Author Topic: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode) et FT 17 75bs Bis  (Read 19073 times)

Offline Dr. YoKai

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vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode) et FT 17 75bs Bis
« on: February 18, 2025, 08:01:30 AM »
Merci beaucoup, Frank ;)

 Starting on the first of two-this one based on the Char Cannon FT-17. More commentary later- just a teasing phot for now. ;)
 DSCF1133 by VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
« Last Edit: April 09, 2025, 09:58:36 PM by Dr. YoKai »

Offline Kerick

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2025, 10:44:40 AM »
Where did you get those legs? Cool!

Offline Frank3k

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2025, 11:04:09 AM »
It looks far batter than what I had planned! Wondering how it could be powered - maybe two electric motors per leg (one for back and forth and the other to bend the leg) plus a big gas engine in the rear hooked up to a generator.

...or magic.

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2025, 01:46:50 PM »
Where did you get those legs? Cool!

They're styrene I-beams & tube for the base joins, & what looks like styrene sheet cut outs for the feet.
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Kerick

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2025, 02:13:27 PM »
I thought they looked like parts off of something. I’ve got plastic coat hangers that might work for that.

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2025, 07:39:36 PM »
Wow!
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline robunos

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2025, 08:12:16 PM »
It looks far batter than what I had planned! Wondering how it could be powered - maybe two electric motors per leg (one for back and forth and the other to bend the leg) plus a big gas engine in the rear hooked up to a generator.

...or magic.
'Myomer', of course . . .

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Myomer

cheers,
Robin.
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I can look inside your memories, your nightmares, your dreams.
You're a man haunted by those two most terrible words:
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Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2025, 11:52:17 PM »
 I wish I could claim that I'd spent the time required to cobble the legs together out of several varieties of Evergreen sheet, rod and tube, but the truth is, they came that way. For the first ten~twelve years I worked at the Texas Talking Book program, we duplicated audio files onto cassettes for duplication. Serving about 15 to 20 thousand patrons, we went through a lot of blank cassettes, and they came packed in boxes of a hundred, with these styrene retainers. Since they were obviously styrene, I started saving them...
DSCF1134 by VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
The style of the retainers varied between manufacturers, and most of what I have are plain soft black strips with no 'detail', but these in particular were around for awhile, and they do have a measure of relief on them that has obvious applications. ;) The feet are just the tips of the strips, wormed out with a small rattail file.
DSCF1134 by VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
Power is mostly a combination of electric motors and cables. (There may be some bicycle chains in there somewhere, but you won't see them-buildin the legs is a bit time intensive, and I'm already dreading adding more rivets. These old RPM kits are wonderfully detailed, really tiny, and pretty delicate. More later-got to got get another propane tank-we are looking at another streak of snow & ice, and while our grid here is in better shape than Texas, the number of trees close to powerlines here in the Commonwealth tends to negate that advantage. I'll try to take some snaps of the dead limbs I've been clearing since last week. (In the appropriate forum thread, that is. :smiley:)

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2025, 06:39:56 AM »
Man, for a tiny 37mm cannon, this thing is a bunch of even tinier parts. (Seven altogether. none more than 3mm long. Well, maybe the mantlet.)
DSCF1144 by VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
And a bit more detail on the Système de mobilité. Weather is still too cool for painting, but should be warming up next week.
Started the second hull, will be identical, just differently posed legs. And maybe an AA mg.
DSCF1146 by VileDr.Yo, on Flickr

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2025, 07:03:15 AM »
Spider Tank
or/oder
SpinnerPanzer?
"Every day we hear about new studies 'revealing' what should have been obvious to sentient beings for generations; 'Research shows wolverines don't like to be teased" -- Jonah Goldberg

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2025, 07:10:06 AM »
Spider Tank
or/oder
SpinnerPanzer?

 Non, M'sieu - Fourmi blindée! (Armored Ant. Only the six legs, doncha know.)

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2025, 07:12:22 AM »
Eight or six, it looks like a spider... :smiley:
"Every day we hear about new studies 'revealing' what should have been obvious to sentient beings for generations; 'Research shows wolverines don't like to be teased" -- Jonah Goldberg

Offline apophenia

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2025, 07:47:22 AM »
Non, M'sieu - Fourmi blindée! (Armored Ant. Only the six legs, doncha know.)

Cataglyphis;D
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Offline Frank3k

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2025, 10:32:44 AM »
This is looking good, Craig! What kit is that? Hopefully not the Taurus kit...

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #14 on: March 07, 2025, 12:18:41 PM »
This is looking good, Craig! What kit is that? Hopefully not the Taurus kit...

RPM. I picked up three variants on resale at King's Hobby in Austin for about $5 apiece. Each kit has the parts for all three variations (Char Cannon, Ruskii Reno, and Ko-Gata, but each instruction sheet is specific to the type. They are very intricate little kits-the suspension is rather intimidating, the parts being numerous and tiny... ???

How bad is the Taurus kit?

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2025, 01:40:32 PM »
Just works for me. Fits the bill here quite nicely

Offline Frank3k

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #16 on: March 07, 2025, 02:18:40 PM »
RPM. I picked up three variants on resale at King's Hobby in Austin for about $5 apiece. Each kit has the parts for all three variations (Char Cannon, Ruskii Reno, and Ko-Gata, but each instruction sheet is specific to the type. They are very intricate little kits-the suspension is rather intimidating, the parts being numerous and tiny... ???

How bad is the Taurus kit?

Is this the 1/72 or 1/35 version? The 1/35 was ok; the suspension was over-engineered for the molding quality of the model.

I was thinking of the Tauro 1/35 Fiat 3000, which was an Italian version of the FT-17. The turret was made from individual plates and rested on a short axle that was molded to the roof of the cabin.
Still, not as bad as the Eastern Express/AER 1/35 T-18 tank. I ended up using it for parts.

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #17 on: March 07, 2025, 10:56:18 PM »
RPM. I picked up three variants on resale at King's Hobby in Austin for about $5 apiece. Each kit has the parts for all three variations (Char Cannon, Ruskii Reno, and Ko-Gata, but each instruction sheet is specific to the type. They are very intricate little kits-the suspension is rather intimidating, the parts being numerous and tiny... ???

How bad is the Taurus kit?

Is this the 1/72 or 1/35 version? The 1/35 was ok; the suspension was over-engineered for the molding quality of the model.

I was thinking of the Tauro 1/35 Fiat 3000, which was an Italian version of the FT-17. The turret was made from individual plates and rested on a short axle that was molded to the roof of the cabin.
Still, not as bad as the Eastern Express/AER 1/35 T-18 tank. I ended up using it for parts.

I think I remember your comments on the T-18... ;D These are all 1/72-I have been tempted to 1/35 a few times, but the price usually stops me. These 1/72 kits are a bit 'over engineered', but the price was too good to pass up. The kit offers three different turrets, and all are a combination of two sides, mantlet, and rear hatch. There are no alignment pins, but they actually do fit together reasonably well.  The tank body is all flat plates with the edges inset for alignment, and with a little patience, they fir together ok. I'll try to take a picture of the suspension sprue in a bit-got to run some errands in Lynchburg, and that will be most of the day.

Offline robunos

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #18 on: March 10, 2025, 02:19:52 AM »
Coming along nicely . . . 

cheers,
Robin.
Do you think I don't know you ?
I can look inside your memories, your nightmares, your dreams.
You're a man haunted by those two most terrible words:
WHAT IF ?

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2025, 11:36:49 PM »
 Two weeks later, and the home computer is still a bit glitchy, but stable for the moment with the MS browser instead of Chrome. Think I may need to feed the beast a dew more tasty ram chips.
Anyway, here's the suspension sprue for the FT 17. Should have put a ruler down for scale, but the roadwheel, for instance, are about 2 mm in diameter, and the return rollers are even smaller.
DSCF1151 by VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
They do go together with a little patience-
DSCF1152 by VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
though I am skeptical as to whether or not the whole is robust enough to actually support the rubber tracks. As to why I am bothering to even attempt this, it has only warmed up enough to spray some primer in the last couple of days, and I made the mistake of looking up obscire FT 17 variations and-
DSCF1157 by VileDr.Yo, on Flickr

It is, I discover after finding a nice blog posting on the vehicle, pretty inaccurate, but I started with a printout of the only photo... :-[
https://panzerserra.blogspot.com/2022/03/renault-ft-17-75bs-tank-prototype-case.html
« Last Edit: March 24, 2025, 02:07:41 AM by Dr. YoKai »

Offline apophenia

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #20 on: March 24, 2025, 10:36:22 AM »
The Renaults are pupping!  ;D
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Offline Frank3k

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #21 on: March 25, 2025, 12:39:08 AM »
That's a fantastic little scratchbuild, Craig! What did you use for the tiny rivets?

The Panzerserra blog is great! Marco is a fantastic modeller.

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #22 on: March 25, 2025, 06:09:08 AM »
That's a fantastic little scratchbuild, Craig! What did you use for the tiny rivets?

The Panzerserra blog is great! Marco is a fantastic modeller.
I have only just begun to dip into Panzerserra's work-reminds me of the format used by another one of our colleagues, the fellow who does the wonderful cartoons with his posts.

 The rivets are as old school as it gets. After building the main frame, I cut marching sections of very thin sheet and after laying out some guide line in pencil, used the old Mk 1 eyeball and the tip of a pair of curved tweezers to emboss them. Up close, it ain't perfect, but for my purposes, it cam out better than expected. Since my discovery of the accurate line drawing on Panzerserra's site, I am considering making it a bipedal walker, but I want to see how well the RPM suspension holds up. I managed to get it primered yesterday, so it shouldn't take too long. I think I remember you saying that RPM tracks will not hold paint, so we'll see what happens. Even though the FT 17 75 BS wasn't a very good vehicle (realllly crowded for the two man gun crew, and unstable because of the high CG) I can't help but love the look of the thing.

Offline robunos

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Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #23 on: April 02, 2025, 02:21:43 AM »
 :smiley: . . .

cheers,
Robin.
Do you think I don't know you ?
I can look inside your memories, your nightmares, your dreams.
You're a man haunted by those two most terrible words:
WHAT IF ?

Offline Kerick

  • Reportedly finished with a stripper...
Re: vbh-17 (véhicule blindé hexapode)
« Reply #24 on: April 02, 2025, 03:37:02 AM »
Non, M'sieu - Fourmi blindée! (Armored Ant. Only the six legs, doncha know.)

Cataglyphis;D

Found one of these on my work desk a few months ago.





The masked hunter bug. The nymph stage collects dust and dirt for camouflage. I thought it was a spider at first then I saw the antenna. Spiders don’t have antenna. It might be an interesting look for such a vehicle as weathering!

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/masked-hunter-bug/#:~:text=The%20masked%20hunter%20bug%20(Reduvius,itself%20with%20dust%20and%20debris.