You've got the patience of a saint Mike!
Considering what you started with it's looking amazing...we should give some kind of reward for perseverence.
I'm looking forward to seeing this finished....

Jesper, Paul, Iain,

I appreciate the comments....and support. It is a dog, but it's been "interesting," and I expect that will continue.

I've let the wire rigging cure for several hours and gave a couple a "cursory tug" to see it they'll hold. So far, so good. Pulling them taut and gluing them at the top wing is the next step (I'll see how these four go before I add other four). I intend to wrap the loose end of each wire around a dowel and use that to pull 'em tight (I'll have to apply a bit of pressure to get the wire straight [I so wish I had some rigging line right now!]). Once tight(er), I'll secure the dowel and let it set for a bit to give it some "stretch," then glue it. My fingers are crossed that this will work (not done anything like this before, so.......). (worse case, I'll bebop on down to my neighbor and see if he has some fishing line )

Mike

Hey Mike

Glad to see that you managed to recover from your bad instructions moment. It really is taking shape now. Happily you have not sent it for a test flight across your workshop yet!

By the sounds of it you might have been close to it! Give this guy some Red Bull.

As the advert says " Red Bull gives you Wings" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Would you trust a tank with wings

Nige

Mike,

This build is an inspiration to us all. I tip my hat to your perservance and patience (and humor). I look forward to seeing this completed.

You should give some thought to making this a feature article.

Marty

Hey all!

Well, the wire for rigging was not going to work out - I couldn't get it "tight" enough. So, after carefully pulling it out, I replaced it with 10-pound fishing line.

I've got four lines in right now of which two are glued at both ends (with the little clamps pulling it tight):

And, I have the return rollers on the hull:

More in a while!

Mike

Main wing rigging is done. Now I need to add the boom-to-wing rigging...just need to find out exactly where and how it goes:

Mike

I am so glad you built that kit and not me. Now I can see it was a good choice of mine to sit back and let somebody else do the dirty work.

You have done a very good job building it with next to now good reference.

Good progress, Mike. Impressive that you are still attacking this kit although it is fighting you all the way.

Looking forward to see more

It's kind of find it funny that this particular build has gotten so much in the way of "Better you than me!" than any other build I've checked out. Heck, I haven't even gotten to the tracks yet!!

Anyhow, yeah....it's a pain, but I've had lot's of "firsts" on this one so it's a helluva "learner" for me. Other than the boom rigging, about all that's left are the tracks. I'm sure I'll mess with some other things (detailing??) between now and when it's finalized. I'm even thinking of doing my first dio in, oh, 25 years?!!

Thanks all for the "real" words of encouragement...they are appreciated more than you know.

Mike

Well, there's really not a lot of "photo evidence" out there about this thing, so....I'm doing the boom rigging with a (potential) bit of "artistic license." I've drilled two holes at the tail, right below the tail wings and two holes just behind where the boom supports attach to the lower wing. The fishing line is CA'd at the front now and I'll thread the lines either above or below (not sure yet) the boom support.

Jeez, once that's done, I have no more excuses not to work on the tracks.

Mike

Photos--- we want Photos!

The rigging is done. I chose to have the boom rigging go under the boom support:

Next up is to do some final prep on the wing assembly to get it ready for the Russian Green. Then.....ugh, the tracks.

Mike

Well you sure make something nice out of it

About the tracks: not sure what type of tank it is, but can't you get some AM tracks or perhaps tracks from a decent 1/72 kit? I can imagine an already existing tank or at least tank chassis was used for this experiment, and in that case there may be good tracks available as well!

Just a thought..

Martin

Btw: we still have a 105-project to get started

Martin, it's a T-60...I've searched around and can't find anyone that makes a 1/72nd scale T-60 let alone any AM stuff for one.

If someone knows of a similar vehicle in 1/72, let me know...maybe I can snatch those track sets.

Okay, I'm kind of tossing this about: I'm wondering tho, inaccurate I'm sure, but what if I were to use a set of tracks from a smaller German 1/72 tank? I have a StuG and JagdPanzer IV by Dragon....Hat and Hasegawa and UM Models make some inexpensive kits....ModelKrak does a T-26 (rather costly just for the tracks) and Planet Models has a T-40 (again, kind of costly). Thoughts? I'm willing to spend a few bucks on this versus messing with the resin "puddles" I have. I'll look tonight to see how the shape/design of the Dragon tracks compare to the T-60's...if they're close, I may go that route and "muddy" them up for the potential dio.




Yep, going to have to "replace" the 105 kit....get another one.

Mike

About the tracks....

Etched T-70 tracks are the closest I have found so far

http://tracks-n-troops.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14_4&products_id=3728

You could check the site, maybe they have T-60 as well. Search function didn't really help me out but I believe you can find more by hand on this site...Maybe this helps?

Martin

Martin,

You da man!! I had no idea there was AM stuff (in that kind of quantity) for kits smaller than 1/48th. Awesome!

Okay, my thoughts on using tracks from a German tank wouldn't work anyhow; the T-60 has single road wheels with the guide teeth on the outsides....the German tanks that I have have dual road wheel set ups with the guide teeth between.

Anyhow, below are two pictures - one of a T-60 (which is the basis of the A-40) and one of a T-70 (both pictures retrieved from Wikipedia).

While the road wheels, drive sprockets, idlers and returns look alike, the T-60 as four sets of roadies and the -70 has five. The -70 is heavier by a bit more than 3 tons and only a tad longer and wider and a bit taller than the -60.

Well...take a look:

T-60


T-70


By my eyes, the tracks used on both vehicles are the same - one may or may not have more links than the other. I did go so far as counting the links (as best I could) across the top run and between the first road wheel and drive sprocket...+ or - one, they've got the same number. WooHoo! Therefore, one of these two sets should work:

PART tracks for a T-70M


OKB GRIGOROV tracks for a T-70


I sure would like to know how all that stuff on the PART set goes together. Jeeeez! The OKBs look pretty simple.

Edit: I've looked closely at the PART fret and from what I can gather, #1 are the track runs, #2 are the additional links for fit and to go around the idler and drive, and #3 (OMG) are the guide teeth. Looking at the OKBs, it appears the track run on the right has the guide teeth on the left glued on after the actual "teeth" are folded up. Considerably more detail on the PART set, but man, trying to attach all those teeth? 180 teeny, tiny pieces. I am very much inclined to go with the OKBs!

Watcha think?

Mike

Ordered the OKB's....we shall see!

Mike

Put on the first coat of Model Master Russian Green to the wings...not too bad. There's a couple of things to touch up, but paint on the wings and probably the T-60 will be done by this weekend (least I hope).

The OKB tracks will probably arrive in about two weeks...so, time will be close! Eh, time to finalize paint and put the lightening holes in the drive sprockets (based on picture above).

Mike

A "taste" of the paint:

I will probably use the MM Russian Green out-of-the-bottle for the wings to "replicate" something "new." The tank's initial coat is the same, but will "tone the color down" with some buff and weathering to show an older tank with the new-fangled wings.

Mike

Well hell,

I thought I was done with the wing system's paint...then I had a revalation...look at the instructions! Low and behold, I forgot all about the wings' undersides....Sky Blue!

So, here's my initial paint. The underside of the lower wing is good, as is the underside of the lower tail wing. In essence, not happy. It calls for light blue on all of the wing undersides. Because everything's put together, all I can do is shoot all of the undersides and follow up with the Russian Green via paint brush. I'm finding (again) that the MM acrylics are crap for large coverages by brush.

Mike

Next round of the Sky Blue paint:

Barring any "misses," next up on this one while I await the PE tracks is repainting some of the Green and taking care of the rubber road wheels.

Mike

I haven't totally been sittin' on my butt since messin' up my arm.....not "totally..."

So, I've got the wing's undersides painted sky blue and a great majority of it touched up. Just shot future on the areas the Russian stars will go. I'm going to give it some time to dry and then it's "decal time!"

I'm still waiting on the PE tracks. If that order doesn't go from "processing" to "shipped" real soon, I'll cancel it and deal with the resin. I can't say as I'm very ecstatic about that company. We'll see....



Mike

First the good news: The PE tracks are enroute!

Second, the other good news: The decals are on!



Mike

Mike, that looks damn good, and you sir are braver than I to build something that small. I wouldnt even be able to see the tracks none the less put them together

Thanks Mark! Well, the tracks aren't here yet, but I'm pretty optimistic about them…they look a lot easier than the PART tracks! I will say though, this “Braille-scale” stuff is, uh, small. After this one, go figure; I’ve got three more 1/72nd scale tanks to do! (what was I thinking?)

Stay tuned!

Mike