Caterpillar D7 Armoured Bulldozer

[whulsey]

Just saw a book over the weekend on the Israeli D9's. Was a bit pricey at 50 bucks so didn't pick it up, since had just spend the fun money after finding mint kits of the 1/25 Cat D7 and the John Deere 310.

I'd like to see one of the Holt from WW1.

[kentyler]

I've designed some tanks before, and I have some research materials already

I'll need some beta builders who are interested in maybe trying some new ways to build with paper.

I'll probably draw it in 1/25, as that's the traditional "tank" scale for paper.

[Kazziga]

At 1/25 it's going to be about 7.44 inches long. A bit too big for me, unfortunately.
Still, it's great to hear that you are willing to design one. I'll buy it and reduce it to 1/48 or 1/72.

[jaffro]

1:25 is right up my alley, I'd be happy to build a beta for you.

[whulsey]

Just realized that the plastic kit I picked up is a Cat D8H roughly a 72-74 model, not a D7. And got another one today off the same vendor. After years of looking for them and not being willing to pay the 100 dollars plus that people were asking, great to grab a couple at 30 bucks each. Just saw one on e-bay go for 180 with shipping. Its good to be patient.
So now will really look forward to a D7 in paper as a companion piece. So hopefully kentyler will come up with something good for jaffro to work his magic on.

[Miles Linnabery]

Dear List folks:
I like it ugly but cute at the same time, There is a SeeBee Park in North Tonawanda NY with a Cat in Yellow with no armor will have to stop and look closer and see age and D series. I like the Idea of 1/25 scale one can always print to a smaller scale, 1/35 or 1/32 to match a military minature that I painted many years ago.
Thanks for the Info leads,
MILES

[kentyler]

I found what looks like a good reference in the tankograd series, and bought the dyer plans. I've got a couple of military cat reference books, and access to some real D7's over in the central valley... so we should be good to go.

One of the interesting things with paper models is how they change in relationship to scale, also in relationship to detail as the scale goes up or down.

So I will experiment with a less detailed version that could work at 1/72 say, and a more detailed one for larger scales.

if 1/25 is really about 7 inches then i might go up to 1/12 for myself, as this will have lots of really lovely and exposed detail.

One other issue is that I don't color my models... so anybody interested in doing a repaint is more than welcome to the party... cats also really lend themselves to weathering and you often see them covered in dirt or mud... so this will be fun.

I'm going to start with the tracks, I think. Cat tracks are pretty straightforward. So first problem is to build a jig to assemble the tracks on.

[Kazziga]

kentyler, you're the man! I can test build the small 1/72 armored version, if you are interested (It may sound ridiculous, but I hope it won't be ready until October-November, as I am up to the elbows in translation work at the moment).

[charleswlkr54]

That 3d warehouse site has a lot of neat stuff on it

[kentyler]

? what's the url