SimonT - SdKfz.250/9 1/87 Trident

[SimonT]

I was up in the loft this afternoon - had a rummage and came back down with this one that PaulE and Rick will no doubt recognise

[Whilst up there I had a dig around in the Roco pile and found the following 1/87 kits:
Fallschirmjäger figure set, M48, M110, M2 Bradley, M1 Abrams, M38 jeep, Willys jeep and trailer (lovely detail on this), M4 high speed tractor, T34/85, M151 mutt, M113 (partially converted to a zelda), M26 Dragon Wagon, Scud A, Dodge weapons carrier, famous leaders x 3 sets, US gun crew, soldiers (not much of a description and rather vague looking figures), Saladin a/c, M998 Hummer
There should also be a Gama Goat, a box set of three US halftracks and a Vietnam era command group but they seem to have got shuffled elsewhere]

Back to this one......


a small blue box - they are rather expensive kits. Cost me £18 from Germany



they actually come partially pre-assembled - hull, wheels, tracks, turret
Details are on two sprues, including separate pioneer tools and there is a nice etch set of grenade screens
No decals

minimal instructions


the main hull top plate was less than flat so covered the whole thing in green stuff to fill the sink marks


filler sanded back to leave a flat surface

then finished disassembling the assembled parts and made a start on cleaning them up

[Mini Me]

Hi Simon, You just found the first "Flaw" there will be others. Welcome to "Its a Small World" I shall be on this like glue....should be a great learning experience for me to see what the Jedi Master has up his sleeve.
Cheers, Rick H.

[minitnkr]

U4 antenna mount worth many times it's weight in diamonds. They don't include it w/any 251s. They give you two because they are delicate. You lucked out & got a later Trident build of this version w/upgraded sprues & PE screens. The outer two bogie wheels are removable for ease of painting inside bogie wheels. Don't know why they charged so much. Don't think I paid more than $15 for any of my 250s except maybe the "stump" version, a couple w/free US postage. Enjoy your 'baby tiger'. PaulE

[Jim R]

Hi Simon
Well even if lockdown lasts for years you're still going to struggle to get that lot built :rolling: And at this scale you'll ruin your eyesight.
The guys who build at this scale do some amazing work. The detail is superb for the scale. Being so small there is scope for great dios of a manageable size.
Jim

[SimonT]

Rick - don’t hold your breath. I don’t think you will learn anything of use

Paul - they are rather small! All 1:87 stuff is ridiculously expensive over here and hard to get. This one was from Germany via eBay. Some of the Tridents sell at £50+ which is just stupid compared to 1/35 prices and 1/72. They just ain’t worth it - I shall not be buying any more that’s for certain

Jim - they are about 83% the size of 72nd, 87% of 76th. I was looking around the stash when I dug this one out - I will never be short of kits, that’s for sure

[Mini Me]

I shall reserve judgement on that comment until I have seen a few more updates Mr. T. In the past you have made some very useful suggestions regarding my build efforts. Rick H.

[minitnkr]

Flashed on "The 5000 Fingers of Dr T", the only feature film by Dr Seuss. PaulE

[SimonT]

A small amount of progress on this......

The upper hull should overlap the lower hull slightly, the join is not flush so I extended the sides slightly with tiny micro strip

in order to sand the strips down flush I had to remove the engine bay access doors - not a great problem as they were rather indistinct anyway


new doors added with pewter, micro strip hinges with aluminium tube hinge bars

bit of tidying required here and there and must remember to add the access hatch locks


I also dug out these 1/72 brass flak barrels from another project - a little trimming down and one of these will then be a good replacement for the kit plastic

[SimonT]

brass barrel modified to fit - much better than the kit version


then made a start on hollowing/thinning out the mudguards - this is a standard task for pretty much any vehicle as they are generally moulded way thicker than they should be due to moulding constraints

also been thinking on how to make replacement tracks as the kit ones are rather simplified as usual - I have the beginnings of an idea forming...... :thinking:

or I could just bury it up to the arches in mud

[Mini Me]

Actually the track assemblies are way better than most offerings in 1/87scale. If you remove the mould lines. I shall be interested to see if you can improve on these. What thickness strip did you use for the upper hull overlap? as that is something I have overlooked in the past. Rick H.

[SimonT]

The smallest size I could find in my assorted micro strip - must be either 5 or 10thou square Rick

[adt70hk]

Simon

Well be following this one! You've made a good start so far.

Well done.

Andrew

[Steve Jones]

Nice update Mr T. How are you coping with the super small stuff??

[SimonT]

Cheers Andrew

Steve - well it is only a little smaller than 1/76, which I spent many years doing, but my old fingers are not as dexterous as they once were. Has the same problems as any kit, just a bit smaller so you have to be more careful


Right, tracks - I pursued my idea and although the final result is less than great I think I have proved the concept is workable


made up a length of link shaped plastic profile 2 x 3mm


and sliced off a series of links using my RPToolz guillotine to get some consistency in the thickness


as you can see they assemble quite nicely each link fitting inside the next - bit wonky here or there I admit but overall it has the right look I think especially when it gets the rubber blocks added


now for the down sides

In order to keep the track teeth and also keep all the wheels aligned I carved off all the kit track detail and thinned the remaining band then stuck the new links to it

as you can see this didn't work out too well as even though thinned right down it holds the new links too far from the wheels making it look daft

it also seems that one of the wheels has snapped in half - I think there may be a large ejector pin hole that has taken out most of the rear face and made it rather fragile

so my conclusion is that the concept is viable but the execution could have been better

I can't leave it like this so will have to try and strip it down and separate the wheels, clean off all traces of the kit tracks, and then try again with some new links

so, this will either return in triumph with a new set of tracks or it will die a death

[Mini Me]

If you are successful and manage to get a super clean build....MAKE A MASTER MOULD AND POUR ABOUT 40 SETS FOR ME:tongue-out3:.........I'm sure Paul E could use a similar number if not more....Wonderful concept and a far cry above and beyond anything I could do with my arthritic old fingers. Greatly impressed so far Mr. T. If I know you, you wont give up on this until you have mastered the situation. Carry on Sir.
Rick H.