Rob Lively updates and fixes the ancient Tamiya US halftrack.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Nice article with some innovated ideas.

The article is nice, but I miss 1 thing.....

Photo's of the completed model

With such a project it's nice to see the whole thing finished!

Martin

Thanks a lot for posting this. Are there any photos of this one completed? Would love to see them.

Rob,
Very cool project. Can't wait to see the final product...

I really like the scratch built details for the engine.

Show us some more of your work.

Tim

Nice article but it seems to focus on only a few things is there a part 2 in the works.. :>

Very good article and wonderful looking work! Like the others I would love to see the model completed! It must be very, very good!
Cheers and happy modelling!
Prato

Rob mentions in the article that he build the halftrack for the 'move it' campaign... I would imagine that a pic of the finished vehicle can be found in either the campaign gallery or his own gallery..

Good looking scratch build, and some nice use of everyday and some not so everyday items..

Cheers
Henk

Very innovative use of materials and an interesting article. More pictures would definitely be appreciated

Ciao everyone,
Thanks for the nod for the article. Thanks to Vinnie for posted it and doing the best he could with my pitiful attempts at photography.

Delbert - there will be no part 2. I was just trying to give an idea of what we, as modelers, can do with ordinary things to make our models better. I'm not anti-resin or anti-aftermarket, I just can't afford it.

Again, thank you and here is a picture. At least this one was taken with my new digital camera.



Ciao for now
Rob

Rob -

Nice job - really enjoy seeing some good old fashioned scratchbuilding ! !

As you mentioned you like to use inexpensive materials, I was wondering if you have ever tried soda-can (aka beer-can) aluminum. It cuts with scissors, Xactos or single edge razor blades, can be scored and snapped like styrene, and folds up just like the sheet metal it is. If you lightly sand it (wet or dry, wet) before gluing (use ACC of course) it bonds super strong. To flatten it, roll it on a workpad with an old piston pin (mine is small block Chevrolet, I think). Any smooth metal rod will do though (like the big Xacto handle).

The trick to bending it is to hold down one half of the bend with a ruler or other flat object, and then slip a single edge razor blade or other thin flat object under the other half, and lift it to make the bend, sort of an improvised 'sheet metal brake' You see this technique illustrated on instructions for some of the photo etch sheets. One downside - you get one sharp 90 degree bend in any single location on a piece before the material will start to stress crack - fortunately it is free, and the scrap part can be used as a pattern for the next attempt. If the bend has a radius to it, the mateial is MUCH more foregiving.

Other sources of thin sheet aluminum are good too, but the alloy and effects of the manufacturing process on the soda-can aluminum makes it harder and tougher than most aluminum sheet, which is often dead soft.

Konrad

Ciao Konrad,
Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it.
I have heard that people use aluminum cans, wine bottle foil, etc., and I have used most of them at least once. But, I still stand behind my muffler tape. I just love the stuff. I do like it because it is soft to work with. I carefully fold it, and then smash or bend it once it is glued on.
Again, thanks for the compliment.
Ciao for now
Rob