Chariots of Fire

Nice building on a 1/32 scale kit! I see you changed the differentials a bit. Any reason for that? Perhaps I missed it.

When Ibuilt the IH Loadstar master I made door handles from brass and put them in place. When Dave Natale cast the cab he was able to cast it with the door handles and with the center open. Great casting work by him. The first casting that Dave sent me as I received it is below.

Hey, Paul. Can I make a suggestion? Instead of thickly printed hinges try some small plastic tubing such as made by Contrail Model Aircraft. English made but they come in 5 sizes from 0.020 to 0.080. You could add a tab of thin strip stock to the edge as support. Obviously each one would have to be cut to the proper length but it would reduce the look if your hinges are going to be outside like you show. I used the smallest one on the tailgate of the M-20 above. Brass rod fits nicely inside with no slop. And since it is plastic it glues up nicely.

Work has started on building the trailer for the M-20 Prime Mover. First thing up is to do all of the tires and wheels that are needed. 24 in all. 8 in the front steering section and 16 under the rear of the trailer. I'm using 1/32 scale metal castings for the wheel masters and a set of Goodyear rubber kit tires for the tire master. They work out to be about right for 8:25 x 15 tires that were used on the M-9. IN the background is a mold for the wheels and with the rubber tire masters set up on a pair of the cast wheels that came from the rear mold. In the foreground is the tire mold with the cured resin tire castings still to be removed. All 24 tires and 12 wheels have been cast. The wheels are sufficient to mount two tires on. The backs won't be seen at all once they are mounted on the axles. The wheel centers need to be drilled out for brass bushings. That will come a little later once I have figured out how each axle is going to be made. The frame has been started. The Tankograd photo publication has some specs with it for the overall length and width of the trailer. The towbar is an additional 6 scale feet above and beyond the full trailer length of 290 scale inches. There is an additional scale 40" in length to be added to the front of the trailer side beams. All of the work so far has been done with 0.030" Evergreen sheet plastic and 0.030" and 0.020" Evergreen strip stock. A look at the side view with the wheel placement. The front 8 tires will pivot with a separate plate that the axles are mounted on. It is a box type detail that fits under what is shown beyond the side frame. Here's the bottom side. Still incomplete but well on its way. The two open sections are where the spare tires will be stored. Additional longitudinal bracing has to be added as well. All of this work is held together with CA glue. It was very flimsy to start with but it got stronger with every added piece of plastic stock. The two driving surface plates on top really made a difference. The two raised sections on the left are the stops which keep a tank or other piece of equipment from rolling off the front of the trailer. There will be plenty more to come before this build is finished.

I like the small "H" hinges from Micro-Mark. They are only 4.5 mm x 6mm overall and the hinge part that you see is only about 3.5 mm. Pretty close for 1/25 scale. They come with the center pin and a bunch of mounting pins as well.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to make a door hinge using brass and plastic sheet stock. You may really have to search for tubing and wire to fit inside but it's out there. In case you are wondering about the bond between the brass and plastic, it holds pretty well. Just make sure the brass is clean by sanding it lightly to give it some "tooth". Lay the CA fully along the joint and then wipe off the excess. Do this to both sides. As noted below the tubing will be slightly higher than the sheet stock on one side since both the tube and sheet are laid flat together. This is good because the wire insert in the tubing needs to be slightly outside the body panel for this to work. Note: The wedges you make will be really small. I drill the hole out first in the sheet brass and then cut the wedge out using my Dremel with a cutting disc. You want them small so that when everything is done it looks like the door actually swings on the hinge and not on the wedges. I used this technique to make the hinges for the cabinet doors on the M-20 Prime Mover. Here's a look at the doors in the open position. In the first photo the wedge on the right front is visible. In this case I was able to notch the plastic below it and set the wedge in place that way. The next photo shows the doors closed. Wedges are nearly invisible. And on the left side door you can make out the brass tube that is glued to the cover. The wedges sit just outside the end of the tube so that the door is always in the right location. There is no moving of the door (or cover in this case) from side to side. Hope all this helps. Would love to hear if anyone tries it and how it works out. Check in with me if you have any questions.

Piano hinges small enough to look right are not available any more. Too bad. I have made good hinges out of small brass tubing using CA to glue them to the edge of the door panel. Clean the brass well first. Lay down the panel on a flat surface, lay the brass tubing beside it and spread a thin layer of CA along the joint. Then after that is dry turn the panel over and do the same again, wiping away the excess CA. I'll put together a how to for doing this and post it.

Interesting that the frame rails are photoetched brass. I've made them from strip brass and channel sections before but never PE. How were the cross members attached?

I was at a show last weekend and helped judge a category that was a club challenge table. All the same in terms of pickup trucks. But some had all kinds of 3D printed gardening and landscape tools with them. We had to completely ignore all of that stuff including the "grass" bases and just concentrate on the truck builds themselves. The only way to do it right.

I'm with Steve on this one as well. But I do on occasion use a round flat plate that I have glued green (any color will do) felt to and which rotates on a simple ball bearing base. One can turn the plate and see all sides of the model without touching it. The model sits on the felt and the edge of the plate is slightly raised so that the model does not fall off.

Excellent build, Warren! Many thanks for posting. Good size load for that old Brockway!☺️

Hey, Gary. Isn't all the searching around supposed to be part of the fun??? When you find just the right information and can apply it to the project and get what you want out of it, that's the fun part too! So keep 'er goin'!! ?

This project has come together surprisingly fast and well. The Tankograd photo booklet has been a great help with some of the little details. But all in all the assembly has been easy. Some minor tweaking here and there but nothing that is not doable. I still have all of the control levers to go and have to make some decals; three for the gage cluster and then some numbers and stars. The blade and LeTourneau hoist will be a scratch building project all in inself and will come a little later. Plastic tubing was substituted for the 3D printed exhaust stack. The latter was too thick. Also the hold in the top cover was in the wrong place so I had to make a small shelf on top of the manifold for the stack. I also added some levers for the pony motor clutch, throttle and engaging the diesel flywheel. Testors OD has been used for the overall paint scheme along with Tamiya rubber black for the seats and Krylon red-brown primer for the tracks. They need a bit more silvery shine before they are done. Brass wire was also added for various lines on the engine. Still a ways to go before calling it done.

Incredible work. Did I say outstanding!!! Knowing your stuff and then translating it into a model like this is a real example of talent and a special gift. Thanks for bringing us along on this ride.

Made some progress on the D-7. All of the parts have been separated from the "sprues". It was easier than I thought but you have to look for all of the little connection points and make sure that they are sanded smooth. They are everywhere but in most cases not where they will be seen on the finished model. Since I am doing this as a load for the M-20 Prime Mover the color is military OD. Testors OD is a very nice paint and goes on smooth. I used Tamiya TS-1 red brown for the tracks. The tracks were then weathered with Tamiya weathering powders of gunmetal and silver. Similar coloring was done the sprockets and edges of the sideframes although they will have to be made more prominently bare metal. The dozer blade was first done with OD and then oversprayed with Duplicolor chrome. The seats were done with Tamiya rubber black. Some minor adjustments have been made in how things fit. I found that some mating surfaces were slightly curved and needed to be sanded flush. Instead of using the kit pins to connect the track sections I used 0.080 evergreen rod. Just the right size and could be snipped off similar to the cast ones. The above two shots are just a dry fit to see how things go together. Note the little pin marks on the seat back. The slot is a guide for where the upper seat cushion goes. The pin marks were sanded smooth but they are all but hidden by the seat back. Tracks went together easily but there is only one way for them to go. Took a couple of tries to figure that out. BTW there are no instructions with the kit. Some of the parts as painted. There are lots of parts still to go to finish the engine before it can be set in place. When that is done the seat and control platform can be set in place. It will take some adjustment, and I will have to find out what parts need to be shaved down a bit in order for the control platform to sit flat. Something is a bit high underneath it. The kit includes a hydraulic setup for the blade. But most of the WW II D-7's had a LeTourneau hoist and power drum located either in front or at the rear of the frame. The tabs shown on the push frame of the blade need to be cut off and a new hoisting sheave scratch built to take their place. Then there is the frame to build. This has turned out to be a fun build and a slight diversion from all scratch building. The various pieces are beautifully printed.

It came from 1/25 Scale Collectibles. Printed in Romania. Not a cheap kit at all. After the conversion from pounds to dollars about $180.

I've started painting some of the parts. They've been washed with detergent and warm water and allowed to air dry. This is going to be a WW II dozer with a cable hoisted blade. I started with Testors olive drab. The parts take the paint very well and there have been no fisheyes or orange peel at all. Very smooth.

Are you sure that won't start up on its own? Wonderful detail work!!

I'm familiar with apparatus so I thought that might be the case but was not sure. Thanks for verifying!

Scott: How is the wrecker hooked to the back of the engine? It looks like everything is above the rear step.

It is, Steve. There are photos of the build in progress in the WIP section.

And here's a look at just some of the parts that came in 5 boxes; two shoebox size and 3 smaller boxes. The Cat 4 cylinder diesel engine has been removed from the buildup lattice as well as the pony motor next to it. Great detailing in each piece.

Got two things going now. One is to finish the Cat D-8 with the new track setup. And the second is to build a D-7 from the 1940's from a Scale Collectibles 3D printed kit. Here are some pics of each. This is the AMT D-8. I painted the track and side rails with brown primer and then highlighted the tracks using a Tamiya weathering kit that has silver and gunmetal. Also some Doc O-Brian's weathering powders to simulate some light brown sand. I added some wire connectors to the fuel injectors. The exhaust is a section of aluminum tubing with a brass cover on the top that can be opened. Still a ways to go. The D-7 is a much smaller piece of equipment as proven by the comparison of the size and length of the tracks. Track plates are nearly identical but the number of links is less and the curvature is less. The tracks in the foreground of the next photo came from the 3D printed kit. They come in 4 sections, two end pieces, a flat section for the bottom and a top section that droops a bit. I added the temporary pins to hold them together. And here is what the kit looks like. It has some amazing stuff in it and a more amazing amount of latticework that is used to print the parts out by 3D. What you are looking at below is the dozer blade and the frame that attaches to the side rails and the center of the blade. There is also a radiator included in this printing. The tracks were similarly printed before the latticework was removed. Here's a look at the assembled kit. Very well done and very smooth. No visible layerng of any of the parts which I will post shortly.

Give it a whirl,Paul! Let's see what you come up with.

It's not wrong to suggest a 10 wheeler but the question to ask (IMHO!!) is what is its function. Most rigs of this type are built to service a certain thing. Some are built to service over the road big rigs. Others are built to service contractors who have trucks or other vehicles that do a specific thing and the service vehicle has to be built to support them. Most service vehicles I have seen are 6 wheelers and have a good variety of equipment for a particular mission. What to do? Ask what the mission will be, set some standards, and then build to fulfill the mission. ?