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#2020 by roma847 on 11 Apr, 2021 13:47
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Hello everybody,
now I only have to bite my teeth four times
then the 8 Crawler chains would be done, so let's get to work! 
So keep the scissors coming,
and get rid of the annoying set-bars.
After that, the laborious deburring of the chain links was the next step again. 
After the pair formation, the pre-drilling of the Pin Lugs followed, as usual,
and then the pinning the chain, alternating with pre-drilling the Pin lugs and occasionally deburring of bulky pins.
And with the 5th Chain I'm already over the worst,
and can slowly see light at the end of the tunnel ...
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#2021 by roma847 on 12 Apr, 2021 23:13
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Hello everybody,
before I get to my day-to-day business, I would like to remind the beginning of the Shuttle missions and Columbia's launch to her maiden flight STS-1 with which NASA's legendary Shuttle program began today 40 years ago.
Source: NASA
And thus back to the present. Today was the turn of the 6th Crawler chain, of course (almost) again in the familiar and proven sequence of steps.
- Deburring of the Track shoes
- Pair formation and pre-drilling of the Pin Lugs
- Pinning the pairs (deburring of the pins)
For a change, I proceeded a little differently this time than before and have connected these pairs by building Groups of four,
which I've then connected to each other to Groups of 16,
from which in the last step finally the 6th Chain was formed.
So now it means to clench the teeth only still twice, to finally holding a complete set of 8 Chains in my hands.
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#2022 by goretexguy on 12 Apr, 2021 23:20
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amazing work!
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#2023 by roma847 on 12 Apr, 2021 23:45
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I'm happy if you like it.
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#2024 by roma847 on 14 Apr, 2021 15:48
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Hello everybody,
today I'll report with a quickie regarding the 7th Chain.
- Deburring of the Track shoes
- Pinning the pairs
And so also the 7th Chain is already done, so that the last Pin-storeroom can be looted next.
In order that the finale of this fiddling chapter is finally around the corner.
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#2025 by roma847 on 17 Apr, 2021 13:06
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Hello everybody,
it's managed!
In the meantime, the 8th Crawler chain is finished and the Crawler is already almost Ready for Rollout! 
So here is the short farewell to a certainly stressful and monotonous for everyone, but necessary chapter ...
With the pinned couples the final countdown was ushered in,
and then the time had finally come, and the 456 Track Shoes have become now to the 8 Crawler chains. And the 8 Pins for closing the chains are also left over.
Since the 16 Drive Sprockets are already finished, I will soon have to think about which parts of the trucks I will build from the Paper kit, or will scratch, or whether I should fall back for some tricky details to the 3D modeling skills of my friend Joe (crackerjazz) from the ARC Forums followed by 3D printing ...
Very helpful for this would also be the generous offer from Sascha1990 in his thread Crawler Transporter 1/48 3D-Print of his monster crawler for making the 3D STL Files available for general use on his homepage. Unfortunately nothing has been seen of him since then, as well as that he has not yet responded to my recent request too ... 
So let's see, time will tell!
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#2026 by mike robel on 17 Apr, 2021 14:50
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Nice progress, Manfred! Looking forward to more of your work.
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#2027 by EG on 17 Apr, 2021 17:25
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Very helpful for this would also be the generous offer from Sascha1990 in his thread Crawler Transporter 1/48 3D-Print of his monster crawler for making the 3D STL Files available for general use on his homepage. Unfortunately nothing has been seen of him since then, as well as that he has not yet responded to my recent request too ...
So let's see, time will tell!
A lot of people were putting heavy pressure on him to share, many were unkind..... You know how people can be....
I certainly hope he doesn't withdraw from everyone, but that is his right.... I'm still here to give him any help I can as I'm sure you are my friend..... But people can be downright cruel in their demands at times... I wouldn't blame him if he never shows up again.....
He's put in the work to make something absolutely stunning, I do not understand why people cannot just appreciate it for what it is and the work and skill it takes to do this type of modeling....
I wonder if Michelangelo had to deal with that kind of crap.....
It's sad....
Patiently watching brother, repetitive work can be a bore but you seem to handle it well.... AS you know my friend there is more of it to come, not quite like the tracks, but still....
One has to admire your dedication as well as your skills....
Anything I can do to help let me know... -
#2028 by roma847 on 18 Apr, 2021 00:41
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Thanks EG for your enlightenment regarding Sascha1990.
I haven't yet known the fateful connection between his brilliant project start and Thingiverse, but that explains a lot so that I can understand his frustration.
That could be of course an explanation for the fact that he also no longer was posting in our German forum raumfahrer.net since 12/04/2018 without our members knowing the possible reason for this. Nevertheless he could have answered to my PM, especially since we were in close, almost daily contact that time, strange ...
This is really a sad story that I can now educate our members about.
Regarding my daily work during the last 8 weeks, this truly boring work with the Crawler chains is over now, Thank God! So more interesting things will come soon again too.
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#2029 by roma847 on 04 May, 2021 11:27
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Hello friends,
the break was long enough, and since Sascha1990 has probably said goodbye forever, I have shelved my 3D Printing Considerations for now.
Most likely I had thought of the 16 Propel motors, four of which drive one of the four Truck pairs and thereby move the huge Crawler forward.
Source: NASA
In David Maier's Kit, these motors form a unit with the gearbox housing and must be laboriously folded and glued together from these parts,
whereby the details in the typical Maier design are only indicated by partially blurred textures,
what then looks like this at the finished model of my friend Michael Knobloch.
What bothers me even more are the even more rustic-looking modules of the JEL Hydraulic cylinders for equalization the crawler on the slant Crawlerway up to the pad,
Source: papermodelers.com (mk311049)
which are only built box-shaped and covered with textured wallpaper,
Source: papermodelers.com (mk311049)
what is immediately noticeable on closer inspection and therefore would not please me.
Source: papermodelers.com (mk311049)
Source: papermodelers.com (mk311049)
That is why I thought for a long time how I could at least partially circumvent these inadequacies in David Maier's Paper Kit.
To do this, I firstly again dealt more intensively with Mischa Klement's Crawler Kit (1/96) and the few construction reports about it and then contacted the master who had briefly introduced his unprecedented Crawler in our German Raumcon forum a long time ago in the topic Paper models.
Source: Mischa Klement (cyana)
His kit consists of approx. 11.000 parts (0,4 mm to 40 cm)
and is without exaggeration High-End Paper Modeling, whereby the Crawler is a true work of art in museum quality due to its impressive level of detail. 
The kit has been available since 2010 and is limited to 499 pieces worldwide, but is not for the faint of heart, which is why so far only a few modelers have successfully completed the construction of this monster, of which I know three, whose construction reports I am followed and studied with interest.
Due to the high level of detail, these assemblies look worlds better by Micro Artwork, here just the components for a Propel motor and beside it the finished pair Gearbox housings with motors,
Source: Mischa Klement (cyana)
as well as here on the finished model.
Source: Mischa Klement (cyana)
And in his extensive building instructions (48 pages) everything is illustrated and described in detail.
In our last conversation I learned that there are actually still some kits available what I no longer believed. That's why I spontaneously decided to buy a kit and have received the proud part in a sturdy cardboard box a few days ago.
Here is an overview of the contents of the kit:
1 The kit comes in a solid card board box and is packed in a nylon bag to avoid damage from humidity. The red circle shows the placement of your serial number, for me 443/499.
2 Instructions manual with 48 pages
3 2 sheets of 300 g card stock – one A4 sized in gray, one half A4 sized in yellow (WWY2, WWY3)
4 2 sheets of A4 transparent film (TRNS1, TRNS2) for windows and gratings
5 1 sheet of black A4 tissue paper for Guide and JEL tubes as well as for steering cylinders (TPA)
6 12 sheets of 250 g card stock A3 (CHA1-CHA5, COR, CBL2, TOP, 4 x TRK2)
7 10 sheets of 120 g paper A3 (SMP, CBL1, 4 x TRK1, 4 x TRK3)
8 1 sheet of 100 g paper A3 (WWY1) and 1 sheet of 80 g paper A3 (PIT)
In the kit nearly everything has been thought of, both in terms of different paper/cardboard thicknesses and colors, as well as transparencies for windows in the driver's cab and gratings for covering openings in the crawler floor as well as for fans and walkways.
Since the truck booms contain breakthroughs and openings, these parts are printed on gray cardboard of the same color,
and partially even the backs of the sheets are printed with the backs of the parts.
And here is a look at the detailed and illustrative assembly instructions,
that one also can downloaded from the Homepage, here with a look at the detailed structure of a Propel motor.
And here for comparison the individual parts of a motor in the kit size (1/96) and about half the size in my scale 1/160 with my obligatory one reference Cent, from which it can be seen that it should be difficult, if not impossible, to tinker such a small motor respectively 16 pieces of it.
But maybe I should at least give it a try ...
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#2030 by SteveGoodey on 04 May, 2021 12:55
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Wow,
You're a glutton for punishment.
Are you ever going to finish this project? Rather you than me, I'm afraid I wouldn't have the patience for this.
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#2031 by roma847 on 04 May, 2021 13:25
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Sorry, but I do not understand your reaction or cannot interpret it. Do you think I want to build Mischa Klement's Crawler Kit with its 11.000 parts now, or what?
At least I hope that I will finish my project at some point, but I can't say when that will be. But that was clear to me from the start ...
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#2032 by EG on 04 May, 2021 19:30
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I just sent an E-mail to Mischa myself, I don't want to lose access to this one like I did the online files....
That is one heck of a template brother.... -
#2033 by Bob Shaw on 04 May, 2021 19:40
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Has any thought been given to laser cutting the bulky parts from plasticard, or acetate? The plans are right in front of you and this would surely reduce the workload! I'm not suggesting you do anything other than get a commewrcial source or friend with a cutter to do the work - you don't need another learning curve to climb!
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#2034 by roma847 on 04 May, 2021 23:52
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I just sent an E-mail to Mischa myself, I don't want to lose access to this one like I did the online files....
That is one heck of a template brother....
That's right my friend.
I'm not going to build Mischa Klement's Crawler Kit, but especially the Crawler's outrigger structures (incl. the JEL Cylinders) of his kit I will try to recreate of plastic by using the downscaled outlines (1/160) I have let print out today, which I then want to combine with David Maier's Crawler Kit.
The original print files of Mischa Klement's kit (1/96) are available now also as PDF documents (to customers only).
Source: Micro Artwork, Mischa Klement (cyana)
The files are outlines without any coloring thus enabling prints on colored card stock, plastic or any other material, or to be used as templates when resized to a different scale.
So I keep his original kit as a collector's item.
BTW, at Thingiverse you can find the 3D STL Files of the NASA Crawler Transporter by Scott McMaster (smc321), look and see - and download!
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#2035 by roma847 on 05 May, 2021 00:04
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Has any thought been given to laser cutting the bulky parts from plasticard, or acetate? The plans are right in front of you and this would surely reduce the workload! I'm not suggesting you do anything other than get a commercial source or friend with a cutter to do the work - you don't need another learning curve to climb!
Thanks Bob for the tip,
I've already thought of that, and my Print and Lasercut Studio could do that too.
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#2036 by roma847 on 06 May, 2021 10:53
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Hello everybody,
here is still an addition to the superlative Micro Artwork Paper Kit.
This kit is unique and worth every Euro, after all, the Lord of the Crawlers worked on it for about 10 years,
until after his extensive CAD modeling everything was printed on paper/cardboard/foil in 11.000 cuttable parts, what a hell of a job!
And then he has still put a sweet cherry on the top of the cake: The Crawler truck assembly procedure as 3D PDF file - Additional instructions.
This revolutionary new concept of building instructions gives you full access to the 3D model and lets you zoom, pan and rotate the complete model, selected parts or part groups.
Source: Micro Artwork, Mischa Klement (cyana)
And this is just the start. Predefined scenes lead you through the assembly procedure, and each scene gives you full 3D access to the model. You can individually isolate, show and hide parts or part groups. No more guesswork how parts are meant to be folded or fit together.
And the best of all: All you need is the Acrobat Reader.
And here some interesting information about the Background of the Project, of which the visit to the KSC and the ride on the Crawler Transporter #1 were highlights.
Source: Micro Artwork, Mischa Klement (cyana)
And as one can see, the master was deeply impressed ...
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#2037 by leeg on 09 May, 2021 18:17
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Forgot how small 1:160 scale was for the crawler tracks. Suprised you didn't pull out more hair during the tedious link connections. I too bought the links and sprockets and will be doing the same here in the near future. Been taking a hiatus for the shuttle and doing some other builds. (see jpg)
Been following your build and are fascinated at your build, it is a real inspiration for me.
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#2038 by roma847 on 09 May, 2021 20:12
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Thanks leeg for your nice compliments,
I'm always amazed again and again when I switch from the great Hi-Res photos on my monitor to the small parts in scale 1/160 of the Paper kit, like now again with the tiny Propel motors with a diameter of only 5 mm.
But there is no need to worry, it always goes on ...
Hang in there and have fun with your great models.
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#2039 by roma847 on 13 May, 2021 00:41
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Hello friends,
but for God's sake, I don't plan to build Mischa Klement's Crawler Kit with all 11.000 parts, but I plan to use it for scratching important assemblies by using plastic.
I also plan to let some parts such as the tiny Propel Motors and the Gear case housings to be 3D modeled by my friend Joe (crackerjazz) in ARC Forums and printed at Shapeways.
A great help for doing this will be the construction report by the German Jürgen Ziegler (FADDA), a true genius in paper modeling, who successfully built Mischa Klement's Crawler Kit.
In addition to his construction report, he has uploaded 20 YouTube Videos with all the individual steps during modeling of the paper crawler from its 11.000 parts each as a slide show!
For example take a look at his Video #15, in which he first presents all 52 parts of one Propel motor in full and then puts them together step by step. You will be amazed, because this makes it easier to understand both the structure of the motor and all of the individual parts.
Are you ever going to finish this project? Rather you than me, I'm afraid I wouldn't have the patience for this.