Making a Monotread Truck

Monotread Truck

Inspiration

While painting some miniatures last week, the idea to make a new monotread faction for Star Mogul came to me.  I know, I have written the same thing for the last two posts as well, but that is how it happened.

Materials

For the Monotread Truck, I used a larger tape hub, given to me by my friend, the treads from a SGT York AA tank, some styrene plastic sheet, the blade from a Games Workshop kit (this is actually an older blade, so I do not know if they are available anymore), part of a trailer from and Academy 1/35th scale jeep kit with trailer, the attachment piece to a newer blade from Games Workshop, a piece from Robotix, the door from an old Games Workshop Rhino, and some bits from my bits box.

 Shown in the photo at left are the hub I used (it is about 2 1/4 inched in diameter, and 1 1/4 inches wide), some of the styrene sheet I used (I have already cut one of the discs from the sheet styrene as can be seen in the photo - it is 1 7/8 inches in diameter), and the tread for the to wrap around the hub.






As with the two previous projects, I had to cut the knobs from the tread to allow it to fit flat against the hub.  I used some nippers to remove the knobs.

Also, as in the two previous posts, I had to remove the stubs with a rotary tool.  Again, I used a circular bit to flatten the stubs.










This is a picture of the blade as it comes in the GW kit (the two pieces at the bottom) and the blade after I had removed a section and glued it back together. The cut I made was V-shaped, and I angled the sawblade away from the closest end.








This is a picture of the monotread after I have glued it to the hub.  Due to the width of the hub, I had to cut off approximately 1/4th of the tread, and glue two strips of the tread to the hub.  In effect, the hub for the truck is about one and a half treads wide, but that is the way that I wanted it to turn out - wider than the monocycle.  In this photo, I have already primed the monotread black.






This is the way that I envision the monotread truck to look like when I am finished - well, actually the blade will be facing forward and the bed of the truck will be higher and the side of the bed would be visible.  It will, of course, also be painted.

 These are the components that I built and painted before final assembly.  The circular piece above the monotread is the base for the model.  The center top piece is the bed of the truck, and the top right piece is the blade.  The two sides are below the bed and the blade, and the small piece at bottom right is the hatch for the gunner.

 I was very pleased at how it turned out.  It took me about nine days to make the monotread truck, the monotread cycle, and the monotread robot, but much of the time was designing the supports for the blade and the bed of the truck.