Renault FT 1:6

[MikeN]

Hello Mike,

I'm totally blown away by your Renault FT ! I'm working on one, which is smaller and in styrene and resin 3D printed tracks and it's a nightmare, but I see yours, wow mine is a breeze in comparison !

Your work looks so good, every part looks perfect from the rivet to the sprocket.

How did you manage to create the curvy shape of the track shoes ? Do you have any more pictures of the building process of them ? Of the rough assembly before you grind and clean them ?

Can't wait to see more, I don't know if you're going to paint it because it looks so nice and impressive in bare metal !

Keep up the good work Mike !

Thank you, What scale is your tank.Is it powered?
I didn't take any pictures of the manufacture of the track shoes but
here is the simple press tool that I made for producing them.
Each shoe is made from a square of 1mm steel sandwiched between the 2 parts and squashed in my vice.
Then I hammered over the edge all round.
The down turned part that digs into the ground for grip was too thin so I had to weld a strip of steel along there to thicken it up.
This took a lot of time to clean up.
Then Each plate had to be milled all the way round. I did this by holding it in the press tool in the vice on my milling machine.
Then the 2 slots at the front of each shoe that allow it to hinge had to be cut. For this i made a fixture that held my angle grinder with a 2mm cutting disc.

[MonsieurTox]

Hello Mike,

I'm totally blown away by your Renault FT ! I'm working on one, which is smaller and in styrene and resin 3D printed tracks and it's a nightmare, but I see yours, wow mine is a breeze in comparison !

Your work looks so good, every part looks perfect from the rivet to the sprocket.

How did you manage to create the curvy shape of the track shoes ? Do you have any more pictures of the building process of them ? Of the rough assembly before you grind and clean them ?

Can't wait to see more, I don't know if you're going to paint it because it looks so nice and impressive in bare metal !

Keep up the good work Mike !

Thank you, What scale is your tank.Is it powered?
I didn't take any pictures of the manufacture of the track shoes but
here is the simple press tool that I made for producing them.
Each shoe is made from a square of 1mm steel sandwiched between the 2 parts and squashed in my vice.
Then I hammered over the edge all round.
The down turned part that digs into the ground for grip was too thin so I had to weld a strip of steel along there to thicken it up.
This took a lot of time to clean up.
Then Each plate had to be milled all the way round. I did this by holding it in the press tool in the vice on my milling machine.
Then the 2 slots at the front of each shoe that allow it to hinge had to be cut. For this i made a fixture that held my angle grinder with a 2mm cutting disc.

Hey Mike, mine will be 1/10 and it will be R/C but I'm just at the beginning of the project, still working on the 3D model :

FT1.jpg (282.35 KiB) Viewed 223 times

I spent a lot of time on the track links, I'm finally happy with them (and with the nex resin). Of course I add to make the parts thicker than they would be to be stronger. This is the last version of the track links and they work well.

IMG_20240128_202259_resized_20240128_082354788.jpg (1.64 MiB) Viewed 223 times

IMG_20240128_202316_resized_20240128_082355186.jpg (1.17 MiB) Viewed 223 times

Thanks for the pic, now I understand better how the shoe was made. That's a lot of work just for one track link, I admire your patience and craftmanship. I wish I had your skills.

I'm sure you're pretty covered but I took several pictures of one of the FT in display in the Saumur Museum if you want.

Cheers,

Julien

[MikeN]

Your track parts look very impressive.
What do the raised numbers mean?
I've seen similar markings on preserved tanks.
I think I'm alright for pictures. Thank you for the offer.

[MonsieurTox]

Your track parts look very impressive.
What do the raised numbers mean?
I've seen similar markings on preserved tanks.
I think I'm alright for pictures. Thank you for the offer.

Thanks, not very impressive in comparison of yours !

I have no idea what those numbers mean, I guess they are casting part number/mold number/serial number. However I don't know if they were originaly on the French tanks or if they appeared when built under license by other countries (US and other). It's hard to tell on period pics are they are often not of very good quality or the track are full of mud.

[MikeN]

Ive done a bit more work.
Finished the front suspension.

[MikeN]

[MikeN]

Added some detail to the engine deck

[MikeN]

[MikeN]

Making the front steps .
The square pattern is cut with a pointed tool that is ploughed across the metal at 45 deg to cut the grooves. Advance 1 mm after each cut then rotate the job and repeat 45 deg the other direction.



A bit of final shaping and soldering

[MikeN]

The exhibit at Bovvy is an early prototype with a cast front end (as well as other differences) that were not incorporated in the production models (I think).
Note the curly horns which are (I think again) for attaching tow chains. On my version there are brackets each side for shackles