C-65 Farm Tractor (crawler) @ 24th scale

[turtle]

Hi all,
First off, apologies to those that have seen this on another forum  , just keep moving on - nothing to see here  .

This is my current WIP, and from the start I had decided to build using only the basic hand tools (plus mini-drill  ) to show others starting out that you can build a semi-decent model without huge expenditure.






For reference I'm using copies of the original blueprints plus parts manual plus various walk-around photo shoots.
Many of you will recognise it as the Trumpeter kit (which I'm too tight to buy  ), so aside from scale mine will be the 1937 farm version. And to those that think the Caterpillar Sixty-Five looks similar - well it is. The C-65 (or S-65 depending on translation book) is a modified licence produced copy of the Sixty-Five.

Let the hack'n'slash commence.

[turtle]

First area under knife is the upper and lower track frames:












More to follow_ _ _ _

As per usual please feel free to point out any faults or areas that don't look right, much appreciated  .

[billmart]

I'll be watching this build with great interest.  I love working with styrene and I'm always looking for tips I can use to improve my techniques.  BTW, it looks great so far.

Bill Martinsen

[Ray Dunakin]

Very interesting project, I'm looking forward to watching it!

[turtle]

Cheers to all for having a looksie 
Bill - probably not much to learn from me, I'm just your 'joe average' builder, plus it's mostly standard modelling on this project - laminating/wrappings/carving and a bit of turning.
Ray - cheers for looking in, so far this has been an enjoyable little project and continues to progress fairly well (just jinxed myself now  ).

[Andi Little]

This is also my kind of modelling (Ultra low tech') and I shall make myself comfortable whilst you astound me with your skills and fortitude.
However my first question is quite predictable in as much as "How have you got those nice "nut'n'bolt" hexagons?

Sorry to be so clichéd .............. Brilliant job - even at this early stage it's obviously so.

[finescalerr]

A question ... and I think your answer should be required reading for everyone here: How long did it take you to reach that stage? -- Russ

[mad gerald]

First area under knife is the upper and lower track frames:

.... I really like your technique(s) and approach ...   ... was working the same way building my first scratch built diesel draisine, called #13





... now I'm drawing first on easy to remove self adhesive paper (instead directly on the styrene) ... makes it IMHO easier to cut the styrene more accurate ...

What kinda glue do you use - CA? I'm assembling the styrene parts together using acetone ...

Cheers

[turtle]

Cheers all for having a nosey,

Andi - all the bolt heads and nuts are done with an ancient (almost 30 years old now  ) Historex punch and die set, must admit makes life really easy, plus hex rod is difficult to get here in NZ  . And yep low-tech is the order of the day around this neck of the woods  .

Russ - I had hoped no-one would ask that question  , mainly because I really don't keep track of 'hours' , however since you have asked I would estimate to get this far on those pieces it would be in the region of 10 - 15 hours total excluding pre-planning and measurement conversions.

Gerald - I don't actually draw on the styrene - I very lightly score with the knife, then a quick wipe with a moist finger tip shows up the scored line. Considering a pencil line is approx .5mm (.020"), that multiplied can drastically alter any essential key points, so for me all marking out is done by scribing and measured with vernier calipers.
And for glue, all styrene to styrene joints are Tamiya thin glue, all styrene laminating is a 50/50 mix of Tamiya thick and thin, and all other non-similar bonding is usually MEK. For me I simply do not trust CA bonds on styrene and the only time I use CA is as a hairline gap filler or fingerprint remover 
   

[turtle]

Track frames aren't much use without track rollers so it was a case of "suck it up" and lots of repetition  :



All parts are turned on my poor-man's lathe (clamped mini-drill running on set-down speed controller), would have been easier to use my actual lathe but as stated - using the low-tech methods.
I have to find the correct colour and pre-paint these before I can finish them - even the Russian forums are undecided as to it's correct colour  .

Just plodding along doing all the easy bits first  .

[Hauk]

Track frames aren't much use without track rollers so it was a case of "suck it up" and lots of repetition  :



All parts are turned on my poor-man's lathe (clamped mini-drill running on set-down speed controller), would have been easier to use my actual lathe but as stated - using the low-tech methods.
I have to find the correct colour and pre-paint these before I can finish them - even the Russian forums are undecided as to it's correct colour  .

Just plodding along doing all the easy bits first  .

Great work!
Would love to see a couple of images of the turning setup.

[Gordon Ferguson]

Hauk, as I feel sort of responsible for giving Roger all this work feel. I had better contribute some thing .........his "poor man" turning setup

[finescalerr]

Very nice poor man's lathe. Did you make that from an electric hand drill and styrene? -- ssuR

[turtle]

Time to hack up some styrene for the main chassis  :






and some work on the transmission housing:





still a few dozen bolts etc to add plus various other details - eventually  .

As always please feel free to point out any faults or shoddy work 

[Gordon Ferguson]

Ok Roger, 2 complaints

First where did the big lathe go , it's a beauty.

Second, both Andrew and I have previously pointed out that this work is just too shabby, it should be abandoned and all the bits sent to us ......... We can wait till you have had crack at the tracks and associated bits