Hello everyone!

It has been a long time since i had any time to work on any models, but i finally have some time. So, i picked up Tamiya's 8 ton halftrack with flakvierling. The photo's below show the progress ive made so far.

Wheels and tracks are ready, but unfortunately with the vinyl tracks of Tamiya, you cant see the "heavyness" of the metal tracks................the tracks dont even touch the wheels! On the background the flakvierling can be seen


Solution for the tracks found and this is the result. Now it really looks as if the tracks are very heavy and rest on the wheels.


The solution i mentioned before can be seen in this photo: some copper wire of a small electricity cable. I tried to tie it in such a way that when the rest of the construction is put on top of this chassis, the copper wire is invicible


Last photo: a front view


I'm quite happy with the results so far and can't wait to finish it.
Any feedback is always welcome!

Thanks,

Dolf

Very nice job on the tracks. How did you weather the tracks and tires? Both look very realistic.

that looks really cool !! love the way you did those weels

greetzzz
dmd

looks great...........I love the rusty beenusedplentyoftimes tracks!

nice work, looks great, good idea with the tracks

Bender

Very nice solution to the track problem. I agree with the others, your weathering of the wheels and tracks is very, very good. I would love to hear your technique for that, as I want to steal it from you as soon as possible (lol).

Mike

Thanks for all the positive feedback all!
Glad you like it !!

The weathering of the wheels and tracks involves ALOT of drybrushing.
In short, this is what i did:

The front wheels were first painted black (humbrol 33) and then drybrushed with humbrol 29.
The other wheels were first painted dark grey (humbrol 67) followed by a drybrush of Model Master 1768 (white). I then painted the rubber parts of these wheels black (humbrol 33) and finished them with an overal drybrush of humbrol 29 (earth).
The tracks were first painted humbrol 29 (earth) followed with drybrushing with the colors Model Master 1406 (exhaust) and Model Master 1780 (Steel). With those two colors applied, i then drybrushed the rubber "blocks" on top of the tracks with humbrol 33.
When that color was brushed on, i drybrushed the entire track with humbrol 29 and voila, the results can be seen in the photo's.

I didn't add any rusty colors, since it is supposed to be a vehicle that has driven through a very muddy place, so mud (humbrol 29 in this case) would cover up almost any place of the tracks and wheels.

Hope this is of some help to you all !!

GREAT WORK AND PAINT . CONGRATS
PLEASE POST MORE PHOTOS.

ROBERTO

You got my full attention on this build. I have used the wire trickl to get the rubber tracks to lay down. It works. Looking forward to seeing the completed model. Cheers!!

Great job so far. The track solution came out great. I have used that one and it works very well. Good job.
The color and weathering looks very nice.
One small comment - I might add abit more 'mud' to the front left drive wheel. It looks a bit to clean compared to the road wheels. Not a big deal though.

Very nice work.

I agree with everyone Dolf... Awsome Weathering!!! Can't wait to see the rest of the vehicle!!! Thanks for the detailed description of the weathering process!

charlie

Very nice weathering job you have gottne started there Thor. I likes!
I normally don't comment all too much on German armor but, I have had my interest piqued since the talk about the Halftrack Campaign I was looking at the Tamiya's M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage. After looking at your Halftrack with the 20mm Flakvierling, I think now it might be a go.

Please keep us updated as your work progresses.

Thor

Great work on the tracks, nice trick on making them 'heavy'.

The trick I used on my Academy Tiger to get the "heavy" look of the tracks was fishing line. Its cheap, one roll lasts forever, and its invisible. Just another suggestion. BTW Like the job on the running gear....semi-working on this kit myself (1 of 20 in progress). Keep up the good work, can't wait to see the rest. Might inspire me to dust mine off!!

Lookin good, keep us posted.

looks great so far, your colors on the suspension look outstanding. I've had luck with the newer generation of tamiya track by tacking it down with CA glue to the top of the road wheels.

It looks great so far. Keep on going like this!!!
Ciao
Fabio
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Dolf

Really good looking built so far. The Wire the tracks down trick is very good. I haven`t used it myself yet (I`m more a single tracklink builder.) But if I ever have this prob with a Tamyia kit then I`ll try it.
The weathering of the wheels and roadwheels is simply superb and if that`s the level of painting for the rest of teh vehicle then you will have an outstanding model there.

Great idea with the wire!!! I'll try it with my next!