HERCULES (2)

The HERCULES continues :)
Since I was quite satisfied with the basic hull, I started to dig through my bits box in search for wheels.
Some old Tamiya roadwheels from a 1:35 Hanomag and the drive sprocket from a Sherman, as well as some road wheels from a PzIV will make up the wheels for the HERC.

After I was pleased with the wheel arrangement I designed the outside of the tracks - the skirts?

And this is how it will look.

Next I mounted some spacers (2.3mm)

And here you can get a first impression on how this arrangement will lokk like.

Then I modified the existing wheels to fit the 2.3mm width of the tracks.

And after about an hour I had them all completed.

So I immediately mounted the wheels - patience is not one of my virtues :-P

Once the wheels were cured I also mounted the skirts.

And then competed the other side.

Then it was time to design the actual tracks.

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.

Here you can see them in comparison to the ZEUS' tracks.

With a bit of sanding and smoothening they worked like a charm.

So I added some details.

And this is how they will look on the HERCULES.

Obviously I won't build 50-80 of these manually.
So time to get out the molding kit.

Of course you can also use Lego - may be way cheaper too - but you have to always make sure you seal everything off.
Here I used ordinary kids clay.

My tried and trusted silicone. It is a real easy to work with 1:1 mix.

Not the cheapest, but IMHO the best when it comes to usability.

Simply mix it 1:1

Give it a minute to release all the air bubbles

And start applying a thin coat on the details,

and then pour everything into the casing.

After about 30 Minutes its cured. Here you can see that a little bit of silicone crawled beneath the track pieces.

So there will a bit of cleanup to do.

But actually it was a lot less than I anticipated.

Next it was time for the resin.

Again, my tried and true 1:1 mix from Rai-Ro.

For just these 4 tracks there is very little resin you need at a time, so there's considerable spare...

After an hour the resin is cured enough that you can release it from the mold.
Some air bubbles, but SWEET :)

Since I will always have some left over resin, I decided to do some more small pieces.

So I created an hatch, a vision plate, and a sight.

This time I don't want to use my silicone for the mold, but rather the new InstantMold from Cool Mini Or Not.

Simply heat it up in water

and then press it onto the piece you want to cast.

And a few minutes later you have a mold.

So with the next batch of resin I also poured those 3 new pieces.

Well, the actual cast has some issues and is not as accurate as it would have been with silicone

But it is a lot faster and cheaper

And for these pieces it is definately good enough.

So for small pieces with limited detail I can really recommend the InstantMold from CMoN.

I hope you liked todays update and maybe it has sparked your interest in trying it out yourself.

Cheers

Klaus