Belly Tank kit in styrene

[Greg Myers]

I think a generic belly tanker would be a great kit in plastic with a few options. No direct copy , no licence. 

Although this  http://resinrealm.net/Star/STAR Models/Belly_Tanker.html does look like a good alternative. 

[oldcarfan]

Sounds like something Galaxy might have thought of a few years ago. They are pretty easy to make in resin or vac-form so I guess there isn't any reason?

[Howard Cohen]

Easy to build one, get an airplane kit, a saw and some glue, any airplane kit, they all have the right shape  

[Dave Van]

R&D work was done and kit announced by the company that imported Aorshima kits and offered tires too......the name I can't recall right now....CRS.  Needless to say it never happened.

[Mark]

1 hour ago, Dave Van said:

R&D work was done and kit announced by the company that imported Aorshima kits and offered tires too......the name I can't recall right now....CRS.  Needless to say it never happened.

American Satco.  Someone did a decent vacuform one some years back...I bought one on eBay.  It may have been the last one that guy had.

[Art Anderson]

4 hours ago, Howard Cohen said:

Easy to build one, get an airplane kit, a saw and some glue, any airplane kit, they all have the right shape  

Except that the quintessential "belly tank streamliner" body shell was the long-range, aluminum "ferry tank", used to give the P-38 Lightning transatlantic range for ferrying to England during WW-II--and I know of no 1/24 scale Lockheed P-38 Lightning kit.     As for a styrene kit, too many unanswered questions, starting with "Which one should be kitted", and secondly, perhaps more important:  "Would enough modelers buy such a kit, should it be offered?"  As iconic a dry lakes/Bonneville straightliner car as belly tankers were,  in a very real way, I wonder if one would have enough following to generate the sales needed for such a kit to be profitable?  (not that I'd not buy one, for I would in a New York Minute).  

Art

[Dave Van]

4 hours ago, Mark said:

American Satco.  Someone did a decent vacuform one some years back...I bought one on eBay.  It may have been the last one that guy had.

Thanks....brain cramp....I have a sell sheet around here somewhere....

[LDO]

There is a 1/18 plastic P-38. Not a kit. It's one of the 21st Century brand planes. Lots of parts available in 1/18.

If you're willing to break out the razor saw and do a little scratchbuilding, there are some other plastic kits that could make a belly tank or streamliner. Pegasus makes a big (1/18?) injection molded V-1 "buzz bomb". The airframe resembles a drop tank. Not the P-38 tank, but that's not breaking any rules. Lindberg's "Snark" ballistic missile would make a cool jet or rocket-propelled LSR. Monogram's 1/72 scale B-52 fuselage has a cross section that is a rectangle with rounded corners, somewhat like the Goldenrod and Mickey Thompson Challenger 1 LSRs. Cut out how much you need and carve a new nose and tail. Lots of ways to get a model land speed racer if you put in a little extra work.

[Richard Bartrop]

An article from 1952 showing how to build a full size belly tanker http://www.bellytanks.com/1951/“how-to-build-a-belly-tanker”-by-tom-beatty-1952

You don't even need to cannibalize a model kit.  This very nice model of Art Arfons' Green Monster #6 got its body from a vibrator

 

[Chuck Most]

52 minutes ago, Richard Bartrop said:

An article from 1952 showing how to build a full size belly tanker http://www.bellytanks.com/1951/“how-to-build-a-belly-tanker”-by-tom-beatty-1952

You don't even need to cannibalize a model kit.  This very nice model of Art Arfons' Green Monster #6 got its body from a vibrator

 

*cough cough* Personal massager. 

But seriously, if the story of that particular model isn't the best example of the resourcefulness of modelers... then I really don't know what is. 

[fordf-100]

I would like to see a styrene belly tanker! Maybe with an as yet undone late 50's early 6o's pickup truck as s tow vehicle! That would increase the interest in the kit, although I would take one in styrene In just about any form!

[Fat Brian]

I would love a generic belly tank kit with a few different windshield arrangements and a couple engine options. I think a hopped up model T four banger, a flathead, and a modern four or straight six would make an interesting kit with tons of possibilities.

[Greg Myers]

That's what i'm talking about.

and didn't those nich V-8 60 sprint cars sell ?

[iBorg]

I fear the linked resin kit might not be available. When I bought mine, I was told the caster had passed and I bought the last two available.

 

 

[Richard Bartrop]

11 hours ago, Chuck Most said:

*cough cough* Personal massager. 

But seriously, if the story of that particular model isn't the best example of the resourcefulness of modelers... then I really don't know what is. 

If you ever wanted to take the plunge into scratchbuilding, this would be the project for it.  The mechanical components can come from pretty much any hot rod kit ever, and the body is a nice, simple shape.  If you don't have the equipment for vacforming, there's always stretch forming https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?33140-Stretch-forming-plastic-parts.

The frame may take some work, but if you've ever built one for a hot rod or dragster, you already know how to do it, and if you don't want to open it up, you don't even need a complex frame.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I was in the process of turning a plug for the 315-gallon P-38 tank body on the lathe 3+ years back, just before I moved. Haven't got back to it yet, but all the plug is lacking is the forming of the rail where the two halves bolt together, and some rivet detail.

The parts will be almost-scale-thickness fiberglass. Some of you already know about how I make them.

Anybody wanting to make his on...the tank you want is about 13 feet long and about 3 feet wide.

[alan barton]

Every time someone does a post on bellytankers I feel guilty because my vacforms have been a W.I.P. for WAYYYY too long. 

The tanker was scaled up from the dimensions quoted in the 1962(?) Hot Rod magazine article on the  360D car shown above. I also have a version with a flat bottom. Some cars seem to have done this to get the whole show a little closer to the ground.

The Vesco - Nish streamliner was commissioned by a guy in the States who bought twenty off me.  He was somehow associated with the team and provided me with a calendar that had enough photos and dimensions to work from.  Kicking myself now that I never copied the calendar before returning it to him!  Did anyone here ever buy one of these off him?

Probably the thing that put this on the backburner was doing the clear parts.  Anyone who has ever done any vacforming will know that the tiniest spec of dust on a clear vacform will look like a tennis ball in scale!  Still, I know more now than I did then - it's at least 25 years since I made these moulds, so maybe it's time to drag them out and try again.

Cheers

Alan

[LDO]

Whoa!

Alan- I had one of your Vesco-Nish streamliners years ago. It was among the items that were stolen from storage while I was deployed. If you drag out those molds, I would love to get another.

The belly tank, too.

Also- for anyone else reading, I found half of a 1/18 P-38 belly tank. If anyone is interested in having resin copies made, I could clean it up and send it to a caster. Only one half, because the other half was stretched a bit. If someone wants to cannibalize a 1/18 street rod or stocker for parts, this could be a cool conversion. 

[Snake45]

22 hours ago, Art Anderson said:

Except that the quintessential "belly tank streamliner" body shell was the long-range, aluminum "ferry tank", used to give the P-38 Lightning transatlantic range for ferrying to England during WW-II--and I know of no 1/24 scale Lockheed P-38 Lightning kit.     As for a styrene kit, too many unanswered questions, starting with "Which one should be kitted", and secondly, perhaps more important:  "Would enough modelers buy such a kit, should it be offered?"  As iconic a dry lakes/Bonneville straightliner car as belly tankers were,  in a very real way, I wonder if one would have enough following to generate the sales needed for such a kit to be profitable?  (not that I'd not buy one, for I would in a New York Minute).  

Art

You beat me to it, Art. 

[alan barton]

1 hour ago, LDO said:

Whoa!

Alan- I had one of your Vesco-Nish streamliners years ago. It was among the items that were stolen from storage while I was deployed. If you drag out those molds, I would love to get another.

The belly tank, too.

Also- for anyone else reading, I found half of a 1/18 P-38 belly tank. If anyone is interested in having resin copies made, I could clean it up and send it to a caster. Only one half, because the other half was stretched a bit. If someone wants to cannibalize a 1/18 street rod or stocker for parts, this could be a cool conversion. 

Wow, I really wasn't expecting anyone to say yes to having had my vacforms.  The guy (I must hunt for some paperwork for his name) tracked me down through a photo that Roy Sorensen ran in his old Plastic Fanatic mag.  This was all before the internet (1992 or 1993 I'm thinking) so the process using snail mail was quite drawn out but we got there.  If you look closely at my grey primered example, you'll see it has no scoops next to the headrest.  Once I sent a prototype off to the guy he pointed them out - the reflections on the photo of the real car had hidden them but I suspected they were there!  I even discussed it with several mates and we ended up deciding they were an illusion!  Turns out they weren't so I made some up from Bondo, as you can see on the moulds. That would be the version that you had.

My vacformer has been a PITA for a while and I keep promising to buy new rubber for the seals in the hope of fixing the problem.  Looks like I got a reason now.  PM me and we will talk.

And Bill, the biggest problem with the flange around the edge of the tank is that they are so very thin that most people's efforts to reproduce them turn out way too  clunky. Not that I have done much fibreglassing, but if I were to tackle it I would simply lay one half of your tank on a greased flat surface and lay the glass over it, spilling out on the flat surface.  When that cured I would just trim it by sanding and filing to the appropriate shape.

Cheers

Alan

[Ace-Garageguy]

12 minutes ago, alan barton said:

And Bill, the biggest problem with the flange around the edge of the tank is that they are so very thin that most people's efforts to reproduce them turn out way too  clunky. Not that I have done much fibreglassing, but if I were to tackle it I would simply lay one half of your tank on a greased flat surface and lay the glass over it, spilling out on the flat surface.  When that cured I would just trim it by sanding and filing to the appropriate shape.

That's close to the way I'd do it.

I can make parts that are perfectly strong enough for models that are only .020" thick, and a flange like that, so close to the main body, I should be able to hold to .010".

[magicmustang]

This is on Ebay, right now. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Belly-Tanker-1-25-Resin-Body-Fremont-Racing-Specialties/323068531863?hash=item4b38629497:g:qQYAAOSwcUFZm4CU

[Ace-Garageguy]

28 minutes ago, magicmustang said:

This is on Ebay, right now. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Belly-Tanker-1-25-Resin-Body-Fremont-Racing-Specialties/323068531863?hash=item4b38629497:g:qQYAAOSwcUFZm4CU

That one's got some warp problems, and the flange is faired into the edge...

not like a real one...   

 

Edited February 13, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[Art Anderson]

19 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I was in the process of turning a plug for the 315-gallon P-38 tank body on the lathe 3+ years back, just before I moved. Haven't got back to it yet, but all the plug is lacking is the forming of the rail where the two halves bolt together, and some rivet detail.

The parts will be almost-scale-thickness fiberglass. Some of you already know about how I make them.

Anybody wanting to make his on...the tank you want is about 13 feet long and about 3 feet wide.

I know I've seen at least one 300-gallon ferry tank that was not completely round in cross section as well:  The upper part of it was nearly a perfect circle in cross-section, while the bottom half tended to be wider toward the bottom, with a somwhat "squashed" contour,  "flattened out" to a much wider oval shape, rather than round.  I spent over an hour with Google Image Search, couldn't find any pics of that variant--but I seem to recall that it was one of the various design "ferry tanks" used on P-38's for transatlantic flights from Newfoundland to the UK during WW-II.

Art

[Casey]

On 2/11/2018 at 7:58 PM, Mark said:

American Satco.  Someone did a decent vacuform one some years back...I bought one on eBay.  It may have been the last one that guy had.

There is a vacuum formed 1/8 scale belly tank  listed in eBay now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bonneville-P-38-Belly-Tank-1-8-Scale/224373739014?hash=item343db78e06:g:GfAAAOSwLrNgPPdH