Hey all,

I'm getting onto the painting of my Trumpeter T64 Mod 75. I can't find a decent image of the road wheels. I see some people paint the thin outer rim black, and even the Primeportal photos show the edge and surface that contacts the tracks black. Are the wheels completely steel, or do they have a thin layer of rubber?
Thanks

Dave

My understanding is that they are full steel rims with an inner rubber dampener ring.

vr

Tim

Tim's got it right

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47209/thread/1427322224/last-1427380036/View+Thread

I believe the design intent was to have them less susceptible to damage when driving through flames.

Sean

A photo that I found online.

Thanks for all the info guys. It seems like no matter how hard you look for the info someone has a better link or picture. I've literally spent days pouring through online photos and all I saw were dirty wheels covered in mud so you couldn't tell if there was rubber, or museum pieces that had the rim edges painted black.
The cross sectional diagram in the link is interesting. Seems like a complicated yet interesting way to still put some vibration dampening on a road wheel. At least you wouldn't get the rubber being torn off in big hunks by road debris.

That picture is also good. I hadn't seen that one yet.
I think I'll be painting mine in standard Soviet Green, with a well used appearance. Nothing too drastic.

Thanks again.

In essence, this is a copy of the late war German all-steel "resilient" wheel - although that was driven largely by the shortage of rubber and used an early form of synthetic rubber between the metal plates.

As you say, it completely gets around the wearing-out of rubber tyres by whatever means, and the rubber bushing lasts considerably longer. It is also very probably field-replaceable, unlike rubber rim tyres. A couple of inches of hard solid rubber gives little shock absorbing to the vehicle systems and occupants anyway.

It does, however, make a far noisier vehicle if the inside face of the track is also metal - which it looks like it is on all post-war Russian tanks. Track wear may also be increased, with the inside face becoming grooved over time, potentially shortening track life compared to using rubber-rimmed wheels. Compromises, compromises......

Regarding painting, I imagine the steel alloy used for the tracks and wheels will have a high Manganese content for wear resistance. This means that the wearing surfaces of the wheels and both faces of the tracks will not be bright silver, nor will they be graphite metallic grey. High Manganese content steel has a goldy-brown appearance, difficult to replicate and for which I have not yet found a stock colour match.

The road wheels on the t-64 where not considered a successful design by the Soviets hence why they were not repeated on subsequent tank designs afterwards, outside of being loud, wearing the track out faster and having a significantly rougher ride, the narrow profile also lead to problems of the tank digging itself into the ground if it threw a track due to the high ground pressure. From what Ive read recovery crews completely hated the t-64 just for that reason alone.

Most modern construction equipment uses high manganese steel for the buckets, blades, and implements. Once the surface oxide wears off they look quite steel-like.





KL

Could you point me to where you've read that Rob ? I'd also be interested in knowing what they had to say.

Sean

Thanks for the pics. I like the rust on the dozer blade and will try and replicate it on my T90 with blade when I get to it.