Modelik IS-2

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pashlispaht

Member
Now that I am finished with the GPM JU-87 Stuka, I am going to do something without wings or propellers.... Actually I have been considering doing another tank model for a while. And I have always wanted to do a Soviet tank model, but until recently I have not seen any good Soviet tank models. But Modelik has been putting out some really nice models lately, and as soon as I saw this model, I knew what my next model was going to be. And I have a few ideas for improving the kit as well. I cannot touch a model without dreaming of ways to make it better.... I am going to start this build with the treads and suspension first; get the tedious stuff out of the way. Well, here is a picture of the cover of this model. I will post more photos as I make progress on my build.
 

pashlispaht

Member
Track links

My research on this tank revealed that there were several track designs that were in use. The track links as modeled are good, but after seeing photos of the real tracks, I decided that I was going to modify the tracks to better depict the real item. This involved cutting out the shaded areas on the track link, and doing this in several layers to represent the different depths of the real casting. I did a trial build of this item, and I have included several photos so you can see what I am describing.
 

bfam4t6

Member
:shock: And that is exactly why I have not taken on the challenge of building a tank yet. You do some amazing work pashlispaht!
 

charliec

Active Member
Which way round did you build the track link?
- fold and tack glue the outer part around the 1.5mm core then cut out the extra bits or
- cut out the extra bits and fold the resulting "lace curtain" around the core.

Regards,

Charlie
 

pashlispaht

Member
bfam4t6, it is not really that difficult to build treads; you just build one and then another and then another..... I only have 179 more to go!
On the subject of the order in which I built the tread.... I split it into several parts. I made a .5mm core and a 1mm core. I then glued the 1mm core to the track link and proceeded to cut out the shaded areas. I left the openings for the drive sprocket teeth uncut though. Once that was complete, I glued the .5mm core to the track link and cut out the very center section of the link; the section that is underneath the projection on the opposite side of the part. After this was done, I folded the sides of the part over and glued them to the back of the core and one another. The next step was to cut out the holes for the drive sprocket teeth, and add the three parts to the face of the track. I also trimmed some material from the side of the track to make it appear more like the real track. The last step was to paint everything. This first link took me about 1.5 hours to build, but I think that I have worked the bugs out of the process. I forsee being able to do a track in 15 minutes or less once I get the hang of it....
 

charliec

Active Member
I might be mentioning a technique which you already know but....

Jim Nunn in his Halinski Panther build on Cardmodelers.org used ground down chisel blades to cut out the slots in the tracks. From experience this works really well and certainly speeds up hacking rectangular slots in 1mm card.

I've attached an image of these from Jim's Panther build (hope he doesn't mind).

Regards,

Charlie
 

pashlispaht

Member
Chisel blades....

I learned of this technique following Jim's construction review of the Halinski Panther. I would not dream of attempting this otherwise!!! I am currently waiting on a large amount of these blades at my local hobby shop. I have decided to just make myself a set of these in .5mm increments since they are so useful.

Thanks for the consideration though
 
J

Jim Nunn

Pashlispaht

Could you do a little photo essay and show us how you did this superb detail work. This is something I thought about when I was building the Panther but could not see a way to create the detail with out completely redesigning the track links.

Charlie, I don’t mind in fact I pleased that others can benefit from my tips.
 
J

Jim Nunn

Since you guys are out making blades you probably have given some thought to honing the blades. I have a small 4-sided Arkansas stone that I found on the net. The stone has 4 different grades of stone including a black extremely fine stone. With this stone I can hone a blade sharper then new. It’s not worth the effort for a #11 blade but for all the special blades I have made it is very useful. I have also used the stone to sharpen stainless tubes to make hole punches.

Jim Nunn
 

Leif Oh

Member
That must be a very good tool also for making slots generally in thick material, of a common and recurring width, such as e.g. 2 mm, or 1 mm. It's the short bit that's most difficult to cut. Thank you. Leif
 

pashlispaht

Member
photo essay

I will do a photo essay soon, but right now I have more pressing matters. I will be moving tomorrow, and it will probably be at least several days before I can do the photo essay. I did not imagine that there would be so much interest in the tracks. It is a little too tedious for most people...
 

pashlispaht

Member
After several months of tedious work on the track links, I had decided to take a break from this item to work on the hull. At this point, I am 2/3 done with the tracks. I still intend to do a photo essay of how I have modified the tracks to give them a more realistic appearance. I wanted to mention a discovery I made when I began work on the hull. After I had cut out the framework, I noticed during a dry fit of the outer skins that there were some gross errors in the fit. The skins were much too small. I had a hunch that possibly the glue I had used for laminating had caused the framework parts to expand before they were laminated onto the cardstock. A test piece confirmed this, and I bring this to your attention so that you might be aware of this problem in your own build. I imagine that a large number of builds mught be affected by this, especially those where the laminations are done with a spray adhesive which does not cause the paper to expand, and then the skins are applied with a liquid based glue which does expand or vice versa. The obvious solution to my problem is to use the same glue for every piece of the hull. I also discovered that expansion of parts is affected by how long a part sits with glue on it before it is put onto it's cardstock. This must also be taken into account when dealing with multiple laminations. I hope this discovery is of help to some of you who are reading this. I will post progress of my build soon.
 

jrts

Active Member
Hi Pashlispaht

I have been watching this with intrest, well thats an understatement realy :D
One thing once you have built up the links what do you use to join them together, metal rods, card rods or do you have a trick for this?
I have a tank on the go and have not done the tracks yet as I have not got a clue on the way to go with it.
Its a 1/25 model and I have put a motor in it to test if it will all work alright. If it does I want scale it up to 1/16 and add radio control.

Any help or ideas would be great

Amazing stuff, this is an under represented subject :roll:

More when you can

Rob
 
J

Jim Nunn

Pashlispaht

Very interesting, my first question is what kind of spray glue are you using?

I have always made my thick card stock using 3M 77 glue but most of the time I glue the former parts on to the card stock using white glues. I have noticed that depending on the paper, parts do expand with the water-based glues. I have also used the 3m glue to glue the former parts on to the backing card stock I had not noticed any size issues but I would be looking for them now.

For what it’s worth I found some gross fit errors in Modelik's Puma that were definitely due to poor design/or lack Bata testing. The fenders were off by 1 mm and parts of the wheel hubs were also off by 1 to 1.5 mm. I also had some issues with the Kettenkrad but they could have been due to me not being able to figure out the assembly was supposed to be built.

Jim Nunn
 

pashlispaht

Member
Sorry for the really long time between posts. I have transitioned into the Army as a 19K Armor Crewmember, and I have been learning all about the M1 Abrams in the intervening months since my last post. I have completed the track links (well everything except painting) and I am currently building the torsion bar suspension for this model. I intend to post some photos in the next couple days of the progress. Now that I am done with all the changes in my career, I think that I will have more time to concentrate on my models...

Pashlispaht
 

Gil

Active Member
Pashlispaht,

Good to hear you're back. Was wondering what was going on with you and your girlfriend from Kyrgyzstan...,

Gil
 
J

Jim Nunn

Glad to see that you are back. A good friend of mine is a battalion commander of M1’s. He is an ex ranger and Special Forces qualified he has said that the training for the M1 crews is some of the most extensive he has gone through. Congratulations I hear it’s quite a ride.

Jim Nunn
 

pashlispaht

Member
Finally, some track pics!!!!!

Well, I finally have uploaded my pics to my computer and here are some photos of my track links and the tools I used to build them. Hope this satisfies all of you who wish to see photos of my work.....
 

pashlispaht

Member
Track photo

And to fully appreciate the magnitude of the task completed, here is a photo of just one of the two tracks.........
 
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