I am interested in taking the plunge into doing some simple detailing myself. I saw some great picts of these racks and thought I might be able to handle that. I was going to use plastic card. Here are my Questions, what would be the best guage for the cross members and the width in mm, the right guage for the angle irons in the frame and are there any documents on the dimensions of said racks. I know I could just get that incredible brass kit that rebuild the entire model but I have neither the patients, skill or funds for that LOL. Thanks for all the help

Hang on, chief, it's not an all or nothing deal--Eduard has a relatively cheap photoetch set that includes the racks, so you don't have to hock the family jewels to get the humongous Lion Roar set. If you prefer to scratchbuild it in styrene, you'll have to compromise between accuracy and strength. For absolute scale accuracy, you should probably use .005" styrene, but that would not be stiff enough to hold its shape (and it tends to turn into goo if you try to cement it). Styrene strip in .010" will do (hard to distinguish from the thinner stock with the naked eye), and .015" or .020" can add stiffness in areas where the edges don't show. Styrene angle stock tends to come in just one thickness due to molding constraints, about .020", so you'd probably have to file out the inner faces with a square file. Don't have the dimensions in front of me, but the Hunnicutt Halftrack book should have them (it may be available in your local library).

Absolutely - go for the Eduard set. It really is going to save you a LOT of grief with dimensions etc.

Or you could pick up this lovely little set for the vast fortune of $6.29 from my favorite provider from the far east, with free air mail shipping.

Thanks Guys I thought the practice would do me some good but I havve changed my mind, I need the practice with the brass also. Thanks for the info.