Italeri Triumph 3 HW Finished

[paddy]

At the start of WWII the british found themselves desperately short of equipment. The Triumph 350, Ariel WN/G and Norton 16H were three very similar civilian designs pressed in to service by the WD (War dept) The triumph stayed in production throughout the war seeing service all over the world with the Army and the RAF.
Italeri have launched an occasional series of 1:9 scale military motorcycles starting with this 3HW and a Harley WLA 750 and as a bike enthusiast i thought it would be fun to start with the triumph and see how we go.

As usual i like to try something different with kits rather than build OTB so this time i have started by replacing the plastic spokes with metal. I googled this kit and came up with many superb builds but all were let down in my opinion by the age old problem for all motorcycle builders...over size spokes used to give plastic spokes some rigidity. Having never tried anything like this before i am making it up as i go along, never a very good idea but i'm useless at planning in advance and my best ideas tend to come from trial and error

A few pictures from the on the bench thread so as to keep the thread complete

The wheels OTB


The spokes from one side of the centre hub cut away


and replaced by metal


The metal used is piano wire, common in model shops and used for control linkages etc by the RC guys
I have used .5mm (.0020") which scaled up x9 would equal about 4.5mm. the kit spokes are 1.2mm which would equate to about 10.5mm (0.4") which obviously is about double actual size.

 

[moon puppy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

BAMN! A lot of work but it's going to look great

 

[paddy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Here we go then, couldn't sleep last night so had a bash at this again.

The reason i have done half a wheel at a time is to maintain the hub offset. Hubs on the rear in particular are never central to the rim, often offset to allow chain to run from sprocket to engine and miss the rim.

This is the front wheel finished then with a quick coat of paint for effect.

This is a comparison to the kit wheel



And my conversion





Quite pleased for a first attempt. Great pity the British army didn use unicycles but they didn't so i now need to do it all again for the rear wheel. At least i know what i am doing now and i think i can refine the technique as well.
This is fun isnt it

 

[MrT]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Wow that looks great!

 

[moon puppy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Lovely doesn't even start to describe this. :love

 

[Jeeves]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Ditto what the others said Paddy-- all the extra effort definitely paid off in the execution- extremely well done!!

 

[Iron Mike]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

A much needed improvement, rock on!

 

[lupanzer]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Great improvement...fine job

Luiz

 

[ausf]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

That makes the world of difference.

Excellent way to fight through for a stunning result.

 

[phantom II]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

I don't see where there's a lot to compare paddy . The plastic one looks like what it is . A toy.

The improved wheel looks very believable .

The only possible improvement that I might suggest would be installing something like rivet head where the spokes come through the outer part of the rims ( just thinking ) Maybe ?

Cheers, Christian B)

Now you have caused an image of an Army officer on an unicycle to wobble in my mind I'd like to see it now

 

[paddy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

~Yea thats actually a good point Christian. I will put some thought into mass producing some small buttons, they need to be no more that 1mm across. Of course the Macro lens shows a lot of faults that simply dont show with the naked eye like the lack of spoke nipples. I think maybe as this is my first go nipples will be for the next pair of wheels. Right now i will be pleased just to produce another usable wheel for this kit
Bought some more piano wire today, believe it of not i have gone through nearly 2 yards in one wheel. 40 spokes x 1.5".

 

[phantom II]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

This already more ambitious than I want to be and piano wire is so difficult to cut

They do make rivet heads for tank builder though . Might be something there that's easy to do.

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[moon puppy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

~Yea thats actually a good point Christian. I will put some thought into mass producing some small buttons, they need to be no more that 1mm across. Of course the Macro lens shows a lot of faults that simply dont show with the naked eye like the lack of spoke nipples. I think maybe as this is my first go nipples will be for the next pair of wheels. Right now i will be pleased just to produce another usable wheel for this kit
Bought some more piano wire today, believe it of not i have gone through nearly 2 yards in one wheel. 40 spokes x 1.5".

Scale Hardware

http://www.scalehardware.com/

Uh oh.. see their site is down for mainteance. wonder how long. :frantic

 

[paddy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Not a very exciting picture but i have done half the rear wheel now so its all downhill from here.
This has been totally addictive !! I am trying to run my motorcycle business and I find myself answering an email, fitting a spoke, packing a parcel, fitting another spoke...and answering the phone .....you get the picture..



Really must stop and do some work now............

 

[Iron Mike]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

That's a good problem to have, squeeze in modeling when you can. Cheers! :drinks

 

[paddy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

That's a good problem to have, squeeze in modeling when you can. Cheers! :drinks

Yea , i am squeezing in work where i can "thats" the problem

 

[moon puppy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Work Smerk...they'll wait on ya. Get that wheel finished!

 

[paddy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

I think there is only so many times you can look at pictures of the same wheels so this is the last...promise.





Funny i have spent hours on these wheels and i haven't really started the kit yet really you could build this 4 times as a pristine factory fresh civilian model, military model and the same in worse for wear mode...I am going for used but looked after military mode.

 

[phantom II]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Major improvement there Paddy.

Only one wheel appears to heave a valve stem but the same wheel also has something sticking out of the rim .

What is that ?

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[paddy]

Italeri Triumph 3 HW

Yes i am making some new valves as the plastic ones are a bit naff, the second "valve" is a security bolt., its a clamp that clamps the inside of the tyre bead to the rim and stops the wheel spinning in the tyre which can tear the inner tube. You often see them on trials and dirt track bikes.