1/35 M76 "Otter"

[Jakko]

do I put it in "Warships and Ships" or "Armour"?

It's neither

on BtS

I take it you're not talking about the South-Korean boyband?

[Old Wombat]

on BtS

I take it you're not talking about the South-Korean boyband?

No, Beyond the Sprues, another (mostly) What if site, run by former members of this site.









    

[frank2056]

The red cargo vehicle seems to have a low railing, so I drew up and printed a couple of styles:



I'm cleaning the printed tomorrow (the posts are about 1mm in diameter)

I noticed that the wrecker version has reinforced, droppable sides that look interesting as well. I'll scratch build those out of styrene.

[Wardukw]

 
This is getting more interesting Frank  that's for sure 😀

[Jakko]

No, Beyond the Sprues, another (mostly) What if site, run by former members of this site.

Not heard of it, thanks

[frank2056]

With the curved railings, tacked in place:



The rails are pretty low., still a little taller than what I think are rails in the red cargo Otter artwork. With a 55 Gal. drum and a figure:



with the scratchbullt drop sides:



Cleaning up the scratchbuild was taking a lot of time, so while the filler was drying, I designed and printed similar drop sides:



I was going to smooth out the printer artifacts on the sides, but I like the pattern. Maybe it's a steel frame with a plastic cover on the cargo side...

[Old Wombat]

Looking good, Frank! 

I like the solid-side idea, it's not really a big enough cargo bed to need drop sides to get the load on/off.

Although I prefer the look of the styrene sides, personally. 

[kerick]

Nice use of the printing artifact. Now if you could do a criss cross pattern it could look like screen mesh. For future considerations. I know you just want to get on with this one.

[frank2056]

The kit from Hell progresses slowly.

The fprmer drop sides were too thin, so I printed four of the frames and sandwitched a sheet of styrene between them, to make the drop sides the correct thickness. After that it was masking, adding the fuel tanks and fuel lines (under the masks below) and some primer. I used some Badget Stynylrez red primer color, which may be good enough to be the final shade:





 I'll add the curved ended 3D printed railings on top of the drop downs, but they're in a metallic shade and will be painted and installed last.

I'm also masking the wheels so I can paint the tires. I still have a ways to go fixing issues with the body, but at some point I'll have to tackle the tracks. They're link and length, but like everything else in this kit, they're a pain.

The

[Wardukw]

Like the fact ya ain't giving up on this built Frank..it's a very interesting machine even tho the thought of a hammer and it hitting something orange is still in your mind 😆

[Old Wombat]

Well, look at it this way, Frank; You're winning!   

[buzzbomb]

Regardless of the setbacks.. you have overcome..well this far anyway, reasonably sure you will get it done as well.
Terrific work and revisions on the build

[frank2056]

Moving along on this miserable kit. I got the tires on. I also got the tracks on. They're link and length, which would have been a breeze on any other kit, but this being Gecko, the attachment points are less than 1/2mm deep. They are as annoying to build as the rest of the model. I still have to touch up the tracks - this is just the base color. I've also added a slight amount of weathering/dirt:



The prop looks more bronze in real life. The two blue tubes going from the roof to the fuel tanks are silicone coated wire (with the wires removed):


The railings are off for now. Here's what they'll look like on the vehicle:



Still have decals and a ton of small details to add.

[Old Wombat]

    

[Rick Lowe]