Reynard
Guru
- Location
- Cambridgeshire, UK
Been working on building the back axle while I wait for the can of Tamiya primer to arrive. Again, it's been finding that balance between accuracy and building a part that is a) strong enough, and b) fits with everything else that attaches to it while still managing to look right regardless...
The beam of the axle is made from an 8mm diameter knitting needle. Most of the rest is laminated card and paper set in 2-part epoxy, then sanded to the final shape. The central core of the diff housing is a rolled paper tube, and then everything else has been stuck on to it - that was fun, playing with teeny, tiny pieces of card. I discovered that they have a horrible tendency to either a) stick to everything else other than where you want to stick it to or b) squirt out of your fingers and vanish somewhere in the pile of the carpet...
Oh yes, and most of the parts for the diff casing are assymmetric, which brought a whole different level of headaches to the build.
I've also laminated in a wire peg on the top of the diff casing which fits into a corresponding hole on the upper rails platform - hence the use of grey card in the structure, as it's easier to carve the channels for the wire. That's also the reason why there's a stepped flat surface on top rather than the same curved profile on the bottom of the axle. It gives me a bigger surface area for the glue when I finally stick the assembly in place.
N.B. The prop and hubs / brake drums aren't glued in yet, as I've got other things to sort out before I can do that. To give you an idea of scale, the brake drums are roughly the diameter of a 2p piece.
The beam of the axle is made from an 8mm diameter knitting needle. Most of the rest is laminated card and paper set in 2-part epoxy, then sanded to the final shape. The central core of the diff housing is a rolled paper tube, and then everything else has been stuck on to it - that was fun, playing with teeny, tiny pieces of card. I discovered that they have a horrible tendency to either a) stick to everything else other than where you want to stick it to or b) squirt out of your fingers and vanish somewhere in the pile of the carpet...
Oh yes, and most of the parts for the diff casing are assymmetric, which brought a whole different level of headaches to the build.
I've also laminated in a wire peg on the top of the diff casing which fits into a corresponding hole on the upper rails platform - hence the use of grey card in the structure, as it's easier to carve the channels for the wire. That's also the reason why there's a stepped flat surface on top rather than the same curved profile on the bottom of the axle. It gives me a bigger surface area for the glue when I finally stick the assembly in place.
N.B. The prop and hubs / brake drums aren't glued in yet, as I've got other things to sort out before I can do that. To give you an idea of scale, the brake drums are roughly the diameter of a 2p piece.
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