showed that going on after the tank was fitted, no way could I get the PE round when it was fitted. There is supposed to be some cross angled parts running from top left to bottom right and vise versa. Just too much for me, so might fit some plastic strip of the same angle if the sixe is near.
I've left off several other bit which will be fitted when the tracks are on. Oh the rad fan was completely out of alignment if fitted onto the engine, so stuck it on the the centre of the rad, need to insert a section of wire.

Not too dejected, tried to do more than I'm capable of, better suited to wreaks and buildings I think .

Comments by al means. Just want to get it finished, hope there are enough track parts with moving the wheel, and get on with the dio .

John.

[scottie3158]

John,
Sorry to hear about your woes. I have only built one thunder model and It was a pig, beautifully detailed but 10 tiny pieces to make one part. Well done for sticking with it. Once the paint is on it will look a whole lot better.

[JR]

John,
Sorry to hear about your woes. I have only built one thunder model and It was a pig, beautifully detailed but 10 tiny pieces to make one part. Well done for sticking with it. Once the paint is on it will look a whole lot better.

Thanks Paul, yes your spot on about the 10 for 1 bit.
I'm just hoping the planned dio can hide a lot !

[Jim R]

Hi John
Problems yes caused by an over engineered kit. As Scottie says 10 parts when Tamiya would only use a couple. I seem to remember struggling with a Tristar kit years ago and that was the same. Looking at the pictures though you're well on the way. Tracks are fine and could have been a real kit breaker. Paint and Russian mud will come to your aid :tongue-out3:
Jim

[Si Benson]

Hi John,
A bridge too far on this one then mate:sad-face:
To be fair to you, it looks bloody fiddly!! And if the destructions are unclear too....well what can you do?

Hope your not too being too hard on yourself, you get 10/10 for giving it a shot.....as Jim says, paint and mud will only help:thumb2:

[minitnkr]

Soldier on buddy. Remember the gardening absolves all sins:smiling4:. PaulE

[JR]

Jim, Si, and Paul .
Thanks for your support and kind comments.

None of us want easy, but in this case as it's been said over engineered , and to the extreme. I'd like to see a good modeller have a go and read what they have to say. Hopefully PMMS may do a review. I notice that Mr Ashley had problems with their Scammell, the PE was so thin he made a replacement tray out of plastic strip !

It nearly ended up on the floor, but as I've got older I'd rather push and make something of it. I managed to get the first top and front bend done tonight on the tracks, in doing so a strip of plastic from u bolt plate fell off !

With bit of careful placement I should be able to hide a lot. ( Bogged down up to the engine comes to mind ) No not really.
Reading what you think of the kit has made me feel a lot better so thanks.
John .:thumb2: