Sd.Kfz. 7 half-track, post-war

[Guest]

Coming on nicely Jakko despite your problems. Hope you're able to sort it out ok.

Oh, I will — it’s just that I’m getting mildly frustrated by having to stop and think some more about what I thought I had figured out and just needed to do. But this is par for the course for models I build

Who would have thought that what seemed like a relatively straightforward bit of alteration would throw up so many issues. I'm sure you'll sort it.

To be honest: I’m building a semi-wreck, so it’s bound to be slightly complicated However, trying to find out how the supports for the load bed should be, I decided to look at the instructions for the Trumpeter kit of this vehicle, and I discovered I would have been better off buying that one instead. It has the correct load bed supports, narrower spare wheel carrier, bolts on the underside that are missing on Dragon’s kit, and more … The only thing Dragon appears to have going for it, is tracks that are easier to clean up and assemble. But I’ll stick with what I have, I guess.

I've not seen such a useful vice for modelling before.

I came across it at a model show a decade ago or so, and it looked so useful that I bought it there and then. I’ve never regretted it. It may or may not be obvious in the photo, but it clamps onto the workbench: there is a screw handle underneath so it can be tightened to almost any thickness of work surface. The handle you can see sticking out is the lock for the position: release that and you can tilt the upper part as needed.

[Guest]

We’re getting somewhere now … I glued the front suspension arms in their maximum upward position, against the chassis, and removed the rear suspension arms I had glued on a few days ago, then sawed off their side mounting plates much as before. Next, I added the front two roadwheels on each side again and lined everything up, which proved impossible because the left front wheel (the normal wheel) kept coming off the ground by about a millimetre. In the end I decided this was because the front axle is not on quite straight, so I bent it and its spring down on the left until all six wheels (two front and four road) were touching the ground:

[ATTACH]443066[/ATTACH]

You may notice I replaced the cardboard by a piece of hardboard, because it is more even in thickness. With the wheels lined up, I touched liquid cement to the joint between the axle piece and the suspension arm, then let it set for a while. Next, I added the rear arms again, but now deflected downward, and repeated the procedure:

[ATTACH]443067[/ATTACH]

I’ll add the middle ones only when the glue had dried, to avoid disturbing these. Hopefully, I can just stick them on and line them up using a ruler, but I’m not expecting it to be that easy

[Jim R]

Good job Jakko. It looks to have worked well. Maybe fit the other wheels using the same set up, same bit of hardboard.
Jim

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
That has worked out well.

[Guest]

Maybe fit the other wheels using the same set up, same bit of hardboard.

That’s what I ended up doing, and it worked perfectly.

That has worked out well.

More easily than expected, really. When I couldn’t get the left front wheel on the ground I was scratching my head quite a bit. Walked away, came back later and decided it needed some force applied rather than cleverness

[MAK2020]

'' So, when I came across this picture while doing research for my book that was published last year ...''

Which book?

[Guest]

Which book?

This one



More information here.

Back to this model: here is the chassis with all the axles on it, plus some more details:

[ATTACH]443234[/ATTACH][ATTACH]443235[/ATTACH]

After aligning all the axles, and letting the glue dry, I added the leaf springs. Those at the back are easy enough: they would need to bow out more so they will reach the rear suspension arms, but because this will be hidden behind the wheels, I didn’t bother trying to fit them like that. The ones at the front needed to be bent flatter, because of the way the suspension arms compress them. This was tricky, because the thick parts are hard to bend; I managed with my fingers plus pliers to bend them far enough that they fit as they (more or less) should.

About ten minutes after glueing them on, I noticed that the axles were no longer in line Worse on the left than on the right, but when I put the wheels on, the whole vehicle rocked on one wheel in the centre pair on each side …

What happened was, of course, that the springs had bent back slightly, pushing the middle arm down (the front one was glued down at more points, and for about 24 hours longer). I had a fun time trying to bend the spring back up, and the arm under it, without breaking anything. It succeeded in the end, but I hope I won’t have to do that again …

By the way, the reason some of the axles are shorter, is because for the middle row of wheels, some wheels don’t seem to want to go onto the axles all the way. Easier to cut about a millimetre and a half off their axles, than to try and drill them out so they fit as they should.

[Jim R]

... decided it needed some force applied rather than cleverness.

Ah right up your street then :smiling: :rolling:

Only joking. Glad it's done.
Jim

[The Smythe Meister]

Only caught this on my phone a short while ago Jakko!
Gotta say,one of my favourite vehicles,a great "real life scenario" to capture with some cracking information freely given....
I'M HOOKED!!
Superb looking progress so far,(not to mention excellent,clear photos), obviously,I'll be checking in all the way from here on in
Great stuff!!
Andy

[Guest]

Ah right up your street then :smiling: :rolling:

Yeah, brute force is what I’m best at, that’s why I build plastic models

Gotta say,one of my favourite vehicles,a great "real life scenario" to capture with some cracking information freely given....
I'M HOOKED!!

Great you like it

[Guest]

Because the left-hand mudguard over the track was bent on the real thing, I decided to replace it with brass. That was mostly a matter of measuring up the kit part and cutting a brass rectangle to match, cutting two notches to facilitate bending, then bending the outside edge down and adding the two bends to get it into shape.

The kit includes two sets of mudguards, one for the armoured cab and one for the soft-top. Here are both, plus my brass version:

[ATTACH]443292[/ATTACH]

I then cut the actual mudguard bit off the one for the armoured cab, so I could superglue the brass one in its place:

[ATTACH]443293[/ATTACH]

I chose to cut up the one for the armoured cab, so I can still compare to the original for details like the ribs on it that still need to be added. I annealed the brass first, though, to hopefully make it bend more easily later, which is why it’s changed colour.

Next, I glued the two mudguards to the floor and out everything in place on the chassis so I could align everything correctly:

[ATTACH]443294[/ATTACH]

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Good idea to use brass. Replicating damage in plastic is hard to do convincingly. Some use heat but I reckon that's a real risk.
Maybe a daft question but why brass and not something softer like pewter?
Jim

[JR]

Bit late sorry, most impressive work .You have a flair for copying the real thing and its great to follow .

[Guest]

Replicating damage in plastic is hard to do convincingly. Some use heat but I reckon that's a real risk.

That’s what I was thinking, too. Even though I had a spare to practice on, I didn’t want to risk ruining the whole thing. It’s hard enough to replicate damage like this from a photo as it is, I prefer to do it in material I can bend back, at least to a degree, in order to make corrections. No chance of that if you heat the plastic part.

Maybe a daft question but why brass and not something softer like pewter?

Availability? I have some sheets of brass in a few thicknesses but no pewter. After I was almost done I remembered I also have aluminium sheet of about the same thickness, but by then I had the brass in shape so I didn’t feel like starting again.

Bit late sorry, most impressive work .You have a flair for copying the real thing and its great to follow .

Thanks I like building models of real photos, even though it’s always a bit of a struggle, the end result is usually very satisfying.

[Guest]

Here’s the basic structure of the cab:

[ATTACH]443485[/ATTACH][ATTACH]443486[/ATTACH]

I removed the seat cushions, as those were clearly nicked from the vehicle (see the pictures of the real thing) but had to guess what it looked like without them. As a result, I put in some plastic card for the rear wall, where I had cut away the back cushions, and replaced the part with the seats by some plastic card.

The cab sides are plastic card with some strip glued on for the bent-over edge, because Dragon only provides one type when there were three in the real world, and my subject had the rounded one rather than either of the two with a cut-off corner.

I also bent the mudguard with my fingers and pliers into a reasonable approximation of its damaged shape on the real vehicle.

It still needs a lot more detail, much of which Dragon simply omitted or got wrong.