HOOBEN T55 UGANDAN HILLBILLY WAGON

[PainlessWolf]

Herman,
I should have known that you would pre-measure clearances to avoid cockups while running the tank. ;0) This Granny might be a little expensive but it would fit the tank both geographically and scale wise. ( little small but doable ) I'd suggest having a 3D Print of something very close to this run off then painted to fit.
regards,
Painless
https://www.ebay.com/itm/325708295244?h ... R7ijq-bMYg

or add a rocker to this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/386095825311?h ... R46i_-bMYg

[HERMAN BIX]

Unless that number is in some currency that is worth fraction of a cent, thats outrageous!!!
Appreciate you finding the idea though mate !!
I found time & a bit of mojo to make a replacement rear guard section so I can rough it up a bit and create a bit more visual impact.
A bit of aluminum & a little bit of fitting & its an ok look.
Also used the last of my ZTZ99 engine deck mesh to fill in the vent louvers, not perfect but this entire thing wont be !
The weird behaving brittleness of the Hooben plastic is most disconcerting, its turns to white when its sanded, wants to fracture if its twisted, and doesnt respong to normal model cement/glue, only super glue.
Still, Im just happy to have one and I intend to make the best of it.
Some spare track links arrived yesterday so I can get a bit more slack-in-me-track
Will muck around with the track length soon.

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[tankme]

I was able to get the white bottle Plastruct glue to adhere styrene to it, but I also clamped the pieces I was gluing. It is some strange plastic like all Hooben kits, but sadly it is better than all the plastic on the kits after.

[HERMAN BIX]

A little progress. I made some rubber side skirts out of a surplus pool patch used to repair leaks in vinyl pools that we used to have.
Quite thin and flexible, and fibre reinforced so should hold up if I fasten them right.
I've run a bit of brass square section along the side of the guard to space the drop out a bit from the track run.
Plan to secure it to the sides of the guards and bung the ERA blocks onto it in a near enough fashion.
Not all the AU T55's had it, some had no skirts, some had skirts , some had ERA on the skirts, some with skirts had no ERA, some had their skirts jammed into the upper track run with ERA blocks on them, like an explosive wedgie, more skirt action than a nightclub in Surfers Paradise
Also trimmed the rear fuel drum mounting brackets & secured them in place ready to help hold the stowage shambles on ! Seems none of the earlier AU T55’s had the drums on the rear, well, where would the garden furniture go if they did eh
Plus they still allow the hull to come apart easily for battery swaps.

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[HERMAN BIX]

I seem to have lost my way a bit on this project, not sure why but I am sure I will get my together & figure things out.
All Blacks loss very highly contributed.
For now, getting the other rubber guard mount on the other side was something to be a bit happy with.
As I do it to myself, getting the right rough look is much harder than a new/undamaged look. Forming the brass to match the disrupted plastic is no simple task.
She'll be right, I'll get er.

Get’n bent !

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[Raminator]

The metalwork looks great, Herman. The effect is heaps better than the wobbly, melted plastic!

If your mojo's running low, do you think a delivery from your friendly local arms dealer will help?

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I spent some time over the weekend adapting my AKS-74U drawings into an AK-74, and figured I'd do the RPK-74 too since I was already halfway there. You can never have enough dakka!

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The RPG was pretty straightforward (much like the internet, it is just a series of tubes), so I tried adding a PGO-7 scope to spice things up a bit. I can print it with folded iron sights, unfolded iron sights or with the optic attached, whichever you feel will best suit your theatre of operations. I've been printing some stuff for my wife the last few days, I'm hoping to get these done during the week. Let me know if there's any other esoteric stowage you'd like before I get all this stuff sent up to you.

[HERMAN BIX]

Oh Hell YES an arms dealer-deal(almost like a KFC Family Bucket eh! ) will certainly rekindle the romance with this.
I just know there is a lot to do but cant seem to take the next step to do it

As for any more stowage, the only thing I could thing of would be the 100mm fixed ammo crates to suit the main rifled gun.
The T72 crates are of course 2-piece for the autoloader so are a lot smaller. I can use them as general stowage but not for this I reckon.
The longer one-piece rounds and the crates for them would still be much use to add onto any SU100 model, of which the forum members have lots of, myself included.
Plus the T55 versions that come out of the woodwork at times as they share the same gun (albeit with changes- not to the ammo)
Once you have completed the Wifes mission, the chairs, stools, 20L containers, AK74 variants and RPGs & 100mm crates can all erupt off the production line like the French Forward pack the other morning

[HERMAN BIX]

Just looking at the subject pictures though, I see a lot of Type 56 AKM's (with the underfolding bayonet) so if you can figure any of those out, that would look very cool on this, and my Technical as well

[ColemanCollector]

...
I just know there is a lot to do but cant seem to take the next step to do it ...

Whew! It's not just me that experiences this!

Mike.

[Ecam]

Really great work Bix and Ninja! A really great thread to read. I had to drink my coffee while looking away, not sure how many more coffee baths my keyboard can handle.