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Post Apocalypse "Road Train" kitbash.

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It’s just Steampunk moved forward thirty years or so, into the Jazz age and beyond.....there are all sorts of weird offshoots in the war gaming fraternity.
Ever played Crimson Skies, either the computer game or the hex map version by FASA?
 
Once or twice on PC, but I used to get shot down regularly by airships....didn’t help that my PC at the time was underpowered and the game didn’t run that smoothly..thought it was an interesting concept though..l.
 
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While the cat's away....

With Zoë being at the office today, and the shed being hotter than the sun, I commandeered the kitchen table. SWMBO already has the Dining Room table as her WFH space, so it was the next best thing



With the front and back doors open there was a lovely through-draft keeping me cool, so I cracked on with adding some pipes & wires to the crane. I know the flexible hoses should be thicker than the hard lines really, but had to make do with what I had (and what would stick!) ~0.5mm steel wire for the pipes, 0.4mm lead wire for the hoses and some copper stripped from a bit of old flex for the cable.



It's a fragile as a fragile thing on Delicate Island, but I've planned so that I can paint it separate from the main rig, hopefully reducing accidents!

Almost forgot to add this picture. I did some more work on the mounting for the crane too. It needs tidying up a bit and some added detail, but it's a start.

View attachment 390486
 
Don't take long to cover a table when you're scratchin' does it? :smiling:

Coming along nicely.
 
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Cheers Dave.

Yes, I kept going backwards and forwards to the shed getting more stuff, and pretty soon I'd spread far & wide :smiling5:
 
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Very cool, and a good use of all the junk you accumulate in the spares box :)
 
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Thanks all.

I'm reaching the limits of my eyesight and dexterity with this. And patience at times lol
 
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Great work Andy, you are turning into a modeller with some great skills. This scratchery is impressive, most impressed. Believe in yourself mate.
 
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Thanks all, I'm glad you like it so far.

Great work Andy, you are turning into a modeller with some great skills. This scratchery is impressive, most impressed. Believe in yourself mate.
Cheers John, very kind of you to say. Confidence is something I've always struggled with, and I get knocked back very easily, but I really appreciate everyone's encouraging comments and they spur me on :smiling3:
 
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These kinds of things are good practice for converting/scratchbuilding “real” models: you can experiment to your heart’s content to get things the way you want to build them. You get to develop techniques that will come in handy when you want to convert a model of a real subject, without fear of things going overly wrong — here, you can always just change things so your mistake looks like you intended it that way. For example, say your sawing the locomotive in two had gone crooked. No problem taking a bit more off here, while you wouldn’t want to make that mistake if you were, say, trying to make a model of a stretched car :)
 
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Ha, yes, I've certainly made a few dodgy cuts!

Because of that I'm in the habit of cutting oversize where I can, then finishing off with sanding. Hopefully I'll get more accurate with practice.
 
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I've made a start on the chassis this morning, so first job was to deconstruct the MAN



With that stripped and the chassis from the new kit built, I could start chopping them around. Trying my best to keep the cuts square!



After a bit of trimming it went together pretty well. This isn't the finished layout, the central set of axle locations got chopped out, and the rear (left) section was extended to add the towing pintle



This finally gave me a chance to try on the wheels. There isn't a huge difference between them, but the MAN ones just look a tad weedy next to the larger, more knobbly MAZ ones.

MAN


MAZ


MAN


MAZ


I think I'm settled on the bigger ones but would welcome your thoughts.

That then leads to a question about stripping paint from rubber tyres. I usually use methylated spirits for hard plastic, but not sure if it would be safe on the soft rubber. Any tips appreciated.

Thanks :cool:
 
There have been so many materials used, I wouldn't hazard a guess. Why not paint over? Test on rear of a tire to see what paint works best. Super job on the crane BTW. PaulE
 
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