Well it doesn’t look like a big deal, but it took quite a while to get the bogeys cleaned up and assembled. I filled the seams with CA glue for the initial fill and then water soluble Perfect Plastic Putty to blend the area out. Once that was done, I used extra thin CA to soak into the putty to prevent chipping out. That received a final sanding before I hit the seam work with white primer to check for flaws. When the primer dries completely, I’ll go back in and correct any errors.

Ha! It looks like a 6 robot motorcycle club. Just offbeat some humor emerging. I will try to keep it better contained in the future.

You’re right! It’s does look like that. Once you said it, I saw it immediately and laughed.

Don’t keep your humor contained on my account, in fact, add as much as you like. There’s just not enough of it in use!

Before installing the bogey assemblies on the Grant, I wanted to knock out the idler wheel construction. Cleanup is done to remove the sprue attachment points and to remove some flash from the inner side of the parts. The retainer and hub are glued in place and then PE inner and outer rings are added during this step. This picture shows what one finished assembly and the other waiting for the PE rings.



While many modelers use photo etched parts regularly, some don’t. With that in mind, I wanted to show the process I used to cut the PE rings from the runner, trim the attachment points, remove the attachment nubs and finish the cleanup.

Here I’m using a #15 scalpel blade to cut through the attachment point using a gentle rocking motion. The rocking follows the axis of the blade and avoids any side to side pressure which could cause the blade to snap.



Once the part is removed, I trim away the outer attachment points using the same process.



Once the outside nubs are removed, switch to a #11 blade and trim away the attachment points fron the inside of the ring. The #11 tip is much more fragile and I use it only when the shape of the part I’m working on prevents using the #15 blade.



Next, I hold the part against a piece of sheet styrene to act as a brace and sand down then nubs from the outside of the ring. Sanding against the styrene prevents distortion of the PE part.



The inner nubs are eliminated by holding the part right next to a nub and using a rolled bit of 600 grit paper to sand the area smooth. Again, holding the part in this fashion allows putting enough pressure on the part to completely removed the nub without distorting it’s shape.



Here are the parts after cleanup.



And here are the idler wheels after the rings have been attached with CA glue.



I’m sure many may think this is just a common technique, but I wanted to make sure this build log caters to all levels of modeler. I hope someone finds this info useful.

I'm following this blog quite quietly.

How you cater for all levels showing the way you tackle things is brilliant. Sometimes too many of us forget.

An inspiring build too.

Keith

I'm not always a huge fan of PE - but perhaps that's because I never thought of the simple trick of supporting a piece while filing/sanding. DOH! So it really is true you learn something new everyday. So thanks for posting that. A very thoughtful touch to a very thorough blog.

Paul, thanks again for sharing. Very informative and useful, please keep it up

Thanks for sharing that tech on cleaning the ID of the PE rings.

Thanks for the feedback! You never know how much info to include in these posts. Good to know someone found it useful.

Well, it’s time to get the Grant’s running gear onto the lower hull. This will be the bogey installation mostly, since the drive sprockets and the idler wheels will be added closer to the time I install the tracks and sand shields.

The first step I took was to layer sheet styrene underneath the hull to get the right height for the block of Delrin I machined to the correct height. The measurement is right when the bogey sits against the correct place on the hull and allows all of the bogey wheels to touch the surface of the desktop. There is absolutely nothing special about milling the block to the right height. It’s not needed, but because all of my sheet styrene scraps were irregular, it was a cleaner way for me to do the job. The same function can be done with just the sheet styrene pieces.



The Delrin block is placed under the hull across the braces that run between the middle and aft bogey assemblies to get a level hull. The middle bogey was set in place to verify the correct fit and the both middle bogeys were cemented in place.



The same was done to the aft bogey assemblies...



Then the front bogeys were put in place.

Once the six bogeys were all installed, the upper reinforcement brackets were added. Each one was test fit and glued in place. The seams where they attach to the top of the bogeys will be worked when they are completely dry.





Everything is set aside to dry and work is proceeding on the cleanup of the sprocket assemblies. There are a few more minor fittings that will be installed and I will be moving on to assembling the tracks!

Hope this info helpful to someone. It’s certainly not the only way to tackle this step, but it’s how I elected to do it.

Ahh, the tracks... 632 individual pieces; 1264 sprue attachment points to clean up. This is gonna take a while. This post is to let people know that I haven’t forgotten to post, just that I’m working the assembly line in sessions that allow me to maintain my sanity!

After cleaning up one sprue of each track part, I decided to try assembling a few links to see what was in store. Here are the parts needed to complete one link.





I figured out very quickly that I needed a jig to hold the parts in position to allow assembly. Here are some pics of the jig I put together from sheet styrene.







I chose to make mine small so that it was easy to spin around to different angles versus a larger one that would be more difficult to maneuver. I’m sure either style would work. The first lip off the base sheet is made form .020” styrene sheet. The other two levels are .015” styrene strip cut from a sheet. These sizes gave me enough flexibility to allow movement to seat the inside track piece without binding.

Paul, the jig is a great idea, a true time & sanity saver!
Thanks for the tip(s) and bringing us along on your journey!
Happy New Year too!

I recently bought this kit and have been following along with your build progress.
Just wanted to say it's looking great and thanks for posting.
It has been very informative.

Regards,
Paddy.

I appreciate the positive comments. I’ll definitely be doing the tracks for a while. As I said, there 632 parts in the tracks and it takes about 60 seconds to clean up each part, so I’m looking at roughly 10 1/2 hours not including assembly or painting...

Woohoo!

Yes, looking forward to your update next month.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but when I counted the parts on the first track sprue and realized I’d been cleaning for almost an hour, I had to do the math.

Man, I’m sure hoping your joke doesn’t come true...

Track detail looks good but you will have to be *very* careful with the cement I would think. Let us know how it goes!

I use Tamiya Extra Thin Cement for almost all of my construction. Once I saw they design of these track parts, I placed an order for for some of the thicker Tamiya Cement. Hopefully, this should allow me time to place some cement into the recess in the outside part and get get a good bond without interfering with the movable portions of the track link. One way or another, I will let folks know what I came up with.

The cleanup of the Grant’s track pieces continues. I’d estimate that I’m about 2/3 of they way through the cleanup process. It doesn’t look like it, but these piles amount to 400 pieces and over 6 hours worth of work...



The parts are removed from the sprue using nippers and I intentionally leave a nub versus using flush cut nippers to eliminate variables in the cleanup.



I the use a chisel type blade to shave off the nub flush with the sides of the parts.





The area is sanded with a fine (320 grit) sanding stick and then a extra fine (600 grit) sanding stick to restore a smooth surface.




In between sessions of link cleaning, I gave the lower portion of the hull a base coat of lightened Tamiya Buff and painted the road wheels Vallejo Black Grey in preparation for the track and sand skirt installations.





I’ll add some washes and pigments before I install those items but this paint has to cure before I start the process.

Very nice! How did you get the demarcation line between the rubber and the metal part of the road wheel s clean and sharp?

The wheels are hand painted. I use Vallejo Black Grey thinned with water until it’s about the same consistency as the water and use the side of the tip of a No. 0 paintbrush to apply the paint at the joint of the rim and tire. Capillary action keeps the paint in the “V” and I turn the wheel slowly until I make it all of the way around. Once that translucent layer is dry enough to touch I do the same thing until the color is opaque. Thinned Vallejo is used to cover the rest of the tire and then recoated as needed. Any places you slip up on can be cleaned using a soft paintbrush and some Vallejo Airbrush thinner to remove the mistake. That one of the reasons I Tamiya as a base coat; it hold up pretty well to the Vallejo thinner. Enamels or lacquers would do just as well.

If I get a chance and it’s needed, I can take some pics of the process, but it’s super simple.

It’s absolutely boring to read and even more boring to do, but I’ve completed cleanup of the track link pieces. This doesn’t look like it, but this consumed almost all of my modeling time for two weeks.

Thats a lot of carpet monster kibble in the bottom pile Paul... Well hopefully not

I did drop a few pieces, but thankfully there were no major carpet monster feeding frenzies. Luckily, I recovered what hit the floor without any real expeditions.

This is where the single-edged nippers like the God Hand SPN 120 or the DSPIAE ST-A really show their worth. Not just for their flush cut ability, but because when cut, the parts fall straight down into a receptacle versus flying off at various angles.

Many question whether they can be worth the money, but to me they absolutely are.