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Friday 7 February 2014

Tracks,tracks & more tracks. Need tracks ? Here's how to make them

Hello again all,
This is my first blog & i've reached 1000+ hits thanks to you .As a small thank you I decided to show you how to make simple tracks for any vehicle & most probably for any scale from 6mm to 30mm.

Pc's & electronics in general offer the scratchbuilder loads of material to use & this is a clear example.
Here's an IDE flat cable , this comes in different shapes & sizes & for those not tech savvy  is used to connect hard disks, floppy disk drives, cd's etc. It can also be found in SCSI type.

Simply use a small screw driver to remove the black connectors' side clips, as seen in pic. once you remove this the connector can be prised off  ( I teach H&s and so I cannot over stress the need to be careful.Your eyes & fingers are priceless. DO take care of them. Follow basic safety rules & wear safety gear ). Once you prise all 2 or 3 out flatten the cable & put it under a heavy flat object. The connecters make great missile launchers & the metal connections found inside make excellent aerials & pins.Pull these out with a thin flat long nose pliers .Once you decide on the width you can cut it out and glue with superglue to the desired shape.Here are some designs I did .I used plastic tank wheels or wooden wheel with small blobs of white glue for rivets.Oh btw I suggest you glue the wheels first on a sturdy piece of plastic/card/wood first.


Top L/h WW2 1/72 Panther wheels, Top r/h 1/76 T34 wheels, Middle right 1/76 Pzkpfw 4 wheels.Btm row wooden wheels






Here are examples on an MDF vehicle I'm building



Hope someone finds this useful

Enjoy
Z

12 comments:

  1. Neat! Very nice idea.
    Cheers,
    Shandy

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  2. Hello, I saw this post on G+, and wanted to say what a great idea, and one I am sure I will use.
    Thanks for the idea.
    Noel

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  3. Very clever indeed sir. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. You're more than welcome,I'll post another idea soon.....
    Angelo

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  5. Just found your blog, as one does, this is a great idea. I use ribbon cable to make ammo chutes for my mech models.

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  6. Thank you.
    Glad you liked it Ashley.
    I used them for that also.

    Look here
    https://castrarunis.blogspot.com/2018/04/black-earth-6mm-uef-hulk-suit-review.html

    Have a good weekend
    Z

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    Replies
    1. Nice. How tall are they? Idle curiosity forces me to ask. ;-)

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  7. I would say around 20mm, they're 6mm scale.
    Look here for size comparison.

    https://castrarunis.blogspot.com/2018/02/black-earth-6mm-15mm-mini-size.html

    Z

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  8. Cheers. Did I say I like your work, a lot?

    Following you now. You might be interested in looking at some of my stuff. We have similar tastes.

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  9. You're welcome and thank you.
    I did have a (quick)look at your blog/s ( I do like your Mech models). Keep it up.

    I think you would be interested in "The Murderbot Diaries Series by Martha Wells". If you or any other who read this haven't done so already , do yourself a favour.

    Have a great weekend
    Z





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  10. Murderbot is great. Deffo must read.

    BTW: I also write, three novels inspired by Stargate and VOTOMS.

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  11. Indeed. Martha Wells is BRILLIANT....
    Great, Will do so , when time permits ( yeah !!!!) ....
    so much stuff to do.. so little time...
    sigh... ;)

    Z

    ReplyDelete