Tank Pirates of the Hay Plains - Finished Pics Pg 5

[zenrat]

The Hay Plains NSW, one of the flattest places on earth according to The Wikipedia.  Max height variation across the region is 17m.  It makes Lincoilnshire look positively Alpine.
Whilst driving across it a few years ago I thought "this is tank country".
Whilst rummaging through my stash looking for something different for this GB I found this...
Tank Pirates Start 13-03-2022 01 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
...which I had been awarded at Expo a few years ago for my Kawanishi Sky Pirate flying boat.
Here's the un-opened bags.
Tank Pirates Start 13-03-2022 02 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Tank Pirates of the Hay Plains is an Anime from studio zenrat.  A spinoff from their series My Sky the Free Wind it focusses on the adventures of a young pilot bent on avenging the death of their loved ones at the hands of the titular brigands.

This kit is labelled 1/72.  It comes in two versions.  One version has a complete crew of anthropomorphic pigs (including a chef) which are vaguely 1/72 scale.  Unfortunately this isn't that version.  But It was a prize I wasn't expecting so I shouldn't complain.  I may scaleorama it into 1/48 as I have a number of figures in that scale.  We shall see.
I have begun, as is the way with tanks, assembling road wheels.

One potential issue - it has vinyl tracks.  What is the best glue to use on them?  Both for joining the ends and for attaching injection moulded styrene grousers to them.
I am conducting glue tests with gorilla grip superglue gel which seems to hold but feels like it might fail due to being brittle.

[Old Wombat]

Do the tracks have the poke-through pins that you're meant to melt down on them?

If they do; I've found that the Selley's two part glue system (the one with the felt-tip pen type thing with a plastic primer liquid & a tube of, what is, basically, CA glue) works quite well but I always push through the pins & melt them down, too.

I have one build that's about 12 years old that I did that with & the tracks are still holding nicely. I've just done the same on another build because I now trust that method.


PS: I can see one little piggy figure in the second bag from the top.

[Rheged]

Living near the Welsh border, my first thought was the fields around Hay on Wye.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hay-on-Wye   I had a surreal picture of  mechanised warfare between proponents of differing literary genres at the Hay Festival.......Jane Austen fanatics going head to head with devotees of Isaac Asimov

................then I read the full post!

[zenrat]

Living near the Welsh border, my first thought was the fields around Hay on Wye.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hay-on-Wye   I had a surreal picture of  mechanised warfare between proponents of differing literary genres at the Hay Festival.......Jane Austen fanatics going head to head with devotees of Isaac Asimov

................then I read the full post!

Ah, the Border Book Wars...

I once spent a very memorable NYE in Hay on Wye.  Vast amounts of grog and food were consumed and shenanigans ensued.

The tracks have pins and holes but the pins are only as long as the tracks are thick so there isn't any spare pin to melt.  To make it more complex each main track comprises of two parts and so have two joins each.
However,  Gorilla Grip Gel Superglue seems to be holding on OK.  I've tugged on the joins moderately hard and they didn't let go.
I then glued all the Grousers onto the tracks.

Pirate Tank WIP 14-03-2022 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

I have gone off the scaleorama to 1/48 plan as there are too many small hatches on this thing that i'd have to either enlarge or fill.  Also the smaller turrets are too small to fit a 1/48 gunner.
So it'll stay 1/72.  I think I have some appropriate white metal figures.

[perttime]

That THING looks cool!

Some years ago, a I went for a mountain bike ride with a Dutch guy, on our local Finnish non-mountain trails: lots of small slopes. He said that Holland is pretty flat, and the highest point of the country is a highway overpass.

[PR19_Kit]

He said that Holland is pretty flat, and the highest point of the country is a highway overpass.

And the lowest is WELL below sea level! 

[buzzbomb]

Yessir ! interested to see where this goes.

Given the track layout, the venerable "Staple it together" would work as well, but it does look terrible. What you have done already appears quite fine

[Rheged]

He said that Holland is pretty flat, and the highest point of the country is a highway overpass.

And the lowest is WELL below sea level! 

And no matter in which direction you are cycling, the wind is ALWAYS blowing against you.

[loupgarou]

That THING looks cool!

Some years ago, a I went for a mountain bike ride with a Dutch guy, on our local Finnish non-mountain trails: lots of small slopes. He said that Holland is pretty flat, and the highest point of the country is a highway overpass.

It's not so flat, they even have a town called Driebergen, that means 3 mountains. (But I haven't been able to see those "mountains" when I stopped there...)

[PR19_Kit]

It's not so flat, they even have a town called Driebergen, that means 3 mountains. (But I haven't been able to see those "mountains" when I stopped there...)

But a 'mountain' in Holland means anything taller than a farm tractor!

[rickshaw]

Yessir ! interested to see where this goes.

Given the track layout, the venerable "Staple it together" would work as well, but it does look terrible. What you have done already appears quite fine

Staples work.  Personally I prefer sewing.  Black thread effectively disappears against tracks.   It also works well with track "droop" on the top run.   

[kerick]

It's not so flat, they even have a town called Driebergen, that means 3 mountains. (But I haven't been able to see those "mountains" when I stopped there...)

But a 'mountain' in Holland means anything taller than a farm tractor!

In Kansas a dime in a parking lot is a good sized hill.

[NARSES2]

He said that Holland is pretty flat, and the highest point of the country is a highway overpass.

And the lowest is WELL below sea level! 

And no matter in which direction you are cycling, the wind is ALWAYS blowing against you.

Spent my final holiday before the world of work opened up on a cycling tour of Holland with a few school mates. Holiday also introduced us to Heineken 

[scooter]

He said that Holland is pretty flat, and the highest point of the country is a highway overpass.

And the lowest is WELL below sea level! 

And no matter in which direction you are cycling, the wind is ALWAYS blowing against you.

Spent my final holiday before the world of work opened up on a cycling tour of Holland with a few school mates. Holiday also introduced us to Heineken 

Best pint of Heineken I had was at Schiphol, waiting for my connection to head back to Iraq in '05, after spending 2 great weeks in London.

[zenrat]

I have a scar on my chin thanks to Heineken being stronger in Holland that the p**swater sharing it's name sold in the UK.  Well, that and the grass we were smoking...

I finished work today, did some shopping, had a very late lunch and then went and sat at the bench.  No mojo whatsoever.  I had trouble staying awake.  I halfheartedly airbrushed some wheels, cleaned up and glued a few parts but then gave up and went back indoors before I buggered something up.  Just one of those days I guess.  Didn't sleep well last night.
Day off tomorrow though so I should be in a better frame of mind.