I have recently been asked if it might be possible to scale up the track plates I created for the 1:76 and 1:72 tanks from Airfix, Masterbox and Emhar. I realised that the compromises used to give the correct appearance in those scales would not work in 1:48 or larger. As a consequence I set about designing a new ‘track plate’ from scratch. I used data from available blue-prints plus photographs to create the basic plate (the 6mm actual plate thickness translated to 0.125mm so that might need to be a little thicker).
This is the current state of play. I need to reduce the height of the raised lip slightly and reduce the thickness of the edge of the lip in addition, photos of the track plate suggest that there is a more rounded corner, again at the lip, that the blue print suggests.
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Regards TeeELL
Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.
The ‘rivets’ were scaled from a photograph so I am content that they are dimensionally accurate although their height has been determined by appearance. If any one has a measurement of the height of the rivets and can let me know, I would appreciate it.
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Regards TeeELL
Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.
Thanks for that Charlie. I’ve refined and finalised my design and I am running a test print of a 9 plate run and a handful of single plates to check they will fit together correctly.
-- Edited by TeeELL on Monday 8th of July 2024 05:52:03 PM
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Regards TeeELL
Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.
The practice set of tracks have printed well enough - the connected length particularly so. I think that I am going to have to add some internal support to the raised lip as it hasn’t printed quite so well although it does go together well enough.
__________________
Regards TeeELL
Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.
I have added supports to prevent the lip from distorting. A sample of the single and the run of 5 plates is printing to see how effective the reinforcement supports have proven.
__________________
Regards TeeELL
Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional.
