How do you build?

[jackalope]

After seeing COUNTLESS muesam quality master pieces by many of our resident artists it's left me wondering, how do you guys build your tanks? In other words is it built as a "shelf queen", "battler", or just a "knock about" tank?

I build mine as "knock about" tanks just because there is no one near me to battle with and I'd be scared to death to take some of the tanks I've witnessed here by you fine gentlemen building off road or to the park.

Do you guys with the tanks that belong under glass ever run them outside beyond your well manicured front yards? How do you keep such awesome work from being damaged? I'm dying to know so I can attempt to strive for greatness like so many here have achieved.

[PainlessWolf]

Good morning, my friend,
My 'lawn' is no longer green or manicured since I live in a high alpine desert valley now. My ongoing practice of using Loctite gel cement with great shear strength and drilling and pinning the extra fiddly bits serves me in great stead here. *laughs* my yard looks like North Africa now and I expect that the tank park I am planning will have a decided desert feel to it as well. I build my tanks as runners using 'Stand Off Scale' levels of detail. Mike's Tiger is an exception to this rule and the Tiger I will build for myself will be as well. Everything else I own is made up of RTR tanks that have been rebuilt and detailed as such. The Elefant is a kit and will get greater detailing done too ( before I forget ) Jack, it's not so much "striving for greatness" as it is to just be satisfied with what you have done for yourself.
regards,
Painless

[frankie]

...wouldn't consider them as "museum quaility"..but my Fury Shermans are all built as battlers..they're all driven hard and often lent out at club meets...Fury herself is actually my 7yr olds favourite drive..

[jarndice]

Hi Jack, I have seen this question a number of times over the years,
The easy way is to make a "Shelf Queen" and a separate "Battler" but I like all my Tanks to work as they were designed to do,
So I strip everything plastic from the Tank then I put a thread on every shaft rather than glue the part and if for whatever reason that cannot happen then I solder the part,
Using "Solder Paint" and a "Butane torch" reduces the skill level that I needed when I was using a soldering iron.
This means that everything that can be bolted/soldered in place is, and that means tightening is what is usually required rather than losing/breaking a part,
I try to avoid building a Tank which does not have a metal hull because the added rigidity makes all the difference.
And Patience is key.
It has taken three Tiger 1 Plastic Backplates all of them fitted out and painted and all of which broke a locating tab, before I went to "FORGEBEAR" for a "MATO" Metal rear Backplate which required a fairbit of modification to get right, (Dave warned me that the Mato plate was not built to fit the Heng Long/Taigen Tiger 1 but I needed a metal backplate and Chris's was too expensive) But now the hull of the Tiger is solid and I can drive it on any surface without fear of anything serious going amiss.
Shaun.

[tomhugill]

Most of my tanks are build as battlers, with the exception of norbert whos fenders were much too delicate. All my photo etch is soldered and pinned onto the hull where possible. I do try and drive them as gently as possible though, although club members might disagree!

[[ICE]monkey]

there's a lot of builds here better than museum quality, a lot of theirs have he wrong bits on

[wibblywobbly]

All of mine, scratch built or not get run regularly, and all of them have been run out of doors at some time or another.

My golden rule whenever I build anything is to make it durable enough to drive it around, and I always install a battle system as its so simple to do.

[AshMann]

despite only having done one build and one completely stock tank, my tanks would be both battlers and knock about tanks, i just need to get around to actually turning them into battlers

[hawkeye3guns]

Hi I love scratch building, but also modify stock HL to suit. For me the challenge is to make as much as possible to work as it is supposed to and still look scale, All my tanks are runners and get used. (sorry car'nt see the point of building a static Shelf Queen) I can go to a museum and see that, LoL.

[OnTrack]

I build non-RC with working hatches, wheels, gears and place them amidst other vehicles, field gear, soldiers, scenery as ad hoc shelf dioramas that can be tweaked and re-configured over time. I am hoping to try RC this year by either adding the components or helping someone else add them to a 3D kit or two that hasn't seen RC before. These would have to be hardier of course so the tips posted on sheer strength of various adhesives are insightful. I'd hate to lose various bits in the yard only to realize they were gone later. The first project would most likely _not_ be for battle, just driving around.