1/35 Tractor with crane and cargo

[Frank3k]

I have over 20 shoebox sized plastic containers filled with parts from old builds. I recently finished three builds that due to their whiffy nature, generated sprues of unused parts and I was running out of room to store the leftovers. Two of build remains had enough parts left over to make a new kit, each.

My BTR-25 Mara left me with tracks and complete running gear, plus many other tank bits. I toyed with the idea of printing a lower hull to hold the running gear. I wanted something around the length of an M113, but was drawing a blank on what to do with the rest of the vehicle.

I saw Zenrat's Northrop Delta. Vic Air. Martha Island 1977 over at Whatif and Fred's reimagining of the Aoshima JGSDF Material carrier vehicle gave me the inspiration I needed.

My first decision was that this build would not require any new purchases - everything will have to come out of my spares box or 3D printer. The lower hull is printed in ABS and smoothed some of the print lines with Acetone. Since it's not going to be very visible, I didn't care too much about the print lines or the build plate pattern. It took a couple of prints to get the right spacing, but it looks OK:



Panda did a great job with the tracks for this kit. There are three parts to each link but they click together and only the pads need to be glued. It's a tedious process, but the tracks work well and are very strong. I may remove some or all of the small track guide wheels:



While this won't be a version of the JGSDF Material carrier, it's definitely a close cousin. I did a quick draft print of the cabins and engine box in ABS to see how everything fit. The main deck is also 3D printed in ABS, with a sheet of styrene glued on one side. The crane is from the Italeri M977 HEMTT:







I clearly have to move the crane up and back a bit. Once I finish the CAD changes, I'll start the resin printing.

[Buzzbomb]

Oh very nice work on this sort of not well represented subject

[Old Wombat]

Excellent start, Frank! 

[Jeffry Fontaine]

That looks fantastic Frank.  Wish Aoshima would consider masking that 1/72nd scale JGSDF Material carrier vehicle in a larger scale. 

[Mig Eater]

Great idea, spare box builds are always fun as you never know what parts your going to find  

[Frank3k]

A 1/35 version of the carrier would be great. This is more of an inspired by/cousin of.

The design has progressed far enough to print it in resin. Ignore the lower hull and cargo deck, they're done. I added two equipment lockers, one smaller than the other to make room for the fuel filler:



Not really visible on these renders, but the crew doors have a single diamond/pyramid pattern on the doors; I think they're stamped in to strengthen them:



I'm going to add a PE mesh behind the radiator support:



This is the interior of one of the crew cabins (they're both identical). I'll add a joystick and controls for the crane to one of the cabins and add instrument panels from a previous build:

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Just an idea to consider for your crane controls, how about a reversible seat for the crane operator so that the crew member is able to face to the rear while operating the crane from inside the cab.  Additional remote controls for out of vehicle could also be an option using a wireless control unit or one with a cable connection.