Belly Tank Lakester - 2nd Attempt - Update 08-19

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

In the spring of 2009 I started a belly tank project. At that time I had only resumed modeling for about a year. To say I was in over my head would have been an understatement. Modeling belly tank lakester is not for the faint of heart. The only kit available at the time was $100.00, all resin, and rather fragile and fiddly. Otherwise, Early Years Resin had just announced their first vacuum formed body shell and the rest was up to you.

Well, I ordered the Early Years tanker. A nice clean piece but with zero experience with vacuum formed bodies the whole thing seemed a bit daunting. The fact that it was somewhat oversized provided my with the perfect excuse to keep looking. Next up was a 1/24th scale P-47 tank in styrene I scored from an airplane modeler at my LHS. Now, most lakes belly tankers used P-38 tanks which are larger than P-47 tanks. When confronted with the styrene piece I realized I had gone from a little larger to too small!

At this point I set the project aside…

Now, 3 years on, I’ve picked it up again. In the meantime Early Years has released an accurately scaled P-38 tank, complete with an array of headrests, Steve Kohler at Star Models released a full kit based on his own version of a vacuum formed P-38, and I have quite a few scratch built chassis under my belt.

I’ve decided to ,eventually build 3 tankers based on the 3 different bodies: The larger Early Years body, the scale-accurate P-38 tank from Early Years (a copy of which I have obtained), and the little styrene P-47 tank I’ve got. The plan is to do the larger body with an Ardun headed Ford V8, the to-scale tank with a full-house flathead, and the little guy with a V8-60 from the recent Revell Edelbrock midget.

First up is the larger body from Early Years. About a year ago I had marked out the lower body half into sections for the front suspension, cockpit, engine compartment, and rear end. So yesterday in a frenzy of styrene madness I put together a tubular space frame inspired by the remarkable Tom Beatty belly tank. Here’s the result:






Here it is laid into the lower half of the Early Years vacuum formed body:



Here's hoping I don't put this one aside for another 3 years!!!

Thanks for lookin',
B.

[KRAZY RICK]

Ya gotta keep this one going Bernard, that frame is looking really good

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

Thanks Rick!

I’ve gotten the basic work done on the engine and suspension mountings. Below are pictures of the preliminary mockup.

The motor is a Revell ’40 Ford block with resin heads I got a few years back. I will have to trim some material off the back end of the transmission in order to make room for an angle-mount magneto on the front of the block. The fit is very tight! The good news is that Ardun heads came with 3 water outlets on each head, one on the front, a center ne and a rear one. You chose which you wanted to use and blocked the other two. I plan to put the water overflow tank behind the motor using the rear outlets.

The front axle and spring are AMT ’29 Ford with the spring relocated behind the axle. Once I determine the wheels and tires I may have to raise the axle height (lower it relative to the suicide bracket) to dial in the stance.

The pretty track-style quick change is a cast metal piece from Herb Deeks. The axle tubes are 1/8” aluminum tubes. The axle assembly is held in place by side plates welded to the main chassis tubes.

I’m looking forward to getting some wheels and tires picked out and mounted to see this chassis up on its wheels. I’ve accumulated several options to try on, keeping in mind that I must reserve some of them for the other two tankers.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[Deleted]

looking good Bernard some really nice scratch building

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

Thanks!

The wheels and tires have been selected. They’re the LSR Big ‘n’ Littles from Early Years Resin with they’re smaller moon discs. Here are some pictures showing the resulting stance, including a Photoshopped mockup of the completed body shell.

Thanx for lookin’.
B.

[KRAZY RICK]

That is stunning !!!

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

Thanks Rick.

I got the body cut out and fitted today. Unfortunately the plastic in the lower half of the body has gotten very brittle over the past three years and fractured badly in several places. Happily the body is relatively inexpensive and Early Years gives excellent service so I have gone ahead and ordered a replacement. In the meantime I am using this one to gain experience cutting and fitting a vacuum formed styrene body and it will be short work to make a duplicate once its replacement arrives.

In the meantime here are pics of the real deal, no Photoshop this time, at least in terms of of faking the actual body. I did do a couple of colored body versions with a mocked up cockpit opening to get an idea of the final look. I’m working on a yellow and black color scheme.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[BRITBOY]

This thing looks better with every post! Photoshop or no Photoshop!

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

Thanx!

Small progress is being made on multiple fronts. I’ve gotten the motor started with the block painted Ford Engine Green. I’ve decided to go with Hilborn injection to keep the engine height down. I want to do this tanker with just the pure belly tank shape with no headrest. By 1952, the rough target date of this build, Hilborn injectors were being installed on a broad range of competition engines. As with just so much with this project, I’ve had to fabricate almost everything. I made a ribbed valley cover and fuel block from styrene strip shapes of various kinds and have begun mocking up the injectors. The stacks I’ve gotten, although the shortest I’ve been able to find at 7 scale inches, will need to be cut down to about half their height. They’re aftermarket pieces from Speed City Resin, very thin and beautifully made of silver plated copper. I’ve sent them an e-mail asking for any tips on how to accurately shorten them without butchering them – or, preferably, if they could cut me some shorter ones…

The other area I got done was to cut the cockpit opening into the upper half of the shell and fabricate some trim for the edges of the opening. I managed to do it without butchering the body by making a template and then carefully cutting out the main hole, then covering it over with a similar shape, although slightly larger, in .010 styrene sheet, and then removing the material in the opening itself, leaving the trim piece behind.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[KRAZY RICK]

Looks really good, I wish you luck with the injectors, I still haven't mastered the technique of cutting metal tubing; with perfection.

[Deleted]

funny you should bring this up Bernard l needed some shorts stacks for my six cylinder Gasser l came up with this
l used a lathe (but l guess a hobby drill would work) l marked out how small l wanted them and used a fine tooth saw to cut them

and the finished cut

you can finish them off with a file by inserting the cut tube in an round file to hold it and do minor adjustments

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

Thanks!

Sammy, I dare say that's probably the way. The stacks I have are very thin so I may have to find a piece of plastic rod to reinforce them but your method makes the approach clean, square and repeatable. I'm gonna try it! Thanks so much.