Troop Transport part 2

Quick recap- in the previous post we covered making the wheel rims for a Troop Transport to use with 28mm to 30mm scale figurines.  To follow up, this post will cover the body of the tank.  (I apologize for the lack of progress images in this post-  they got deleted by mistake)

Materials used:

Card stock (still should be plenty left over from previous purchase)

For Sale sign

Tools:

Self healing cutting mat

Xacto hobby knife

Hot glue gun

Metal ruler with straight edge

Take the For Sale sign (which should be made of a thin plastic material) and place it on the mat.  Measure a width of 2 1/2” along the length of the sign.  Using the hobby knife lightly cut the sign so you have a strip of plastic which is at least 14 7/16” long.  This piece will form the hull of the tank.

Score the plastic at these lengths-

4 5/8”

1 11/16”

9/19”

½”

4 ½”

2 ¼”

It is not necessary to have the pieces be completely apart at this point.  The scoring will allow the plastic to be bent at those places and still be attached.

Set the plastic to the side and cut pieces of card stock 2/1/2” wide and 1/8” shorter than each of the segments scored on the plastic.  Glue these pieces to the side of plastic which wasn’t scored.  This gives strength to the form and prevents bending and curving.

Now we’re ready to give the tank hull its shape.  Keeping the 4 5/8” piece and 1 11/16” pieces together, remove them from the rest of the plastic.  Pick up one wheel rim and measure from the front 3/8”.  Glue the 4 5/8” piece to the top of the wheel rim so it matches the image below.  After that cools, bend the front piece so the edge is at the 3/8” line you marked earlier.  Glue this into place.

Remove the 4 ½” and 2 ¼” pieces from the smaller pieces and position them so the bottom piece is slightly above the bottom of the wheel rim and the front of the bottom is even with the bottom curve of the rim.  The rear hatch piece should fit snugly with the top of the rhino.  Glue these pieces into place.

Take the last two pieces and bend them so the slightly larger half is positioned straight down.  Glue this piece into place and bend the last piece so it overlaps the bottom of the Rhino.  Glue this last piece into place and trim any excess which may occur.

Cut 2 strips of plastic from the sign that are 3/4 “ wide and cut to form over the side, front, and back of the wheel rims.  Glue these into place.  

We now have the basic, clean shape of the Troop Transport.  Everything from this point on is detail.

Well, that’s the end of part 2.  Let me know if you find anything unclear or feel I missed a step somewhere.  Thanks for reading and stay tuned for part 3, wheels and tank treads on Tuesday!