Harry P. Posted November 12, 2015 Author Posted November 12, 2015 More details added. If you are the kind of builder who likes small details (like I do), this model is a must-have! There is a ton of cool detail here... it seems to never end.
Harry P. Posted November 12, 2015 Author Posted November 12, 2015 As you can see. the driver sat on his little "perch" off on the left side... the middle of the main body was where the fuel (coal and/or wood) was kept. The steering wheel is on the left, and that other wheel on the right is actually the wheel that activated the brakes on the rear wheels. You had to crank that wheel to move the brake shoes until they contacted the inner side of the wheel ( you can just barely see the right side brake shoe at center bottom of the photo)...
sjordan2 Posted November 13, 2015 Posted November 13, 2015 The paint finishes are amazing, especially the weathering on the steering and brake wheels.
Kit Basher Posted November 13, 2015 Posted November 13, 2015 I agree with Skip. I especially like the way the seat is worn from long term butt contact.
Harry P. Posted November 16, 2015 Author Posted November 16, 2015 The kit depicts a restored Garrett with all the bells and whistles, done up as a museum exhibit piece. I want to create a more "working class" tractor, so I'm deleting a lot of the bling included in the kit. For example, the roof is held up by these fancy spiraling plated brass posts, which will not do in my workhorse version... ...so I cut away the fancy swirly stuff and replaced it with plain styrene rod. The roof supports will all be painted flat black... I also used the kit pieces as templates to cut new roof crossmembers from real wood, because "nothing looks more like real wood than real wood."
Harry P. Posted November 16, 2015 Author Posted November 16, 2015 Here you can see the completed center roof support...
Harry P. Posted November 16, 2015 Author Posted November 16, 2015 Also still adding layer upon layer of detail. And more to come!
Harry P. Posted November 16, 2015 Author Posted November 16, 2015 The rust is a "work in progress." I still have to finesse it a bit...
Harry P. Posted November 17, 2015 Author Posted November 17, 2015 More roof supports modified... these are for the rear roof support...
Harry P. Posted November 17, 2015 Author Posted November 17, 2015 The finished roof supports, and more misc. details added...
Harry P. Posted November 17, 2015 Author Posted November 17, 2015 The "leather" belt is made of a thin strip of heavy white paper painted brown...
Harry P. Posted November 17, 2015 Author Posted November 17, 2015 After I painted the wheels, I mounted the tires, and then drove a drill bit tightly into the axle hole. Then I chucked the bit into a variable-speed drill... Using a fairly slow speed and very coarse sandpaper, I sanded the tires down. Here is a "before and after" comparison...
peekay Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 Top shelf model building here, a joy to watch.
Harry P. Posted November 19, 2015 Author Posted November 19, 2015 I built the roof of wooden slats (which will eventually be covered with "waterproof" canvas in a later step). First up, I cut a bunch of wooden slats to length and width. These were actually cut from the leftover wooden "sprues" from various wooden model ship kits! (Never throw anything out... you never know if some apparently useless stuff will come in handy some day)... Next, I "weathered" the wood by dunking the slats into some diluted black and brown acrylic paint, wiping them off, and popping them into the dehydrator to speed up drying. And here they are, all glued in place to form the tractor's roof...
Harry P. Posted November 19, 2015 Author Posted November 19, 2015 A few more details added... the bell (using chain supplied in the kit) and the control levers on the right side that were used to shift the tractor between forward and reverse by sliding the drive gears into different configurations... And the water hose used to fill the water tank (from a cistern, a well, or even a nearby pond or stream). The kit supplies a length of vinyl tubing for this, but the tubing is very shiny and very stiff... it would have been pretty tough to loop it around the hose rack. Instead, I used some rubber tubing I found at Hobby Lobby in the jewelry aisle. It's very soft and flexible, and has a perfectly flat finish. I assume it's meant to be used to string beads onto for making necklaces... but despite what it's "supposed" to be used for, it makes perfect 1/16 scale rubber hose. The belt is a paper strip painted to look like leather, and the brass buckle is from the kit...
Roadrunner Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 BTW... I already have a taker on those light bulbs.Darn. I would have grabbed them in a heartbeat.
Roadrunner Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 This project is so unique, and so cool. I'll be eyeballing this one, that's for sure. Good stuff.
kpnuts Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 blimy you've done a lot since I last looked in, wow, personally I think this is an amazing kit, you're reminding me of how much I enjoyed it, a word of warning do not attempt to turn it over with the wheels,it puts a lot of strain on the crank and will end up with the crank pinging off and having to find all the parts and fix thdm, only turn it over with the flywheel.
Harry P. Posted November 19, 2015 Author Posted November 19, 2015 I'm not sure I'll be trying to turn it over at all. I'm afraid that the stress on those thin piston connecting rods and assorted bits would surely cause something to break or one of those tiny glue joints to snap. I don't want to try making it "work" and then trying to fix broken pieces!
Agent G Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 Outstanding work sir, my compliments.The weathering is spot on. G
cobraman Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 Your roof is much better than the kit supplied one even if modified.
Kit Basher Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 Every detail looks fantastic. Are you gonna add some fuel for it? Does it run on coal or firewood?
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