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I spent the better part of Thursday cutting and grinding the track blocks so the match in length within a millimeter. To achieve this it is sometimes necessary to cut the block laterally on the bogie landings with a razor saw and sand the cuts flush and glue the segments back together thereby making the track block shorter by a fraction of a millimeter. On the blocks below I cut one in three places and one in seven places to achieve blocks the right length.

http://i.imgur.com/CcQlV0C.jpg


The reason for this is the track lengths are pretty much standard but for some reason the blocks the bogies mount on vary by as much as five millimeters about 7/32 of an inch which coincidentally is just about a track link width. FW, the blighters, in their wisdom sold spare track links to the novice builders so they would have a full track run. Well that's fine if you can run down to Ye Olde local FW shoppe and purchase a few links but for those of us on the 'States' side of the pond, we're talking about a month to get the parts plus exorbitant shipping charges. So my fix is to adjust the length of the block.

That done it comes time to glue on the bogies which I pretty much covered last post and so that brings us to the present where I am attaching the treads to the road wheels. I start with the front lower segment that goes around the idler wheel. You must be sure the tracks follow the surface of the wheel tightly as you will have little room for error making this track run fit exactly. I use my Dremel cutter to burnish the inner surface of the tread segment to get the tightest fit possible as seen in the image below.

http://i.imgur.com/LBJgIhM.jpg


I glued it in place and while it dries I wrote this article; Martini time. Skoal

Restoring Tracks:

Restoring these tracks was quite a chore. The end of the mount block was melted off for some reason and the road wheels had broken mount pads and struts particularly on the idlers and drive sprockets plus the mount blocks were two different lengths. I restored the melted end with A-1 two part epoxy, cut,sanded and reglued the drive end of the block that was too long and pinned the broken idler strut with a piece of brass rod.

The results seen below is about as near perfect I can get considering the overall damage

http://i.imgur.com/3AV8VRI.jpg


The bottom of the tread run shows not much gap between the segments.................

http://i.imgur.com/g1mGdRX.jpg


and the longitudinal run is straight and true.

http://i.imgur.com/lJb6BqK.jpg


The front end which is the most visible seems about as good as you can get from a new kit. all the damage will be hidden from view by the track walls and covers.

http://i.imgur.com/lfro6on.jpg

Nice! Thats a lot of work though. Of course, I then went off to ebay to look for tanks in need of some tlc...LoL.

I am enjoying your posts and feel inspired. Great stuff.

 Cruentus wrote:
Nice! Thats a lot of work though. Of course, I then went off to ebay to look for tanks in need of some tlc...LoL.

I am enjoying your posts and feel inspired. Great stuff.

Thanks, there's a lot of Baneblades on ebay but almost all are plastic. I've never built a plastic one but someday I'll give it a go; it might be fun to retro fit it back to the resin styling just to see if it can be done.

Dessert:

I saved the last for dessert; as spanking brand new (At least to me) barely sullied Baneblade set of tracks that the hand of man has yet to set foot on.

But egad they're beige Sir!

Quite right they are so I believe this is a counterfeit Baneblade produced in Russia. Anyway I bought it on ebay and paid hard cash for it so although I don't approve of counterfeiting I'm not about to flush it down the loo.

Since this is new the Drive wheel sprockets are intact and when building a new model this is where you begin installing the treads. Making sure of the fit by assembling the treads dry and making the proper adjustments I glued the curved lower rear treads on first and allowed to dry employing rubber bands to keep the treads secure until the glue dries.

http://i.imgur.com/1v3DgTX.jpg


I then glued on the upper rear segment.

http://i.imgur.com/RMdEPZi.jpg

I've got some beige aeronautica imperialis fighters in forgeworld baggies, which I'm pretty sure are legit. But you're probably right about the baneblade. Still it will be interesting to see how it goes together.

I've got a reaver titan that I'm nervous about even starting, but this is getting me closer. Its nice to see someone working with the material, and know that the miscasts/goofs that I might make can be corrected with some forethought and work.

 Cruentus wrote:
I've got some beige aeronautica imperialis fighters in forgeworld baggies, which I'm pretty sure are legit. But you're probably right about the baneblade. Still it will be interesting to see how it goes together.

I've got a reaver titan that I'm nervous about even starting, but this is getting me closer. Its nice to see someone working with the material, and know that the miscasts/goofs that I might make can be corrected with some forethought and work.

The problem is when buying on ebay is you rarely (read 'never') get a certificate of authenticity printed by FW. The few models I purchased from FW had numbered certificates . If you play in sponsored tournaments do you have to carry all those documents to play your pieces? Personally I don't care, I've never played a game, I just like building the models so genuinity isn't an issue. BTW I hope to trot out my Reaver conversion later this month. I am making Lucius pattern alternative components so it can be swapped between Mars and Reaver patterns when it is finished. The are dozens of building tips you can use as I am making the model with screws and magnets so it can be disassembled..............

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/quote/90/8943668.page

Hope to see you there.

 The_Blackadder wrote:
If you play in sponsored tournaments do you have to carry all those documents to play your pieces?

No, and they don't even give them for most models anymore (just the titans IIRC). It was just a neat little fluff thing to go with the fluff about each tank having its unique serial number reported to Mars, along with all of its battles.

Thanks for the info; it shows how out of touch I am.

Tracks Complete:

Well, Mr smarty pants Blackadder, all that work and you still had to add an extra track link; fortunately I had quite a few spares.

http://i.imgur.com/cnCKNUf.jpg


With the tank hull applied the extension is barely noticeable but I'll know and will have to bear that shame. Oh well, at least it's not two as it was when I received it.

http://i.imgur.com/ZDi8DMU.jpg

A Coupla Pigs In a Poke:

My latest acquisition from Ebay.

https://i.imgur.com/1dfXbz8.jpg


A couple of badly assembled resin FW Superheavys; a Lucius Baneblade and a Stormsword.

https://i.imgur.com/LeY1ffO.jpg


These two are my 14th and 15th derelict Superheavy resin tanks I have acquired over the years since I made it my life's ambition to restore as many of these as possible to their full potential.

https://i.imgur.com/h2e2glD.jpg


I now have moved into a full company strength of Superheavy Baneblades and it's variants.

https://i.imgur.com/zu2rIjL.jpg


As Baneblades go these are not badly painted but little effort or knowledge went into the trimming or assembling; Gawd, even one set of tracks were installed backwards. But I have seen worse and I have no doubt I can disassemble these and repair them to their full potential glory.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Plastic Surgery 101:

Forgive me, I could not wait to get this done. those backwards treads were an abomination to my eye and the sooner removed the better

https://i.imgur.com/YUEdulY.jpg


The removal of the bottom tread run require a few minutes of gently tapping the Xacto chisel between the bogies and the treads.

https://i.imgur.com/hFTqvFX.jpg


The tread separated easily with a minimum of persuasion leaving one link securely glued to the next segment but we can live with that.

https://i.imgur.com/ogvAfEu.jpg


The next step was a bit harder as you are working blind and the glue might be too shall we say liberally applied to allow for a separation. I had ordered Super Glue remover just in case but that won't arrive for a couple of days. Working around the perimeter with the chisels I managed to loosen the majority of the bonds so I knew that removal was possible.

https://i.imgur.com/yDOxnin.jpg


So with about 20 minutes of labor and a bit of anxiety the deed was done and I can relax that both vehicles can be totally redeemable; Whew!

https://i.imgur.com/Cs3APzV.jpg