Fair point!!!! In actuality I have been plugging away at this but progress was/is(perhaps) slow. For the following reasons.

The tracks were a pain. I needed double horned tracks of approaximate width and the only ones I could land on were Sherman tracks. So I bought a set of Taigen. The T-80 uses a sprocket with one central row of teeth. So the Sherman tracks needed tweaking.

And fair warning.......if you like fine modelling and Sherman tracks, I would leave about now.

I took the tracks and disassembled them. Then I literally ground the chevron of each and every bloody link with the tiny little belt sander thing I use in builds.

This took weeks...I lost a couple of fingernails along the way and that hampered progress. They still need rubbing down with a fine sanding sponge.

Then I built a jig and drilled precise holes in the centre of each and every bloody link. These holes needed to be precise as they will be the holes that engage the ..... not yet built but planned out...scratch built sprocket!! Not looking forward to that but what can you do.

On a side note...after grinding all those links...only three links showed any evidence of cavities or flaws within the castings!!1 I thought this was pretty good given that I am well used to crap cast cheapo metal tracks. So nice one Taigen!!!



I appreciate that is not very interesting or clever of even remotely post worthy...but that is what I was doing for weeks.

Then I needed gears. I have been stung before using too big motors....so this time I opted for 380 motors I think and bought separate gear boxes on Aliexpress that gear down to about 150 rpm which should be OK. I installed the motors and I recommend these gearboxes .. .they really are nice.

Then I needed either chains or a bevel gear. I tried using blocks of aluminium and so on but I am not equipped for drilling accurate holes in big things. But I am better at building things up from simple shapes so I simply made them as you see in the picture...by hand with no machine tools and lots of brazing. With all shafts on bearings....

And that took a few weeks of faffing about. But now they are done and there is 0 runout so I am pleased with them. I just need to work out a way to mount them in the hull.




Then I needed road wheels. It took a while to source aluminium of the right diameter and with a basic shape but I got some, drilled out to accept a press fit bearing and they are ready to go.

I also got two delrin tubes of correct diameters and with some cutting and sanding they will form the tires.

I also made the rough swing arms...from brass and they need finishing but I am happy with the location of the holes and the consistency of their placing relative to each other.



I also have the back broken of the suspension system ...this will be a fairly diminutive system but pictures are pointless until I can get the hull assembled. Which is waiting for me to finish all th erunning gear bits.

But Christmas should see some major progress.

I hope. Its like pulling bloody teeth for some reason.

P