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. 

[Frank3k]

Jeff, I was thinking of the same. The cab may a little tight to just turn the seat around with the guy in it, but if he turns it from outside the cab, it should be easy. I'll rework the seats in the right cab to make it able to swivel. He probably doesn't need to drive the vehicle, anyway.

[Old Wombat]

What about a flip-back chair? 

Chair back is double-sided & the loader-crane operator flips it back whilst being a passenger going from place-to-place, then flips it forward whilst operating the loader-crane.

Just noticed that he'd need a bigger window at the back, though, for a better view of what he/she's doing.

[Frank3k]

Thanks, Guy - the crane operator doesn't have a good view of the rear.
I made this mod:



I may leave one window larger than the other - the asymmetry looks interesting.

Here's the rotating seat with the foot rests. I may change the foot rests to go with the seat:

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Will the sides of the cargo bed drop down and will it have a tailgate? 

[Frank3k]

Jeff, I'm going with a tailgate - the only way to have realistic latches is by printing the cargo area in resin.

Most of the parts are currently in the 3D printer - It's too late to don the PPE required to wash and cure the resin pieces:



The green color is from a yellow tape I put over the white LED illuminating the chamber - I don't think there's much UV coming out of the LED, but the clear tape will block any UV present. This printer's camera does a pretty mediocre job of imaging the build plate.

While the resin bits were printing, I printed the framework for the cargo area box in ABS on my filament printer, then glued some styrene sheet for the walls:

[GTX_Admin]

That second last photo from above almost looks like a modern auto mortar

[Frank3k]

Like the M8 munitions carrier, Greg? The old Aurora 1/48 kit was my favorite of their armor kits.

I somehow managed to print two right handed cabs and I knocked off the side mirrors, so I printed everything again. Here are most of the parts where they'll eventually end up:



The vents at the back of the engine compartment didn't print properly on either copy, so I removed them. They've been replaced by a  Gundam model vent part (not in the pics)



The cross bars on the radiator cover (not pictured) didn't print properly (they were far too thin) so they were replaced by styrene rod. The crane operator's seat is facing forward:



The two seats. The driver's seat shown has the pedal linkage going to the left; I've replaced it with one going right:



The original operator's seat had the controls at the level of the seat. I cut off the arm and glued it to a piece if styrene sprue, just to make it more accessible. The crane operator could move the controls in, out, up or down to get it out of the way:



Here's Nigel modeling the seat:



The footpads should be facing to the rear - I'll fix that when everything gets glued down.

[Frank3k]

Slowly making progress on this. Every time I design a cabin in 3D, the transparencies are mounted from the inside, resting against the exterior coaming... and every time I have to insert the transparencies, it's time consuming and frustrating. I keep telling myself to find a better way of doing this... but I don't. I spent a while installing, then taping over the transparencies, accidentally knocking off the to-scale rear view mirrors from each cabin. Of course, the CA glue refused to stick every time I tried to reattach the mirror stalks so I replace them with copper wire. Slightly thicker, but they won't snap off.

Here's everything primed. The cabins are not glued down:



The crane operator's seat, facing to the rear. You can see the broken off rear view mirrors in the upper left:



And facing forward:



I changed the fuel cap location to be next to the engine on the driver's side. It made more sense.

[finsrin]

Exactly what parts bins are for.      We should all do more of it.

[Buzzbomb]

Yep.. that is working 

[Old Wombat]

Yep.. that is working 

Yep! And coming together nicely! 

[Frank3k]

Finally finished! There were many little parts to add, and the crane was almost a model in itself. The unsecured cargo  is a spare electric motor that I printed for my HEMTT Explorer:



The crane is more orange-yellow than the rest of the vehicle, but the difference isn't as noticeable in direct afternoon sunlight. I found some closeup photos of the crane, so I added many of the boxes and hydraulic lines that Italeri skipped :

 





Our French mechanic buddy is not happy with the unsecured load:



I spent a lot of time on the crane and even printed the hook assembly in ABS (the bolts are from Meng), but almost all of it is invisible in these pictures. Here's the assembly before I painted it:



Most of my build goals were met - use up some spare kit parts (and many 3D printed parts) but I still ended up printing over half of the model.

As for the backstory, "Phoenix Vehicles" takes old and abandoned military equipment (from the battlefield in Ukraine as well as captured vehicles or those obtained from Russia as part of the reparations after the war) and repurposes it into farm and industrial equipment.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Excellent work as usual Frank.  Nicely done on the weathering and details. 

[Old Wombat]

That's excellent, Frank! 

Different crane colour doesn't matter, cranes often are a different colour to the rest of the vehicle.



Love the "Phoenix Vehicles" company logo! 

[finsrin]

Great design and looks so 'used' with excellent weathering 

[Frank3k]

Thanks guys! I meant that I intended to make the crane obviously different in shade/color, to show that it’s an add-on to the existing vehicle.