The new color plus the lite oil weathering is very impressive, seriously!

Thanks Mike!

Am currently working on TL.37 chassy detailing.
Some pictures showing progress this weekend follow
Winch with rear leaf spring:


Test fit on chassy, with driveshaft from gearbox:

Rope leading device:

Outstanding!

Good to see someone else making leaf spring packs!

Hi Angel,

Nice to see you taking a shot at reworking the chassis a bit - I think I'd be tempted to try it too - there's lots of interesting and complicated mechanics tied up in there. Really nice work

Cheers
Nick

Very nice work Angel. The gun finish is excellent and the springs.

Mike,Nick,Peter-thanks for your nice words gentlemen!

I found an "uso e manutenzione" manual and it helped improve both my(non- existing)Italian and my understanding how this beauty worked.
My detailing will be limited because some parts(engine bay for example) are cast as solid resin, but I hope one day some plastic kit company will offer the TL.37 in 1/35th scale.
On a side note-I wish it would be Bronco.
I can imagine the myriads of tiny bits they'll dissect the tractor into

Some progress:


Next will be break drums detailing

Cool work on the steering linkages Angel. The castings don't appear that crisp here - the tread on the tyres for example. I see you have used some filler there.

FYI - the correct spelling is 'Brake Drums'.

English is a terribly confusing language, and I take my hat off to people that learn it as a second language, let alone to write it. So many words that are pronounced the same, but spelled differently. Then there is English-English and American-English.... tyre - tire, colour - color

It is enough to make a Bulgarian cry in his Kamenitza....

Thanks, mate!
The wheels come separated from the casting blocks, so the tread is missing on all four of them.Will imitate it with styrene, once I get there.
Of course it is brake, not break drum...
English is a good challenge, but I'm happy to have you all around to correct me when I head in the wrong direction.
With regard to beers-I preffer Shumensko over Kamenitza, although Kamenitza comes from my hometown(Plovdiv)

Hi Angel -

That steering linkage looks great! The rear bracket is really nice. The crossing pattern reminds me of the brakes seen on old railroadcars - looking good. The front drive axle is intereting too - looks like there's a separate drive shaft (like those on a PTO) to each wheel? I guessed that looking at your pics of the unrestored trucks. If so - wow! Those trucks sure had a lot of moving parts and things happening under the body. The mechanics of the era must have been nervous watching these trucks going into rough country terrain - I can easily imagine those parts getting hung up or torn off on rocks etc -

Looking forward to the next update -
Nick

Thanks Nick!
The TL.37 did have separate drive shafts for each wheel, another drive shaft connecting the engine to the gearbox and yet another drive shaft from the PTO at the back of the gearbox to the winch:


So you are right- a lot of rotating parts underneath that body

But I think those parts had good protection- the minimum clearance measured to the rims of the brake drums was more than 35 cm/13,7 inches.The drive shafts were almost level with the frame.

Angel do those represent solid rubber tires? (tyres) or were they pneumatic (air filled)?

Never really understood the reason/idea behind using four driveshafts instead of two but the Italians loved it. The concept does avoid the bulky front and rear differentials getting hung up on everything. It puts all the differential equipment close to the transfer case at the point of highest ground clearance of the vehicle - dead center. Also it makes it much simpler to work the two smaller front driveshafts around the engine oil pan.

Even more odd was that Porsche employed four driveshafts in the design of the big Skoda RSO Ost but still these shafts went fore and aft in pairs into large gearboxes and then half-shafts running out to the wheels. What's the advantage of that?



I have always wondered; perhaps there was some sort of combined posi-traction (limited slip) arrangement built into that large center transfer case???? Something of that nature would require separate drivelines to each wheel.

Mike,
the TL.37 had 2 tire(tyre) options:
-semipneumatic(Pirelli Celerflex)- this was the version Bulgarian Army used.
-pneumatic(Pirelli Artiglio).

It looks like Italian constructors loved this 4 driveshaft scheme.
I've seen similar centraly located gearbox on the Heavy Tractor(Trattrice Pesante) Breda 32 and I guess it was built to similar concept.

Will find out soon-we had it in our Army's inventory, so it is on my to-buy list.

All of those long driveshafts! That's a LOT of torque being thrown around! I wonder how the transfer cases held up over time? Mike - your question about lockers or some sort of positraction makes the question even tougher. Seems binding that system might not have been all that uncommon (likely hard to steer and tough on all those shafts and U-joints), unless the gearbox had torque differential capability too...? Wow - again - that's a lots of toque...going through a complicated array of gears, U joints, and shafts!

HMMWVs (and other vehicles) have gear reduction hubs, which are broadly similar to the concept shown (ring gear at the wheel), except, the gearing is in a tight housing close to, but not directly attached to the individual wheel (a short shaft goes from reduction gear to the wheel hub) - and wheel pairs are served by a single differential - so torque can be split left/right wheels, front/rear axles via the transfer case. A reason for using the gear reduction hubs is that you can raise the centerline of the axle shaft above the wheel centerline prodviding increased ground clearance - but I don't know if there is a significant gear reduction..

Ok - enough fun driveline speculation and chat by me!

Good stuff!

Cheers
Nick

My very old VW bus ('67 I think) had that sort of wheel mounted gear reduction to the rear wheels. Not for the purpose of raising ground clearance but to give the heavier bus a greater power advantage while keeping all other engine components identical to the bug.

Hi gents -

I finished the off-road racer - as this context is a bit odd, I appreciate your indulgence for letting me share the build....in that context I'll share some pics from a very sunny yesterday. I'll keep this short and sweet -

First, a picture of the actual truck, in action:



You can see above, all of the wheel travel and horsepower get put to good use!

And below, my attempt - using the chassis etc from a few pages earlier in this blog, but now with a body:










I like it - - now that it's all said and done - interesting project - reasonably close with the paint and body - I include
the pic below as another reference:


the last pic

You can see, above, that I wasn't exaggerating the stance of the truck too much...remember 500+ HP, and 24"-30" vertical travel on the suspension!

thanks for looking -

Nick

Hi friends, here it's my last scratch project - an Deutz tractor with a trolley for Arado AR 196 A3 at 1/32 scale.
Hope you will like it:







And after paint and weathering the final result:










Cheers guys

Very well done Nick. You captured the essence of the real thing very nicely.

Chavdar. Excellent work there. Love the woodgrain finish on the trolley and the well used look of the tractor.

2 very different builds, but both fantastic results. Congratulations to you both.

I can only second what Peter wrote.

Outstanding job,Nick!

And your Deutz tractor is simply splendid, Chavdar!I take my hat off!

Beautiful tractor but I want to see the float plane that goes with it!

(I'm in an aircraft state of mind!)

Thanks guys really appreciate it
Hope you will like AR-196 A-3 also, but will post pics at the other section for planes
Cheers

Your tractor and trailer look great! Nice project all around

Cheers
Nick

Here is a small conversion I did over the last two weekends:
ZIL-131 wih ZU-23-2 from 61st "Stryamska" Mechanized Brigade/Karlovo,Bulgaria:


I've used ICM's ZIL-131 and ZU-23-2 from Meng's Soviet Light AA Gun set, along with some cutting,trimming and scratchbuilding.
Modelled vehicle(Shabla AA Range, 2017):


Some in-progress pictures:





Gun truck ready:

I thought I was looking at someones work room/shop!!!!!
OMG Very nice !!!!!!!
TonyPots