I am interested in scratch building the birdcage for my Trumpeter Kit. I have found lots of great pictures on the web but have no dimensional data which would help to get the basic shape right. If anyone has access to the basic length and width and would be willing to share them i would be very happy and relieved.

Nick

Nick:

First off, the Trumpeter Stryker is not accurate for a slat vehicle. The Trumpeter kit is based on a pre-production vehicle which did not use slat. When the Stryker deployed to Iraq a number of details had changed. But, most people looking at the model will not know this, so it does not need to be a barrier if it is not a problem with you.



If you want to overlook this shortcoming you have a lot of work to do with such a project. The are lots of photos on the net of the Stryker with the slat armor. But it is difficult to see how all the support arms are attached and at what angle. Plus, there are parts of the slat fences that are unique so access to certain areas of the Stryker are possible, like the left side in particular. Also, the winch on the front.

But not only do you have to try and depict all these support arms and fences, but you need to first mount the large blast plate on the right side, the smaller blast plate on the left rear side, and the kidney shaped plate next to the driver's position.

Here is an example of the blast plate.




Picking the correct thickness of plastic will be key too since if you choose too thick of a stock, then the slats will appear too close together.

I too may try this project, but I first have to finish the M113 I just started.

Bob

Nick, have you seen this thread:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/96085#795378

Excellent post Charles. i hadn't even thought about the effort to glue it all up. I was at the point of making plans for making up the individual components. I will certainly take a lot from that post but i would still love data so that I know I am in the ball park. I will post here again when i have made some progress.

Cheers.

Nick

So this is the extent of my progress so far. I decided to start at the back with the slat arrangement covering the rear ramp. I ended up making a jig as Joe Szczygielski outlined in his post.

I used 0.4mm x 2mm strips for the slats and .5mm sheet for the plate and some 1.5mm square rod for the square tube. the spacing between the slats is 2mm.

Now I am stopped because all the pics I have seen show that the tube is roughly the same width as the slats wheras I am using a slightly wider slat. On top of that I made a quick side panel using the 1.5mm rod and .3mm x 1.5 mm strips. Now to me this looks a bit more accurate and to scale but is a bugger to work with as you have no margin for error with gluing and the strips are so thin they are hard to work with. Please note that i used the .4mm rod jig to make the side panel so it is not very regular.

So have a look below and tell me what you think.



If anyone has any suggestions as to what the actual dimensions of the slats and tubes are I would again be much obliged.

Nick

Boy Zed! You really do have your work cut for you. I admire your ambition mate. It's looking good. as far as I can tell. I'm no expert but the end results looks fantastic.

Good jobs on teh scratchbuilding. Just to let you all know that there are quite a number of photos of the attachment brackets, unencumbered with kit, in the AMPS Stryker Special. You can get it from AMPS through our web site.

www.amps-armor.org


Paul

Thanks. I have joined AMPS just for that reason. I can't wait to get it in my hands.

Zed

If I am not mistaken, I think I saw that trumpeter is coming out with a photo-etch slat set for its kit. Saw it on the Trumpeter web site. Scott

greatmodels.com is taking pre orders on what theyre calling a trumpeter photo etch update set for the stryker. The site states it comes with 6 frets of photo etch, and also "brass and ABS" rod. the pictures are difficult to decipher, but I am assuming this is going to be the slat armor for the stryker. time will tell. Keep your fingers crossed guys!

Gary

I know it is difficult to see, but this is not slat. Most of it is tweaking the RWS and pre-production strut guards. What looks like slat is I think tie down loops and such.

For a slat kit there will have to be way more than what is here. And there needs to be square tubing for the supports, and the LARGE blast plates that go on each side of the hull.

Bob

i am currently in the process of photographing slat being put on some strykers. i am measuring each piece as they lay it out so it is taking a bit of time.

the trumpeter kit is based off of the pre-production version as bob said and some of the units deployed with. they are currently on upgrade 15 or so, what changes the is the armor plating which has the various mounting points for the slat braces.

i will photograph the stryker as received and follow it through stripping it down and in the various phases from base model to full up slat. once i get things into order i will post them for all.

Wow! That would be great.

I have been working on the Trumpeter Striker and it is proving very frustrating trying to make it into an OIF vehicle.

Here are some of my progress pics, sorry about the quality of the pics...







This shows the modifications I had to make to the rear. I only noticed that these were required because i could not mount the tow shackles where they were supposed to go. BTW the tow shackles are way undersized but I am not considering making my own at this stage. In hindsight I would have preferred modifying the kits parts before gluing them to the lower hull or just fabricating my own. I am surprised i still have all my fingers after the amount of slicing and dicing of plastic.



This shows the profile of the corrected part



This is the other side which has not been corrected.

There is also a lip on the rear edges of the bin or whatever it is which I will add with styrene strip. Here is the photo I have been using to model the rear of my stryker.



Any constructive assistance would be much appreciated.

Nick