SimonT - Hobbyboss 1/35 Russian T-18 Light Tank

[SimonT]

Cheers Scottie - I wonder if I will ever finish anything. Really good at starting them

Pete - good to have you back

Allen - yes, the dark jeans are much more blood friendly

Ta Si


Made a start on cleaning up some track links last night - four attachments per link but since I remove all parts with my trusty JLC saw they will just need a quick swipe with an emery board

Luckily with it being so small there are only two sprues of links - one set removed just need a quick sand now

I did a bit of a test fit and it appears that the links do not fit under the track guards very well

The links are wider than the guards even though I made the guards the same width as the kit ones and there is no clearance over the rear top return roller

Some studying of photos is required to see how the tracks / rollers should sit together

[SimonT]

after a lot of searching I found this shot which shows a vehicle close to that depicted by the kit

Most of the photos purporting to be T-18 have different suspension layouts, tracks and other details - some of the museum / monument examples are missing bits or look to have had random bits added to make them look complete so I don't trust them

At least this is a period photo so I shall use this


first thing I noticed is that I have the return edges too deep at 1mm - will need to halve that so a new set of guards required

the track width does appear to be wider than the track guards so I think that aspect is correct

the vertical dampers look to sit below the hull floor and there looks to be a gap between the top of the road wheels and hull floor as you can see ground - looks like the entire suspension should possibly sit slightly lower in order to get the gap above the return rollers

first task is remove the pewter and try again

I can then assess the gaps with some track in place and see if the suspension has to move

[Guest]

The mudguards on the real vehicle don’t seem to have any real thickness to them at all, except for that bent edge at the front. Instead of making entirely new guards, I think the first thing I’d try would be to fold the edge all the way over on the ones you have, see if that looks more like the photo. If not, you can always make new ones after

[SimonT]

They are a lot thinner on this one than on the previous reference - it could very well be that I destroyed the kit ones for no good reason :smiling5:

[Guest]

Always fun to discover that something you took off, you now get to rebuild as it was

[SimonT]

Oh yes, always good for a laugh

[Steve Jones]

Here are some photos and a video at the bottom for you Mr T and of course JR

[ATTACH alt="drawing_T18.jpg"]357508[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="eastern_express35003_5.jpg"]357509[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="eastern_express35003_6.jpg"]357510[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="eastern_express35003_7.jpg"]357511[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="images.jpg"]357512[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="ms1_jhgjh1.jpg"]357513[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="pervye30.jpg"]357514[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="T_18_1.jpg"]357515[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="T_18_2.jpg"]357516[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="t18.jpg"]357517[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="t18_21.jpg"]357519[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="t18_22.jpg"]357520[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="T18_SPH_drawing.gif"]357523[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="T18M.png"]357524[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="tanks T18.jpg"]357525[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="vehicle_t18_2.jpg"]357526[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="vehicle_t18_3.jpg"]357527[/ATTACH]

Here

I noticed on my You Tube there is another video top right of the list, of a guy building a full version named UFO. May be of help

here

[SimonT]

Thanks Steve - I already posted the videos on Johns build

The photos show the problem I found - when you really look at them they are nearly all different. Wheel configurations and styles, hull shapes, track guards, return rollers in front of suspension damper and behind

I am going to stick with the picture I found as that is nearest to the kit configuration

After studying the picture I think the track guard is thin sheet with slightly turned down edges rather than a proper return flange type edge so will modify mine to reflect this

[Steve Jones]

Sorry Mr T. Thought it was a different video. Look forward to seeing your updated track guards

[Jim R]

Hi Simon
Stupid question time. What is that sticking out of the back?



When I was young I had a plastic toy frog with a spring just like that on it's bum. You could press it down, release it and the frog hopped. A hopping tank - now there's a novelty :tongue-out3:

Jim

[Neil Merryweather]

I think it's to prevent the tank toppling over backwards as it climbs steep obstacles.
but I'm not a tankie so I stand to be corrected
n

[Guest]

It’s a trench-crossing aid: it prevents the back of the tank from falling into the trench while the tracks pull it onto the other side, allowing it to cross wider trenches than it otherwise could.

[SimonT]

hacked off the previous track guards - caused a little damage to the side sponsons and the track guard supports at the rear are rather wobbly now

after studying the photo and scaling it as best I can I think they have the suspension set slightly too high up the side of the hull

this was meant to be a quick build so rather than ripping it all apart and causing more damage to the fragile suspension parts I decided to just adjust the rear return rollers - sliced them off and dropped them by 1.5mm. All still looks in proportion

added a few more kit parts - need to get the front track guard supports installed this time before adding the new guards

did a test fit of the track links and found that they didn't fit between the return roller or road wheel halves so had to sand the gaps to widen them slightly

[SimonT]

For what I expected to be a straightforward and easy build it is managing to give me some grief


Spent time aligning the front stub axles yesterday but overnight they have pulled themselves out of line as the glued dried - looks even worse in reality, major toe out and camber when they should be vertical and straight :angry:

Have softened the join again with more glue and then clamped the wheels in the track link assembler tool

Can’t add any more bits as need to leave it to properly dry out while clamped

[Si Benson]

One step forward, two steps back! I’m sure you’ll tame this beast before long Mr T.....if not there’s always the ‘wreck’ option:thinking: