Trumpeter 1/35 BTM-3 High Speed Trench Digger

[Dave Ward]

Construction starts, not with the first stages:

I'm leaving the engine out, you can't see it, it has no cooling system & no transfer box to power the bucket - and doesn't provide any locations for further bits, a waste of plastic............
The chassis has all the bits added, primed & basecoated ( dark patches are undried paint - all bit fitted well, no problems.

Wheels, idlers & sprockets assembled, primed & basecoated

The road wheel tyres were primed & sprayed rubber black

My usual method of rolling a piece of paper & threading the tyres over - makes it easy to handle & spray.
Had a calamity - the quick release coupling failed between hose & airbrush - it uncoupled OK, but wouldn't shut the air off & I couldn't reconnect the airbrush again. A nuisance, I had to drain the air-tank, remove the coupling from the hose & because my airbrushes have the quick release spigot fitted remove those as well, before continuing the session. Not disastrous, but very annoying - I managed to get paint all over my hands & jeans..............
Dave

[langy71]

'Shift up lads !!', I'm in for this bad boy, anybody got any Jaffa cakes ?'

A good start Dave, looking forward to seeing you work your magic with this .. :thumb2:

[Tim Marlow]

What an interesting subject. Great start as well Dave. Are you going to make a base for it in use, or are you building it in transport mode?

[scottie3158]

Dave, I will follow along with interest. I have looked at this a few times but never got round to buying it.

[Dave Ward]

What an interesting subject. Great start as well Dave. Are you going to make a base for it in use, or are you building it in transport mode?

Tim,
I'm seeing how the model goes, I don't have to make a decision about bucket wheel up, or down until near the end of assembly. One of the major problems with showing the beast in operation is the sheer size needed, not only long & wide, but deep as well..............
Dave

[geegad]

looks a class kit that camo looks class if you go for it and the start of all armour kits i hate the most wheels wheels

[Dave Ward]

looks a class kit that camo looks class if you go for it and the start of all armour kits i hate the most wheels wheels

John,
the running gear is the most tedious part of any tracked build, I like to get it done first, so you can get to the interesting bits. The individual track links are the really boring bits - I get some good music on Spotify and just go into auto mode! The camo version looks good, but I reckon it would distract you from the complexity of the beast
Dave

[Tim Marlow]

Tim,
I'm seeing how the model goes, I don't have to make a decision about bucket wheel up, or down until near the end of assembly. One of the major problems with showing the beast in operation is the sheer size needed, not only long & wide, but deep as well..............
Dave

I get that completely Dave. My 263 armoured car if finished last year would have looked great with the aerial array deployed…..trouble is it would have been far too tall for the cabinet. Looking at the video again, it struck me exactly how useless this think would be in deployment. Apart from your comments about hills and soils, the resulting trench is no good for occupying troops. It is too long and straight. Great for laying pipes and cables, but ineffective for military defence. Any artillery round dropping in the trench would simply expend its destructive force along the works until that force ran out. Usually trenches zig zag to contain explosions and minimise this effect.……still a great looking piece though :thumb2:

[adt70hk]

Good luck Dave. Looks like an interesting kit.

ATB.

Andrew

[Mickc1440]

An interesting looking vehicle Dave. Can it be built with the digging bucket deployed or just stowed? Sorry if I've already missed the answer.

[Caustik Filth]

That's a wild beast in action Dave, looks like it's picking up your mojo flow already, even with ya airflow blow out!
Keep it comin!

[Dave Ward]

Having separate tyres for the road wheels certainly speeds things up, no careful painting, or tedious masking!

Road wheels glued - Sprockets & idlers dry fitted, ready for the track links - I've desprued half of the links, ready for the dreary job of assembling the runs.
Dave

[Gern]

Having separate tyres for the road wheels certainly speeds things up, no careful painting, or tedious masking!
[ATTACH]466021[/ATTACH]
Road wheels glued - Sprockets & idlers dry fitted, ready for the track links - I've desprued half of the links, ready for the dreary job of assembling the runs.
Dave

I don't know why all kits aren't made with separate tyres. Manufacturers nowadays seem to think that breaking kits down into 47 zillion parts is the future. Adding the 20 extra parts in this kit is such a marginal difference to the total of 770.

It wouldn't surprise me to find that one day a manufacturer has done a version of this with individual links for all the chain drives!

[Dave Ward]

A couple of hours' steady work has broken the back of the track marathon - I've done both bottom runs, the links round the sprockets & idlers, a few runs for roadwheel/sprocket/idler & made a start on the top runs.


As a wind-down, I've taken all the links off the sprues. I'll finish off the top runs & prime all the tracks. Had enough for today, time to sit back & relax. Hopefully the chassis will be complete tomorrow & I can move up to the more rewarding bits....................
Dave

[Valeron]

An interesting looking beast. I'll be following this with interest.

Mike