Well my Mini Sprint-T has made it all the way to the Anaheim sorting facility. Since it isn’t due earlier than Wednesday and likely on Friday, Saturday, or Monday I’m not worried about it.
What I have been doing in the meantime is deciding how I’m going to use the kit parts to make the parts I use to make the Mini Sprint-T AKA as pattern-making. I have figured out how to make the mold for the vacuformed bucket from silicon casting compound and duct tape, and the fender/tea-tray unit from vacuforming over a carved pattern (possibly carved from a 3-D CAD file), it’s the other parts I’m having difficulty with.
I have come to the realization that it won’t matter what I do about the transmission mounts and the torque arm mounts or the transmission end of the drive shaft. Nobody will be able to see them unless I leave off parts of the model because the belly pan is a welded in stressed member with the transmission hatch held on by bunches of little tiny screws on the Sprint-T, which will just be dots on the bottom of the model. Hundreds of dots, but still just dots. So, I’ll just cast a centersection for the QC with a lump that looks vaguely U-joint-ish at the front and a short section of driveshaft and the section of torque arm that mounts to the QC that will disappear inside the transmission tunnel, then fab up some side covers that will mount the scale 3″ axle tubes (0.120″) to which I will mount the Wide 5 hubs. I might even be able to get the rears to roll.
The front axle has proven to be a tougher nut to crack. Basically I have had to choose two alternatives: turn or roll. I can make the front wheels turn left and right, or I can make them roll, but I can’t do both with the parts and tools I have at hand. Now if I could make the end of the hub removable and machine the inside I could do both, but the resin castings I can get won’t support that kind of wear and tear. Maybe if I did aluminum or white metal castings they would work, but I don’t know if I want to do that much work. I’m thinking rolling wheels with the metal axle hidden inside the scale axle and spindles would do the job. All of the Wide 5 hub kits will roll with a metal axle hidden inside the scale axles.
On another note that mobile game I have been playing that paid for the model kit will still work as long as I can find WiFi, and I’m almost up to another $1 gift card from Amazon in points, and more than halfway to a $1 card on the side quest that gets me 1/20th of the card each day that I participate in the quest. Doing both at the same time gets me more cards and possible other prizes.
Now I have to get ready for a church board meeting tonight so this will be the end of this Wreck-Free Sunday post.
PSA, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 