Jim R's AT45 Soviet Artillery Tractor. 1/72 scale TP Model,

[Jim R]

Thanks guys. As an intro to full resin kits this ain't a good choice. ?

A little bit of progress. Added the bolts(? - not clear from my reference) to the chassis.


Cleaned up the cab. I put in a piece of firm foam to support the fragile resin. Added door hinges using little lengths of rod.


Cleaned up the other cab and bonnet parts and with a little fettling it fitted OK.




All the wheels are complete although some ain't quite round!!


For the first time this morning I felt that it just might make it to completion

[HAWKERHUNTER]

[scottie3158]

Jim,
Coming on very nicely, the little tweaks make all the difference.

[Steven000]

Looks all good Jim, nice improvements.

[john hutton]

Jim
Cracking along nicely there sir ?. Russians did seem to like ugly vehicles (nothing to do with your modelling though mate). But she ain't the prettiest . Never built a Russian vehicle Jim, will this be in that Green colour that seems to cause some debate in the matching ?

[Jim R]

If I get it to the painting stage it will be green. If there's debate I'll just say the green was experimental, as was the vehicle!

[Ernie]

It seems that is quite a challenging little kit, but you are handling it masterfully. ?

[Tim Marlow]

Starting to beat this into submission now Jim. I would say it’s coming together well, but I think in this case that’s one word too many Still, at least you know why it was only a tenner……

[Jim R]

A little bit more progress. I've sorted the wheels as best as I can. The fixing of the road wheels looked very iffy so I inserted short lengths of stiff wire.

I cut off the fixing "blobs" and added small pieces of styrene tube to the body and also drilled through the tube into the body to accept the wires.

The bubbles and bad casting will be covered by the road wheels so I'm not too bothered about that.

Next I needed to look at the tracks. The kit provides a few straight resin lengths. Top and bottom, across the 5 road wheels, is a nice straight run. It's the bending round the drive and idler wheels that presents problems.


I made a couple of simple jigs and heated a track length with a hair dryer and bent the track around the wheels. I glued the track to the wheels , just at the end of the curve, with 2 part epoxy. I figured that CA would not be secure enough.




So I ended up with these.


The plan is to fit the wheels with their lengths of track in place and cut the track at the top and bottom of the adjacent road wheel and glue the cut ends to the road wheel, again with epoxy. The front to back gap will be a cut to size straight length.

So we will see haw the idea works. I'll do a bit of painting first.

I'm finding it quite a challenge but strangely satisfying.

[Steven000]

Well done Jim, looks like the jig & hairdryer method worked out great ?

[Richard48]

Looking great Jim!!!

[john hutton]

Jim,
I take my hat off to you for A. Taking this all in your stride ?.
B. Your tenacity and your ingenuity with the wheels and now the tracks. Great modelling skill on show mate ? .

[scottie3158]

Jim,
I echo what John has said.

[Jim R]

Thanks for your support. This is the kind of kit that needs positive vibes!

Firstly the good progress. After a fair bit of sanding the canvas top fits onto the load bed.


The load bed actually has a bit of detail and somewhere I've got some 1/72 crates which I can fit in.

It looks as if the canvas had a roll up panel.


Using a wet wipe type tissue, masking tape and some PE buckles I made the rolled up canvas.


Cut out the 'door' and now it should be possible to see a bit inside. I'll have to fill the air bubble.


Next post far less good

[Jim R]

Now the bodge/c***-*p

The drive and idler wheels were no good. There was just not enough contact area to fasten to the tracks. I tried to soften the track for a better fit around the idler but only succeeded in ruining the wheel!! I scavenged some Sherman wheels, drilled holes, (only 6 not the correct 10) and fitted the outer rim to a section of styrene tube.
Top right, the ruined wheel, with a replacement below.


Because the replacement wheel is solid I cut off some of the track teeth. This gave a far bigger contact for glue.


Put a wire in the back to give strength when fitting to the body.



I did similar for the drive wheels. I rescued the kit outer parts, cut a section of tube and used a styrene collar to correct the diameter, filled the centre with a bit of wooden knitting needle and stuck in a bit of wire.




Certainly not accurate as the wheels are solid with no gap for the track teeth but at this scale it may not be too obvious - hopefully. Looks a mess in these large photos but with a bit of clean up and some paint it should pass.

Thanks for your kind posts. It's been close to the bin a few times but it's still got a chance

[papa 695]

Great fix on the wheels Jim.

[papa 695]

Just caught up Jim, some fantastic work going on, on such a poor kit.