Rex Ross

I think this would make a great diorama for somebody to build if they lived in a state where they had rugged mountains, and rough country, and snow ........ like Colorado. He could make a neat video about how he did it.


http://tankandafvnews.com/2015/03/24...us-light-tank/

rex

Pah co chu puk

OK! You build the models Rex, and I will find a place where we can set them up. You can stay at your daughters house and I then can meet her and see if she thinks I'm handsome. Most likely she will run me off with a pistol.

Cool article though, I bet those guys were cold.

Max-U52

That T3E4 would make one heck of a scratchbuild. I wonder if you could use early Sherman parts for most of the running gear? With a healthy dose of scratchbuilt suspension, of course. Mainly just tracks and roadwheels from the Sherman?

Pah co chu puk

Rex could do it! He could do it from just the spare parts boxes he can reach easily. And it will only take him a few days... or ten years!

Tanque

Whaddya mean he likely has already made them. He probably took those pix in his backyard with a large photo for the backdrop and it's amazing what you can do with a sno cone maker...

Jerry

Pah co chu puk

I suspected as much... He did the heavy rust effect to cover the glue blobs he did not want to clean up. Saved him time on the rivets too. Very clever.

Rex Ross

You are right. The rusty and corroded condition of the metal is a definite plus factor to me. Are we talking both tanks, or just the easy one .

Pah co chu puk

ALWAYS start a new project with the EASY one. We can work up to the difficult part later.

scottlarson925

My Feedback: (2)

Cool article, reeeally coool, too bad the author has no sense of direction, geographically speaking. Really..."up" in the Antarctic?

I seriously wouldn't mind having one of the rusty drive sprockets off that thing...planted right in my front yard!

Max-U52

A few days to build it, ten years to paint it, right Rex?

Rex Ross

It think it would be nice if those tanks could be salvaged and set up in a life size diorama in a museum. Maybe not --- they are probably better off where they are. I think Jacques Littlefield probably could have restored those hulks. The flat pads on that narrow track doesn't look like it would be good for running around in snow and rock to me, and the road wheels don't have rubber on the rims. I wonder how useful they really were.
rex

Rex Ross

"EASY" ? ----- "WE" ?

All of you guys are giving me food for thought .... I appreciate the encouragement to take a shot at this project and have to admit that I am considering it. This started out as an attempt to be funny but it just might get serious.

I got into scratch building because I wanted a tank that wasn't being produced as an RTR or as a kit. I wanted to be the only guy in the world who had one. The problem is that I soon found out that everything I have done had been built already by someone, somewhere. The only exceptions are the "AFVs that never existed" that I have done out of spare parts, but that's cheating, so those don't count. Building this project has got to be the ultimate answer to my search for a project that will be one of a kind, on this earth or anywhere else in the universe.

There is another weird thing that has me wondering if I need to get counseling, therapy or medication of some sort. Those tanks arrived in Antartica in 1939. I arrived on planet Earth in1939.

Coincidence? I don't think so ....... LOL ....... but that is a connection that causes a form of bonding.
rex

Pah co chu puk

I never intended this to get... serious.

Seriously, you are an amazing model builder, you could pull this project off.

I can ship you some rocks and snow if it will help.

Rex Ross

~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks, but I have rocks. Send the snow to the ski resorts in Tahoe. This is a really interesting challenge, and I shall overcome...... failure is not an option ...... death before dishonor, etc., etc.
My spare parts boxes have yielded some possible parts for this project. Some may work with a little modification, but I think some "square one" scratch building is in order. I can make a styrene master for the suspension mold and cast resin copies. The road wheels will be cast resin copies of Mato Sherman road wheels that I can modify to match the road wheels on the M2A2 and the T3E4 tractor. I have some resin track strips that can be modified so that they will be an exact copy of the track on the real critters. Things are looking good so far. I think I will continue further in my investigation of how this thing will have to be accurately built. Much to my surprise there are a lot of photos and info about both of those tanks on the internet.

If anybody knows where I can get a 1/16 model of a radial aircraft engine, let me know and you will be my new BFF.

Here's my starting point, I will try to do a build thread as things progress .

rex

Max-U52

It's really hard to tell what engine that is. Looks like single bank, and it would be what? Mid 1930s? Too new for a sopwith camel engine and bigger. This is 1/16 scale, but not right. 1/16 scale biplane models would probably be the place to find one, but cost will not be nice to you.

scottlarson925

My Feedback: (2)

I believe it was a Continental R-670.

Forgot to mention that your picture is of a Gnome rotary engine, if I'm not mistaken...and I could be! (The whole engine and propeller spin on it's crankshaft, hence the term rotary and not radial.)

Oh, and to add further confusion, a Gnome rotary engine is technically a radial engine but the difference is a radial engine has it's cylinders mounted radially around it's crankshaft/crankcase and spins the prop via the rotating crankshaft,
whereas the rotary engine spins on it's crankshaft with the prop mounted essentially to the crankcase and the crankshaft is mounted to the bulkhead. Just some more useless info to know and tell...

And to add even further confusion, rotary engines, as we know them today courtesy of Wankel and Mazda, share nothing in common with a Gnome rotary. These engines use an eccentric rotor rather then a piston to convert internal pressure
to rotational force...sorry, I digress; time to shut up now.

Max-U52

Just a scratchbuilt engine would be a project in itself! You could do it, though. First the case and then cast multiple jugs and heads.

scottlarson925

My Feedback: (2)

I think you can buy dummy engines through RC aircraft suppliers like Horizon Hobbies and such but where's the fun in that, right?

That just gave me an awesome Idea, why not build an M3A3 with an actual OS Max FRZ-420 Sirius 7 cylinder radial engine? That would be over the top. The guy who pulls that off would be "The Man"...

Max-U52

I think if you move up to 1/6 scale you could do that and build an actual, gas burning, radial engine for your tank. They do it for airplanes, why not tanks? Great idea, Scott.

Rex Ross

Thanks guys, I will present your ideas and suggestions to my procurement department and production committee for approval and acceptance. I like the fact that others give me ideas I never thought of. I have tunnel vision sometimes and appreciate ideas that help me think "outside the box" as some people say. All of the plastic aircraft engine models I have found are small scale, nothing even approaches 1/16. I guess I will scratch build that engine, which I'm pretty sure is a Continental W 670 - 9A radial. You can't see much of it in the M2A2, so I won't have to build a museum quality IPMS award winner. Rust and corrosion will help disguise any lack of detail, along with some penguin poop maybe ----- I have no idea how they would get up there, but hey..... it could happen.....!!!


rex

Rex Ross

Sheeeesh ---I can't believe it. Not much in my spare parts box will work on this project. I gotta scratch almost everything. Latex molding material, and resin casting material are on order and I can start to build styrene masters for the molds. I can use the road wheels off of one of my Mato Shermans to make a mold (after I modify a couple of them a little) but it will need everything else from the start, more or less. The suspension is exactly what is on the Stuarts, no help from a Sherman there. I have spare track that will work for a static model. The lower hulls are no problem, no turrets, no fenders, no nuthin' ---everything has rusted off. The engine will be fun, and I think I'm real close to mixing up some paint to match the photos, or at least come close.

Wozwasnt

https://www.shapeways.com/product/MW...-radial-engine

Rex Ross

WOW ! That's perfect --- I've bought stuff from shapeways before but didn't even think to check them out for an aircraft engine. I gotta talk myself into cutting loose of the $70 part, but there is a good chance I could do that. Thanks a bunch -----
rex

Airbrushler

i made my snow with drywall mud mixed with acrylic white paint and small fake gravel i still plan on doing a better building on here and more detail plus a stained framed base, i like to use them for taking pics with my tanks the other is a summer theme dio

Rex Ross

Good idea. I'm thinking along similar lines for a background. My backyard is rock, railroad ties and bark. And there's plenty of big rock around here that could be available for the taking. I have decided to go for the Shapeways engine. I was going to buy something on Ebay for the same amount of $$$ ---but some @$$#0!& guy beat my bid in the last minute, so I'm gonna buy that little beauty and save a lot of time scratching it. They also have a 1/18 model of the same thing. I wonder if Continental swiped the design of their engine from the Germans? They look very similar.

I know Pah co chu puk is going to be heartbroken if I don't come up and visit him for a few months while we make a video in the snow, but my backyard may work out OK. I gotta send him a PM and tell him not to get his guest room remodeled for my hobby needs.
rex