Re: Alternative SG II APCs

On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Allan Goodall wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Mar 1998 11:56:39 -0800 (PST), Brian Burger
> <burger00@camosun.bc.ca> wrote:
> 
> >Another source of sg2 armoured vehicles is the Roco Minitanks line;
these
> >are HO (1/87) or 1/72 scale (I can't recall which) vehicles, mostly
modern
> >European vehicles.
> 
> I concur!
> 
> >They work as big 15mm scale vehicles, and they might work (some of
them)
> >as smaller 25mm vehicles (I only have 15mm figs personally). I have
> >several West German Marder A2 IFV/MICVs right now, with the tracks
removed
> >and Das modelling clay GEV skirts installed. I'm using them as Size 4
> >IFVs, carrying 12 troops max. The Roco Minitanks are around Cdn $7-8.
> 
> I picked the Marder as well! I bought some of the training variant,
> removed the treads, and closed over the track wells. This converted
> them into grav APCs. I did the same thing with American Sheridans
> (which are old enough that most laymen don't get that, "it's a
> modified Abrams/M113/Bradley" feel.
> 

I'm using the regular turretted Marder IFV, as (surprise) an IFV.

> I didn't actually think of putting skirts on them for GEVs, though. Do
> you have any pictures of the skirts, or any tips in creating them?
>

No pictures, but here's how I turned Marders into GEVs: Remove the
treads
- easy enough, as the hull comes apart. Leave the tread openings alone,
and put a styrene plastic beam (I used .040 thickness) around all four
sides of the bottom of the vehicle. This raises the unit just enough
that
the rear door hinges aren't dragging on the ground.

I then used Das white modelling clay, the air-drying stuff, for the
skirts. Roll and squeeze lengths of Das long enough to fill each long
tread well, and stick it into the well, rounding it from the bottom of
the
tread skirts to the bottom of the beams under the vehicle. Add a shorter
bit of Das across the front to fill that gap, and leave the thing alone
for a few hours. Taking the clay pieces out after they're a bit dry
makes
them dry faster - and Das has enough flex when dry to make re-installing
the bits easy. 

There's no need to fill the whole tread well with Das - just cover the
opening. You use less of it, and it dries faster.

Superglue in place, paint as suits you, and you're done...

For the Scorpion tank, I cut part of the front fender off (no tread
skirt)
and added a basic straight tread skirt of sheet styrene. After that,
just
do as with the Marders...

Any model-train/modelling store will have styrene plastic shapes, and
any
craft store (some modelling stores too) will have Das clay. It's
actually
German, I think, so this is one product that should be available to
Euros
and North Americans alike. (there's other air-drying clays, Das is what
I
happened to have around)

Brian (burger00@camosun.bc.ca)
 
> >You can do exactly the same thing with bigger scale models for 25mm
> >Stargrunt - I think 1/35 is the scale you want. 
> 
> 1/48 is probably closer. However, I think 1/48 tanks are hard to come
> by these days. They used to be more popular when I was a kid. 1/48 is
> still a fairly popular aircraft scale, though.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Allan Goodall        agoodall@sympatico.ca
> 
> "Once again, the half time score, 
>  Alien Overlords: 142,000. Scotland: zip."
>   - This Hour Has 22 Minutes
>