SimonT - 1/76th Airfix Sdkfz.7 Halftrack

[Steve Jones]

Tim - Found it and ordered it. Many thanks:thumb2:

[SimonT]

Cheers Rick

Tim/Steve - as you have found I am indeed using Slaters micro rod

The new stuff is not as brittle as it used to be. Somewhere around 10-15yrs ago there was a wholesale change in the hardness of plastic card, rod etc - maybe some chemical was banned or similar - so all the current products are much softer than they used to be. Micro rod used to be ram rod straight but now it turns up banana shaped.

My stocks of original plastic card sheet, rod and strip have dwindled so I now have a mixture of old and new

I made the arch edges from 10thou plastic rod

[Guest]

Suberb work Simon, your stocks of materials must be massive , as for the stash I hate to think how many you have squirreled away ! .any idea ??
John

[papa 695]

Nice work Simon

[SimonT]

Morning John,
I do have a good selection of card, rod, strip, tube etc - essential for scratch building

As for the stash - way more than any sane person should have!
30+ yrs of buying kits at a faster rate than I can build them means that I have enough to start a shop (at a guess somewhere north of 1000)
It is definitely an affliction, I just can't help myself especially when stuff is on sale

Thanks Ian

[Jim R]

Hi Simon
Despite the lurgy and lizard leg soup you are doing a grand job. As always I'm impressed not only by your scratching skills but also by your ability to research the build.
Jim

[Graeme C.]

Hi Simon, I remember this kit from my youth, looking forward to your mods & improvements. Novel use for the 'fine tuning instrument'!

[SimonT]

Thanks Jim - lurgy down to a bit of a cough now thankfully. Luckily there are a lot of good books on German subjects - Nuts and Bolts, Achtung Panzer, Panzer Tracts for example. Unfortunately no one is writing similar books on Allied subjects

Graeme - I think most of us have grown up with the good old Airfix kits. Some mods will be appearing below. The Birmingham screwdriver - very useful tool to have :smiling:

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Cab floor trimmed out so that the petrol tank will fit under the bench seat

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Petrol tank, compressed air cylinders and various bits of framework added

[Guest]

:flushed::surprised::thumb2: Impressive .

[Steve Jones]

Apart from Sherman's the research material on Allied machinery is a lot less indeed Mr T. Looks like you are writing a few pages yourself. Top work as always.

[yak face]

Top work simon , its great to see another old airfix stalwart being made, great additions , cheers tony

[scottie3158]

Simon,
As always excellent attention to detail. I will have to look into getting some of that micro rod.

[minitnkr]

The Allied-Axis series does a pretty good job on US stuff as well as German. Can't beat a ball-peen for making that stud/rivet a tad tighter or that link a leeetle bit longer. PaulE

[SimonT]

Thanks John

Cheers Steve - I have Son of Sherman and the Hunnicutt books, they are pretty good :thumb2:

Tony - thanks for looking in

Scottie - micro rod / strip have been my staple scratch building essentials since the late 80's. Worth getting but Slaters postage tends to be a bit costly these days

Paul - I may be wrong but aren't they photo books? I would like to see something like the Achtung Panzer series where they have done an in depth study of all the different marks of vehicle - scale plans, sketches of all the differences and changes etc


Back to the model, I had yesterday off work so there was a bit more progress

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made a winch, plumbed in the air cylinders

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and added an exhaust from lead wire

non of which will be very visible yet again

needs a little tidying up but I think that is the back end essentially done

[Neil Merryweather]

and added an exhaust from lead wire

non of which will be very visible yet again

made a winch, plumbed in the air cylinders

OMG! can you believe this guy?