M3 A2 Half Track - Fly Model 1/25

[modelperry]

Tonight I built up the road wheel mounting structure and installed it. I had to add shims to the space between the tip of the mounts and the frame rails to get the bottom of the mounts level. After installing this structure I added the rear tensioning mechanism making sure it is equidistant with the drive axle and center of the road wheel structure.

Greg

[rmks2000]

Nice job on the springs. I like the detail of the circular 'reliefs/reinforcing rings?' on the main support bar.

[modelperry]

Originally Posted by rmks2000

Nice job on the springs. I like the detail of the circular 'reliefs/reinforcing rings?' on the main support bar.

The "rings" are an after effect of using my Japanese hole drill to cut the circles out. They form because of the bevel on the cutting edge of the bit. Some times they need to be burnished flat, sometimes not. These did not need burnished, therefore a little extra "detail".

😉

Greg

[modelperry]

Front tires and drive sprockets.

All the tread and tire side wall pieces were too big. The inner sidewall pieces had to be narrowed. The tread zigzag pieces had to be shortened. I'd rather have this than pieces that are too short.

The drive sprocket wrap strips were technically too short but worked out in the end. These were supposed to be doubled but I elected to paint the exposed white areas instead. If I had doubled them, they would have been more difficult to roll to shape and would definitely have been too short.

Greg

[smithdr]

Those tires look awesome, Greg. I need to learn how to make those!


Dan

[modelperry]

Tension wheels. The lack of part location information continues to be frustrating. I don't care much for guessing other people's intentions.

Greg

[smithdr]

Looks like you guessed right! Really taking shape, Greg...Dan

[modelperry]

Road wheels.

Greg

[modelperry]

The drive lines and track are installed. I'm glad this chassis is finished. For some reason the drive lines and tracks were not in numerical sequence (mid 40's and 70's part numbers respectively). I didn't think it would be wise to work on these two things later in the build so got them out of the way now.

Rear assemblies were not much in alignment with each other so had to use a bit of brute force and super glue for further alignment.

Also, I definitely do appreciate longer track sections than needed. Much easier to shorten tracks vs lengthening them.

Greg

[Texman]

Fine looking chassis Greg. I too appreciate longer rather than shorter track runs.
Unless I'm running track, hated long runs!