Trakz soft cab construction

[mikek92888]

I designed the interior window frames to be used if you show the windows stowed. If you mount your windows in the up position you can delete the interior frames. I used some overhead projector transparency film (pre PowerPoint® era) for the windows. I used the frame to cut out some masks from frisket and placed these on the film. I then superglued the frames to the film, the frisket masks protected the film from excess glue.

[mikek92888]

This is the frame with the windows attached

[mikek92888]

I used some old Evergreen rod for the grills and noticed after I had installed them how inconsistent the size and roundness were. If I did it again I would use some Plastistrut rod or better yet brass rod. It is important to make sure the frame and cab surfaces are flat to get a good fit. I use a sanding block made out of 3/8” glass for sanding flat surfaces. Note the styrene rods for hinges. I used a dial caliper to cut the hinge lines but you can use styrene strip as a gauge block.

[mikek92888]

The roll cage is probably the trickiest part of the kit. The two rear roll cage supports have cleats on them that face inward. The side supports are “tube notched” at the top. I also drilled holes and glued brass rod into the joints to strengthen them.

[mikek92888]

I’m still experimenting with the size of the picture and “bicubic resampling”. Looking at my previous posts I also forgot to mention that I designed the master pattern for Trakz.
The roll cage Top is molded flat but it actually has a slight bend where it meets the front window frame. I cut small slits where the frame bends and then glued the roll cage to the window frame. After the glue dried I gently pulled the rear of the roll cage down to meet the rear of the cab and held it there until the glue set.

[mikek92888]

This is a Adobe Acrobat .pdf file for patterns for the canvas covers. I'll post some pic's later of the covers I made out of pewter sheet

[mikek92888]

As I said in my last post I used pewter sheet for the canvas top and back since I havn't mastered molding Milliput into origami like shapes. I glued the paper patterns to the pewter sheet using rubber cement then cut them out using an X-acto knife. The stitching was done using a pounch wheel. In the old Squadron Signal book " Armor in Korea" there is a pic of a Dragon Wagon with home-made side sliding windows instead of the canvas sides normally seen. I wanted to do this to my model so I used sheet styrene to represent the plywood sides ( I assumed this is what they used)

[mikek92888]

Here is another pic

[James Tainton]

Nice to see someone else posting their work- one thing though is the pictures (for me) are way too small to see anything- 700 pixels I find is a good width. ;)

[mikek92888]

Yea, I'm still trying to find the right size that dosn't exceed the 100k limit

[James Tainton]

That's better but...?

No photo hosting storage ?
Try Kit pic up above from Gordo ;)

[mikek92888]

There were some fit issues with the cab to the frame that I didn’t catch and wished I had checked before I put the roll cage on to the cab. Luckily I didn’t break anything. It was primarily in the lower front of each wheel well arch. A little cleaning up of the resin part as well as the fender edge made the cab fit much better.

[mikek92888]

I made cotter pins from some copper winding wire from I got from some old electronic component. I cut some styrene rod on my lathe into plugs. After gluing them onto the kit, I cut a groove into it so the cotter pin would fit, then gluing another plug over the previous to cover the pin.

[mikek92888]

Tiny holes were drilled into the ends of Tamiya parts S7 to receive hitch pins made from the same copper wire. Here is the start of one of the hitch pins. When the glue is dried I’ll finish bending the wire around. Also note the welds added to the “A-arm”

[mikek92888]

These are the light guards, small brass rod was threaded thru the holes and soldered

[mikek92888]

The ends were then cut off and filed smooth

[mikek92888]

One note on the previous pic, the bottom tabs on the light guard should be bent inward, not out like on mine. A question came up on the Missing Lynx web site about the photoetch "hooks". These are to mount the machine gun jump seat to the rear wall of the cab. The tabs are folded in and the seat is glued to the tabs, it works better if you glue the seat in the folded down position, and then the "hooks" straddle the center roll cage support and rest on the top edge of the rear wall. I'm in the Air Force Reserves and am going to be in Germany for a couple of weeks so unfortunally I can't post any pic's of this yet.

[mikek92888]

In this picture you can see the jumpseat attached to the rear wall of the cab between the two tool boxes.

[mikek92888]

The ammo box is glued to the right side of the cab, the top is flush with the cab side wall so the top back of the ammo box will need to be filed with a notch so it fits over the stiffing rib. The side seat backs gets glued in the same position as the armored cab.

[mikek92888]

here is the rear of the cab.

[mikek92888]

The aft seats were cut apart between the upper and lower portion. The backs were filled with Milliputt and Evergreen channels (.080" for the top and .100" for the lower) were added to the rear of the seatback.

[mikek92888]

I could not stand the look of the old grill so I took my own advise and tore it out and replaced it with .010" brass rod. These were resistance soldered in place.

[mikek92888]

I replaced the kit winch control shield with one made of brass. The supports are made of brass strip with each end twisted 90 degrees.

[mikek92888]

Front of the shield

[mikek92888]

Aber makes a great set of photoetch chains. I used these for all the various pins. The ends of the kit pins were drilled out and tiny "C" clips were made out of fine wire and inserted.

[mikek92888]

The kit fire extinguisher was dress up a bit with a more accurate clamping system made from styrene bits. On the M26A1 in was moved from the inside of the cab to the rear outside on the drivers side by the welding tanks

[mikek92888]

The Air Force has kept me pretty busy, but I have finally managed to start painting the Dragon Wagon before I go flying again. I always liked the post war safety markings on the bumper and sides of the cab. At least one of these vehicles made it to Korea, (see Squadron Signal " Armor in Korea") it probably came from occupation duty in Japan. It took far longer to mask the strips off that to spray it. I tried using thin masking tape but I think it was too old and wouldn't stick so I resorted to using Scotch tape cut into thin strips.

[mikek92888]

I used Tamiya yellow for the strips

[stahl33]

Wowwww,any progress on this beast?
KH