Project Tonks: Part 6

Six weeks now? I suppose that counts as a routine.

 

As you may recall from last week, I was feeling quite pleased, but had received a delivery of models that were gonna be a distraction. Bloody hell Richard, what were you thinking? You start a long term project involving 1:72 tanks, and as change of pace you order some 28mm mini-tanks for when you are on holiday. That's a really diverse set of projects you got going there. So, of course I put those together alongside today's Tonk work, although the write-up will come in future weeks. On the plus side, it does not appear to have slowed me down by much.

 

Today's Tonk followed on the innovations of last week's where I'd chanced upon a method to easily make road wheels. Here I cut down some 6 by 1 thin not-lego pieces, attached wheels to them, and wrapped the bricks with a strip of EVA foam to provide a foundation. The wheels here were salvaged from toy cars, specifically pull-motors, which also provide good gears. As this was a first attempt, I went for a simple line of road wheels, which ended up needing an additional small wheel as I’d misjudged the distance between them. Not quite what I wanted, but good enough. Attaching these to the hull of the Tonk was a bit of trail & error, as was applying the tracks. I had to faff about a bit so everything sat flat. Otherwise, I went for a slightly more angular look with a smaller turret than the last one. Said turret was achieved by wrapping the business end of a spraypump with EVA foam and bits until I got the shape I wanted. I used a lot of cheapo gap-filler on that turret too, to smooth it out. Painting then continued in the usual manner, making use of a make-up brush to speed things up. A couple rivets didn't want to take paint for some reason, but i think I got it in the end. Sorry about the photos, the light wasn't great.

 

 

 

All in all, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. The tracks aren't quite there, but are certainly good enough. I’ve also found my pace of building and painting has increased. Part of that’s being on holiday, but I seem to approaching Gaslands levels of efficiency where the only thing that’s slowing me is literally the paint drying, or waiting for the putty to set. I’ve made A LOT of track links in the past week, so the remaining two Tonks should go faster. Actually I’ve started on the third, but decided slow down, lest I burn out.

Up next: Another Tonk.