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So, I'm building four Chimera variants with great big wheels instead of tracks. There will be two Hellhounds and two Salamanders, and instead of the whole 'track assembly' that comes with a cimera, I'll be building a 'wheel assembly'. Here's a fantastic illustration of what i mean.



The thick black line along the top is a plasticard armour section I'll be making. Now, I've got a load of wheels from an electronics supplier which are EXACTLY the right size. Here they are...



But I think I need to add some extra detail to them. They're a bit plain at the moment. The important thing is that I want something that's relatively quick. I have 24 of these things to do, and my initial idea of greenstuffing 'studs' onto them will be a long and boring task.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking chains for grip, plating, hubcaps made from shields, studding, something like that....

plastic rivets

hub caps from the standard IG roadwheels

some kind of small skull detail for the 4 raised bits on each rim

Treads.
Regardless of whether they're going to be painted as rubber "tires," metal one piece wheels, or something else, they're going to get stuck without treads.
You could create a plasicard design, replicate it, and glue it right on.
OR, you could create that design & glue it to thin plasticard strips, then glue the strips to each wheel.

Eric

Treads made easy,
get some thin plasticard
cut it into thin strips (style choice here on width)
cut the strips down to little uniform length rectangles
glue said rectangles on wheels with a small gap between each one


adding nuts to the small circular spots would look good too, get some plastic rod, the super thin 1mm stuff, slice tiny bits and glue them down with a small amount of super glue

do both of those, itll' be quick, no sculpting involved. And it will look damn impressive.

Hmm, not sure, although I agree that you're probably going to want to find something textured to glue on and serve as treads.

I do think I'd "double up" the wheels to make them thicker and more imposing - they look a tad thin on their own. Plus I think it'll make putting a tread on easier.

Thanks!

Hmm. I like the idea of simple thin 'strips' of plasticard. Maybe three of four around each wheel with small gaps in between, would give them a 'road wheel' or 'racing wheel' look?

TEXTURED treads would be lovely - does anyone know where I can get the textured rubber treads that come in WW2 tank kits?


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What about the rubber drive belts that electronics kits use? Do you know of anything that might have a texture rather than just be a flat bit of rubber?

I have one idea. maybe a rubber band, on e of the really thick heavy duty ones. If you were to slash it up a bit in the proper sections it might work, then soak in contact cement and stretch it on. It should dry rigid and look like a beat up track section. Not sure though, never tried it myself

There are companies that make the rubber treads for tanks separately to the kits. I've got M3 and M4 tracks as well as Centurion and M-113 tracks here in my bits box (local store had them on sale). They're for 1/35 and the M3/4 tracks are about the right size for a Leman Russ/Chimera in width.

yeah,
mini fan belts might be a idea, twisted inside out.
If you can find exactly the same size as your wheels your laughing, or a big one that goes around all three wheel...



Panic...

why not make one of your tyres using the greenstuff and the make mold so you can replicate it??

A couple of possibilities if people want to buy rather than make wheels:
http://www.ema-models.com/products/04294-model-wheels.html
(Look near the bottom of the mechanisms page)
and
https://www.rapidonline.com/productinfo.aspx?tier1=Electrical+%26+Power&tier2=Fans+%26+Motors&tier3=Accessories&tier4=Model+wheels&moduleno=31305&catref=37-1310#
from rapidonline

Since you've already got all the wheels I suggest you punch out a massive bunch of "rivets" from plasticard using a hole punch. (Duh!) And make wheels with chunky nubs on them.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-200111-Heavy-Revolving-Pliers/dp/B000LFTF5U/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=diy&qid=1267737202&sr=8-15

Another idea...



Like cakefool said there are plenty of places to get ready made wheels if you don't want to bother with converting something.

For example there are three different companies making replacement wheel kits for 1/35th scale Stryker models.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Panic wrote:yeah,
mini fan belts might be a idea, twisted inside out.
If you can find exactly the same size as your wheels your laughing, or a big one that goes around all three wheel...



Panic...

You could use those to add tread to the wheels.




Or following the GW tradition of engineering design you could do wheels like the ones on this ACW heavy mortar.