M8E2 Cargo Tractor

[PainlessWolf]

Good Afternoon,
Mr. Wobbly, On your Long Tom, perhaps build the barrel with slightly smaller diameter pipe lengths with washers soldered to the pipe ends for stops and felt on the contact edges of the washers to provide a smooth, friction-ed motion when the barrel recoils.
regards,
Painless

[sassgrunt]

For barrels - especially long ones that have a taper to them - I still fall back on those collapsible graphite fishing poles that they sell at Walmart for $10. In the case of the Long Tom which has a fairly thick breech end, I would imagine that you could use the parts from two poles to nest inside each other and make a thick barrel which still has a 'stepped' appearance. And they're very lightweight too, which would keep the gun carriage from being top-heavy. -Mike

[wibblywobbly]

For barrels - especially long ones that have a taper to them - I still fall back on those collapsible graphite fishing poles that they sell at Walmart for $10. In the case of the Long Tom which has a fairly thick breech end, I would imagine that you could use the parts from two poles to nest inside each other and make a thick barrel which still has a 'stepped' appearance. And they're very lightweight too, which would keep the gun carriage from being top-heavy. -Mike

Now I read this, after I have spent two days making a barrel, lol, I have an optical illusion of a taper at the breech end, but its just plain styrene tube the rest of the way. It's quite thick walled so I may be able to give it a slight taper with some dodgy sandy techniques.

[lliw180]

realy cool work any chance of more pics

[rolling-thunder]

I read up on this project while I was researching the M8E2 Cargo Tractor & really enjoyed it. I really like the utilitarian feel of this vehicle & i'd like one myself. How many hours went in to building it? {I lost all my links when I swopped PCs}

[wibblywobbly]

The build was fairly easy, as you can see it was made using styrene sheet, once I had found blue prints and photo's online it was a matter of careful measururing and cutting. The window frames as always require a bit of very careful cutting. It was the second one that I had done, so I knew where I was going with it, which helped.

Time taken? It was so long ago that I can't really remember. If I was doing one again, I would estimate a few weeks, doing a small amount each day. That's the way that I tend to do a scratch build, make a point of doing at least one thing every day, no matter how small, as that way it will inevitably get completed.

The Long Tom was a lot of large 3D printed parts, and was one of the first models that I designed and printed. At the time it took weeks, but nowadays I could probably design it in a week, the rest would be printing time.

[wibblywobbly]

I confess to cheating and leaving the chassis as it was, so yes the suspension was the wrong way, but in all honesty it ran perfectly. It was also a lot less risky than the Gorilla chassis approach was.

[wibblywobbly]

Just had to modify the front and rear to get the shape and length right. Then built the upper to fit.

[Rocketman]

I absolutely love this build. Gotta do me one of these!

[Rocketman]

Steady. Only back in the workshop this week so should get on that shortly!