SHI-KE

[digger303]

This was a Xmas holiday build that I just picked up again as a certain Camel was p...ing me off.
Not a lot of pic's and it's a relatively quick build that goes together very nicely except the vinyl tracks which tore apart on me.
They were pretty crap anyway detail wise. I replaced them recently with a metal set from R Models.

Also known as a Type 98 4t artillery prime mover

The Type 98 Shi-Ke was initially developed in 1937 as an improved artillery tractor to further mechanize the sparsely mechanical Imperial Japanese Army. The Shi-Ke was effective in its intended role and was used widely throughout the Pacific, fighting on islands and in China. However, like most vehicles in the Pacific, its use was limited in that many routes throughout the islands and jungles were inaccessible. In total, approximately 780 units had been produced.



As is the custom these days I used a blackening agent to treat the tracks . Mine was provided by VMS care of my credit card.



After they had dried off the missed patches are much more noticeable. The track on the right was treated with a soaking in Acetone for 10 minutes or so. I had a much better result with that one, but a long way from aceptable.



So I gave them a bit of a brush up with a soft bristle brass brush which removed a lot of the very dark colouring and then it was back in the container for a soak overnight with the idea of it would remove the thicker mold release that was stuck in all the corners. This time I used lacquer thinner.



Yep a really messy sticky situation. I had to cut the container lift out the tracks and of course they didn't want to come out easliy. Then successive baths of more thinner to melt/ dissolve all the plastic off. As it was the links still required each link to be excerised as the links were tight. It's a great way to make clear plastic lenses perhaps

factoid

Being an artillery tractor, the Type 98 Shi-Ke could carry a maximum of 1.81 metric tons in its tow. The total weight of the vehicle itself was 3.9 metric tons while its total length 3.7 meters.[2] The standard artillery piece that was carried by the Type 98 Shi-Ke was the Type 91 howitzer. The maximum distance that could be traversed in the vehicle was around 200 kilometers which was decent for the theaters it served in.

[digger303]

All done and dusted.









Thanks for tagging along guys

[Tomcat64]

Nice work of a really unusual subject & really well done on rescuing the tracks!

[Quax]

Nice one digger, definitely an unusual subject!

Paul

[RangerNeil]

A neat little buggy - and an excellent build!
Well done Digger.

[digger303]

Thanks guys