Renault FT 1:6

[MikeN]

With each of your posts, I am having more trouble differentiating between your masterpiece and the real one. Two questions:
I think I see rifling in the barrel! Is that right?
The painted one looks to be in someone's suburban garage. Am I right?

The "rifling " in the barrel is a bit of a half-arsed attempt. I stuck a small file down it and managed to file some small grooves just at the end.
The colour picture is a screenshot from a utube video from the "Museum of the American GI".
You can find it if you search for " WW1 FT 17 Renault tank walk around part 1 of 2. "

[Herr Dr. Professor]

It's a rather nifty trick!

[MikeN]

Making the commanders cupola.
Note the vision slit in the top.
I bet that was annoying in the rain!

[Ecam]

More fantastic lathe and machine work! I have a hard time understanding the straight up vision slit unless to identify a plane overhead.

[MikeN]

I have finished making the tail skid,

[MikeN]

Nearly finished now.

[Ecam]

Utterly superb! Looks like the tail skid was designed to be able to fold upwards or removed if needed?

[ColemanCollector]

Is there a company out there that makes miniature wraps like the full size ones for cars? So many cool paint schemes for the FT17, but I'd want to peel it back to bare metal every 6 months, then try another scheme, then peel it back!
Nth degree stunning, MikeN!

Mike.

[MikeN]

Is there a company out there that makes miniature wraps like the full size ones for cars? So many cool paint schemes for the FT17, but I'd want to peel it back to bare metal every 6 months, then try another scheme, then peel it back!
Nth degree stunning, MikeN!

Mike.

I quite like the look of it in bare metal. So im not in a hurry to paint it yet.

[MikeN]

Utterly superb! Looks like the tail skid was designed to be able to fold upwards or removed if needed?

Thank you.
The tail skid is folded downwards to facilitate starting. see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI1hJmnI2RM
Or pull out both pins to detach it.
I think you would want to be careful not to stall the engine during a battle!

This morning I made a starting handle for it: