RichO

Really nice cloth effect there! Great start.

That's some really nice work!! Nice photos.

HEY GUYS! I'm posting today to say that this WIP is still active, altho I haven't worked on the project for few weeks now. I'm repainting the house, outside and inside, and packing to move about 40 miles away. I'll be back when we get resettled, with a new man cave and project room. Thanks everyone for watching this project, I'll be back soon.

Thanks you guys for the great comments!! Hey Altogether, The progress on the tires is going fine. I have sanded down the treads to look a bit worn and I have also cleared out the center hole for the wheels. I started to build the wheels and ran out of bolts. New bolts in a couple of days, so back to the rear bumper and stabilizers. In the photo below you can see how the rear of the frog looks. This close up photo is rather sublime in it's simplicity, but much detail here. This photo shows a bit better the amount of detail to add. The first parts... I was checking for center of balance to the frame, and something is not quite right, but what? It was about here that I looked at the reference photos above, and looked at the build, and realized that the patterns I had did not represent the entire width of the bumper... You can see in the photo below that I have attempted to add the extra length to the ends of the bumper, to more closely match the photos. The addition of the extra bits looked like the pieces were welded onto the bumper, really cool. However I just could not get thing square and true. So the new full length piece at the bottom... The start of the stabilizer pads... This is the start of the stabilizer arms... The location of the Stabilizers looks much better here (like in the reference photos) than where the original patterns had shown to place these. The Stabilizers were to be mounted to the inside of the bumper instead of at the corners. The fit looks fine so far... The extension legs will be trimmed more like the photo above. right now the frame is still up on the sawhorses (thanks again Richard) and these are extended for now... I like the way this looks...it's starting to get a feel of bulk to the build... I'll be back with more tires and wheels when I get the new supplies. So for now, on with more of the frame stuff. Thanks for looking........

Hey All, It's been a wacky month of families, holidays, food and booze. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope everyone had a good time of it, but it's time to get back to work. I left off with starting to tread my tires. With all the distractions of the holidays I managed to turn a weeks worth of work into a month long job. Once I got the treads applied to the blank, I painted everything to get it all waterproof. Then it was off to building the mold box. Once I got the mold made and ready for casting, it was time to pour the tires... Eight new tires ready for finishing... That's it Martin, not to hard, just very slow and messy... I'll be back soon with cleaning these and mounting to the frame, along with hubs and wheels...

Hey Martin, have I got a story for you..... Hey Guys, You can see in the last photo, of the above post. I have constructed the tire with my new "doughnut" technique. All's well so far. In the photo below you can see how I have sanded a flat spot (to make a weighted tire), I next put on a flat piece to cover this hole. I'm going to cast this tire "blank" You can see how the "doughnuts" are arranged to get the tire shape... This is all sealed up and ready for casting... It was at this point were everything went sideways. I had finished the prep work for the mold. I built the Lego container to pour the rubber into, I sealed up the container to the bottom so no rubber would leak out, and got ready to cast the tire blank. I glued the tire to the bottom of the mold and now I'm ready to pour the rubber. Because things are wet, I had a few minutes to get some coffee and do some chores while the glue dried. Obviously I didn't do chores for long enough. I got back and proceeded to mix half of my rubber stash. Everything looks good, so I poured the rubber into the mold. Perfect! I set the mold aside to cure, and off I went to do other things. I came back a few hours later and entered the "twilight zone". Some of the rubber had leaked out of the bottom, not to bad tho. Just enough to spill outside my container and down the front of the desk. The tire blank had come unglued from the container bottom and had floated, like a balloon ,to the top of the pour, so half the tire was sticking out above the rubber surface. And everything was coated in a thick coat of rubber NOT drying, all over everything. $15. American for the rubber waste. I was using older rubber mix and the "hardener" didn't work so well. The cast took about four days to harden, and still had a fair amount of goo when I removed the tire. In all it took about a week to deal with the tire mess. I lost my mojo, the holidays are here. No building for weeks. A couple of days ago the mojo switch was turned on again and thing are going forward. I cleaned my tire blank and rebuilt the mold and cast my tire blank for the treads. Once I got it all sanded, (I left some ridges on the tire blank after sanding) it was time to apply the treads... You can see here that I have added layers of card to get the tire to bulge. I sanded these smooth on the cast... I was surprised at this photo. the tire bulge looks much better in person... First treads... Only a million more to go... Now that I have everything going again, I will start building the rear bumper/stabilizers to break up the tedium of the treads. I'll be back when I get the progress going again Thanks for looking everyone!

Hey Guys, A brief report for today. I have been finishing the suspension system and starting work on the wheels and tires. My tire construction is very different than the tires I built for the Maz. This time around I have a much better control of the tire shape and the roundness of it. I'll start with what I have for the suspension. I finished up building the corner post for the top end of the shock absorber. A few parts to construct these tiny corner posts... I'll paint the bottom end of the shocks when I get ready to close this up... These items are very small and hard for me to see, but it all will blend in when I'm done... Time for some rubber... The wheel construction was a bit intense. I had quite a small space to work with ... Master Club bolts... The tires are a series of card "doughnuts", that ascend in size to get the side curve... A serious amount of cleanup here. The tire needs to be cleaned and the wheels need a back side... I'll get everything sanded, and then cut the 1.5 million treads to mount on the tire skin. I might be able to start casting these this week. Thanks for watching everyone...

You wont believe this Cees, but the only aircraft I ever thought of scratching is the giant, Gotha G-V. Watching what you are doing with your 0/400 sure has me thinking about this again. Your doing a great job on that build.

You guys are great with comments! Thanks. It's been a while cairde, since my last post. The build just dose not look the same any more. I have added items to the top side of the frame that are making things look a bit more crowded. It's been a good build week with a good plan of what I'm doing, but you know how these thing just don't last, so all's right with the world for the moment. At this time I'm sort of building all around the top side, just to add items that I need, and to get the inner details before I cover everything up. I'm at that new point in the build where I can just about build anything in any order. For this report I have added a bunch of Bracing. These parts are stiffeners to brace the top side of the frame. Same as the bottom, just mirrored... These parts below are for a Control Box and a side mount Support... This is the start of a sub frame that supports both the Hoist Crane, and the Rocket Catapult... A batch of new items for the paint shop... A close idea of where these items are to be placed... This Control Box lives at the center of the frame under the Rocket Catapult. It appears to control both the Hoist Crane and the Catapult. I can't really find a good photo of this item due to, it's so deep under everything. I'm also not sure if these are Control Cables, or Hydraulic Hoses... I just sort of used a generic looking material, knowing that this will also disappear from view... Like most items with this build, I don't have much room to place things... At the moment I have not painted the new items. I can see thing easier this way for now... Now that everyone has seen these new items, I can paint, and everything will disappear into itself... Up next is the finishing of the Suspension System, and thinking about Wheels and Tires... Thanks All..........

Gorgeous scratching going on here. Nice job!

Hey You Guys, this is what happens when I'm on my sativa meds!

Thanks Guys. Great comments! Lets get to Spending and Driving... This photo shows various materials that I was considering to use for the Exhaust Muffler. You can see that I was just going to cut off a length of something, and paint it a rust color. I looked at various photos of old mufflers and got the idea to make these from card. That way I could really abuse these well, and get some real rot going on here. I can get smaller details with using card. Painted and rusted through... I was getting ready to install the Mufflers when I ran into a slow down. The path of the Exhaust Pipes, goes out over the frame. It was time to close up the frame, and get all this into one unit. And just like that, the top of the frame is secured and installed, and everything is clean and tidy. Installing the top of the frame has made the whole thing very solid and heavy. Freshly aged.... Now that I have the top of the Frame installed, I can get to thing topside. I have to secure the Mufflers and get the Exhaust Pipes routed. I'll be back.........Thanks All

Hey All, Boy did I have fun building this steering linkage. I'm sure you can hear the sarcasm abound. Once I got the path of the linkage worked out, it was all fun and games. The frame is getting quite crowded, and I had just enough space to get the styrene rods through the maze of tight spots. I built a mock up of the route and connections to get the best idea of how things all fit together. Once I got everything sorted I built the final Steering Linkage. The first part........ You can see that the connections are very raw here. I was just after a moving joint, and to clear the path..., Front.. Back... I finally got the path worked out and got the linkage flexible enough to move... Some small parts... Starting to add the details... When I got it all sorted, it was off to the paint shop... The new parts look so nice in their new home, front... Back.... This is starting to get dirty... Now that I have the Steering Linkage built and installed, you can barely see it, It's all going to get covered up with a ton of items anyway, but I sure had a time building this. Next up is a relatively simple item. The Exhaust Mufflers and Pipes. Thanks All, for Watching..........

Hey Guys, The steering has been started. To date I have built and installed the anchor points for the steering linkage. Building these little components was not to difficult, but small and slow. The photos below are a sequence of the corner anchor points. These are different than the central anchor points, in that the corner anchors have to support a shock absorber assembly, so a few extra parts involved. This photos is starting these corners, getting the mounting plates bolted down... I'm building up the layers that I need to get these corners into shape... To get the linkage to function and steer properly, I had to drill out the center of a styrene rod, and install a brass tube to accept a metal pin for ease of movement... Ready for painting...They look terrible at this scale, but remember that these are just barely 5mm tall... Ready for install... The aft starboard corner... These are the central linkage supports... These sort of hide out down at the bottom of the frame and will support a linkage arm... Port side bow... Now that I have all the supports installed, it's time for the linkage. I'll be back.........Thanks All for looking!

Hey Everyone, The building of the Transfer Cases went smoothly, and installing them had a bit more space to work with. I had a few small parts to deal with so this all just took some time to do. This is where I started... You can see that I got busy and have applied a few items since the last photo....... more various items added..... Some sort of linkage here. I don't know what it dose, but it looks cool.... General Romi. Someone has to do it after all. We were going to name him Romeo, but we took him to the veterinarian to get modified. Now there's no Romeo happening. So it's just Romi. All painted up and ready for install... The install went fine, I had plenty of room to work with and mostly it slipped into place. Getting the u-joints to line up was fun, but not to bad. The photo above was a shocker for me. When I looked at the photo I just snapped, I saw I had installed these at the wrong end. The Transfer Cases needed to be installed at the other end! So I pried these out and reinstalled to the correct location.... You can see I pried these off just before everything set solid. Cool looking paint affect at the prior location. This top down shot shows how the Drive Lines are finally installed. I still have two more Drive Shafts to build that attach to the Transmission ends and to the Transfer Case's. I'll build those when I get to building the engine and transmission. Some details...... Now that I have the Drive Line construction finished, I can start building the Steering Linkage, again. Be back later..............

Hey Guy's, Just a quick report before I start building the Gear Box/Transfer Case's. I have the Drive Shafts installed and I'm ready to move on with rest of the Drive Line. I made a little compromise with the shafts, in that I bored out a larger tube to insert a rod so I could adjust the install length of the shafts. The rod is somewhat longer than the original. but everything works ok. I didn't get as many photos as I could have, so just these few. This is the Left Front Drive Shaft... I managed to get everything squeezed in... I'll be back with the Transfer case's next..........Thanks All

Thanks for the nice comments guys! Hey All, I left off with having to install the Drive Axles. This was not fun, but in the end (ouch) everything worked out satisfactorily. All these axles are so far to the bottom of this build, this will be last time you see these. Building the "U"-joints was a tedious process of cutting the same thing over and over. In process...... In this photo you can see that both ends are u-jointed... Fresh back from the paint shop... A close up of one of these twelve u-joints.... I knew that I had to remove a few items to get this central axle into place. I also had a few tubes that sort of volunteered to go along. Once I got the space cleared out, I still had a time getting this into place. An air bottle and brake pump later............ While I had everything striped out of the middle of the frame, some wise guys at the shop replaced my green air bottle with an orange one. I also have some paint repair work to do on the replaced lines. Everything seems to fit tho. Below is looking down at the central driver side axle............ this is the same axle on the opposite side.......... I still have twelve more u-joints to build for the drive shaft ends, with two gear boxes in the middle. I'll be back. Thanks for looking.

HEY GUYS, It's been a while since I've last posted. I thought I was going to start the Steering linkage, but not quite. Things sort of got away from me as far as the order of items installed, is concerned. When I started installing items inside the frame, I neglected to observe the tolerances for future items. When I began the looking at the steering items, I realized that I needed to install the Drive Line items before the steering items. Then, upon further observation, I had a really bad feeling. The Drive Line needed to be installed before I installed the Air Bottles and Pumps. In the photo above, you can see how the ends of the Drive Train ( the two round end caps with all the bolts, on either side) are next to the frame, outside of the Steering linkage. If I install the Steering Linkage first, I'll never get the drive components installed. In the photo above you can see how the drive shafts are installed between the frame and steering and air bottles. I should have installed the Drive Lines before anything else. So now, it's off to build the Drive Lines before the Steering Linkage. The parts..... In this photo you can see where the trans axles are located along the rail... This is where I get into real trouble. I have to get this axle into this place, between all the junk already installed. I may have to remove some items to get to the mounting location... This is where I'm at today. I have my eight axles built and ready for install. I have a dozen "U" joints to build ( the first part with the four holes in the corners) and eight drive shafts with their respective hardware. All need installing before I get to the steering. Will this madness never end? I'll be back............

I can see the roof structure through the windscreen, behind the launch equipment!

I have a ton of photos for the interior. What a bunch of launch equipment! The goal is to make my model look like all this stuff. Thanks Martin!

Thanks Doc, and Bomber, I retitled the thread for you guys!

THANKS MARTIN! Cool photos. I like the Steering linkage diagram. I'm just starting to build this, so check back.

Hey Guys, More modeling madness. I have built and installed the duel compressors for the Braking System. These little items were not so hard to build, I just had to decide how to build them. Everything worked out just fine for this part of the build. Building and installing the Brake Fluid Reservoirs .......... The next inboard item is the Steering Linkage. I'll be back soon................

Hey Martin, If you have seen my other build you will see that I rarely paint my vehicles a military color. The references that I use are of post military service vehicles. That is, they are usually scrap and junk and have been abandoned in place. The photos I am using for this build has the Frog repainted ( or seriously faded ) a turquoise color that I thought would look great as a contrasting color for the rusting. Green and rust are complimentary colors and work great together. The only clean military vehicles that I try to keep military colors, are OOB kits. I have a stash of kits, but lately I have been on a scratching binge. Thanks!

Hey Guys, I have a few photos for this report, but not as many as I should. I sort of got into a ZEN mode when I was building the Air Bottles and didn't get any photos of the build. I just woke up from a deep meditation and they were built. Just like this........ I didn't have clear photos of the bottle mounts, but a good idea of how they fit the frame... Getting things to blend in........ This a bottom side view of the bottles and lines. I used lead wire for the lines...... The next part of the build looks to be some sort of duel compressor system inside the frame. I have good references for these items, I just don't know what they are. I'll show you next time. Thanks for Looking.........