Andy T
SMF Supporter
This all started when I ordered a new Tamiya Comet from John at the shop. Don't ask me how but I managed to add it to my basket twice so ended up with a pair of them 
Pretty soon I got the idea for a little scene so got hold of these guys too
The story goes that our brace of Comets happened upon a rickety looking wooden bridge and one of them decided to have a go at crossing, with disastrous results. So we'll have a stuck tank, a collapsed bridge, another tank trying to tow it out, and a few guys lolling around watching the fun.
I may even add another vehicle or so to spice things up if I find something suitable but I still haven't got a full plan in my head. However, after some consultation with Mr Race I have an idea of where to get started (thanks again John) and I have a couple of pictures for inspiration, so will see what develops in my head as I build the two tanks.
First job was to get cracking on the tanks. Being a very newly released Tamiya kit I expect that part to be easy peasy, but to make painting easier later on I started with an idea developed from something I once discussed with the late great Simon T. He would glue a nut or use a rivnut on the base of an AFV to take a bolt which could then be used for mounting somewhere. Taking that a step further I've put some 1/4-20 brass inserts, made for the 3d printing lot, into the base of each tank. These have the same thread as most photographic equipment so I can bolt them to my mini tripod and paint/weather from all angles
(more glue was added after these pictures)
Not much longer after that we have a good chunk of the lower hull together. At first some of the parts looked like they weren't going to fit
but it turned out the clearances were just so fine that a little "click" was needed to get everything into place and fitting perfectly. Marvellous engineering.
That's all for now but this may be a long one (by my standards) so please bear with me.
Pretty soon I got the idea for a little scene so got hold of these guys too
The story goes that our brace of Comets happened upon a rickety looking wooden bridge and one of them decided to have a go at crossing, with disastrous results. So we'll have a stuck tank, a collapsed bridge, another tank trying to tow it out, and a few guys lolling around watching the fun.
I may even add another vehicle or so to spice things up if I find something suitable but I still haven't got a full plan in my head. However, after some consultation with Mr Race I have an idea of where to get started (thanks again John) and I have a couple of pictures for inspiration, so will see what develops in my head as I build the two tanks.
First job was to get cracking on the tanks. Being a very newly released Tamiya kit I expect that part to be easy peasy, but to make painting easier later on I started with an idea developed from something I once discussed with the late great Simon T. He would glue a nut or use a rivnut on the base of an AFV to take a bolt which could then be used for mounting somewhere. Taking that a step further I've put some 1/4-20 brass inserts, made for the 3d printing lot, into the base of each tank. These have the same thread as most photographic equipment so I can bolt them to my mini tripod and paint/weather from all angles
(more glue was added after these pictures)
Not much longer after that we have a good chunk of the lower hull together. At first some of the parts looked like they weren't going to fit
but it turned out the clearances were just so fine that a little "click" was needed to get everything into place and fitting perfectly. Marvellous engineering.That's all for now but this may be a long one (by my standards) so please bear with me.
I don't know how others approach link & length tracks, but since I took pictures I might as well share how I do them.
