Monday 19 July 2021

Heavy duty wheels

 So the wheels on the tank are wagon wheel thin and I wanted something a little more heavy duty to roll over the zombie corpses... now the fact this was a clockwork model also means the original wheels have lovely medieval cog teeth on them (which would have been very handy when I did the Watermill interior) and the model has a lovely wide slot for the wheels to allow for the teeth. So, inspired by trench gun wheels I went thick...

Because the interior (at least that bit) won’t be visible, I don’t need full replacement wheels which meant less work. I cut two circles about the size of the original wheels from 5mm foam pvc, then added another 3mm just to fill it out more. Carved some wood/plank texture and smoothed off the outer curve with some thin card. I then cut a series of plates to give the heavy duty feel. In my head the wheel itself doesn’t need to be solid and the plates (if damaged) can be replaced from inside the vehicle.

And a dry fit, the extra width and the plates fill the gap nicely. A lot of effort for something not really visible, but it works for me...