U.S. Tractor D7 “Tow Cat” by CDW - FINISHED - MiniArt - 1:35 Scale

[CDW]

Next up is a Caterpillar D7N Tow Cat in glorious 1:35 scale. Reminds me of my younger days as a steel worker in West Virginia working gas and oil pipeline construction. We had more than a few of these machines around, used to sit as an anchor on top of a mountain while the “train” of equipment tethered to it hung tenuously on the side slopes of mountains while clearing rights-of-ways, digging ditches, and laying steel pipelines.

 

 

 

[Jack12477]

Pulling up a seat !

[Canute]

Cool. I could use one of these in HO scale.

[Egilman]

The venerable ol' D7, the tractor that built America... One of the most successful crawler designs in history....

 

I'm in brother...

[Egilman]

5 hours ago, Canute said:

Cool. I could use one of these in HO scale.

Hey Brother...

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275053236806

 

Ho Scale... reasonable price...

[CDW]

MiniArt does a spectacular job on tooling the parts. Detail is astounding. It’s a shame that equal attention was not given to the sprue gates. The large size of the gates leaves a lot of difficult cleanup to do after the parts are removed from the spruces. The cleanup time required is considerable for most every part. Some parts so small, only the most precise tools should be used for removal and otherwise, broken and damaged parts can be guaranteed. It’s all good and a trade off for a finely tooled, seldom modeled subject.

 

 

[CDW]

Dad gum spell checker doesn’t like “sprues” and changes it to spruce by default. Apple employs technocrats. 😊

[mtaylor]

7 minutes ago, CDW said:

Dad gum spell checker doesn’t like “sprues” and changes it to spruce by default. Apple employs technocrats. 😊

Probably offshored workers from what I've heard.  Most don't have a great command of English and various words.

[Jack12477]

13 minutes ago, CDW said:

Apple employs technocrats. 😊

So does Samsung. Theirs is just as bad 👎 

[CDW]

6 hours ago, Egilman said:

The venerable ol' D7, the tractor that built America... One of the most successful crawler designs in history....

Before there were Caterpillar dozers, there were Belgian work horses. As a tribute to the men who mentored me and influenced my life, I intend to write a couple of short stories to go along with this build as for one, I need to write these things down while I can still recall them, and secondly as the building of this model has brought a flood of memories to my mind.

[CDW]

Talk about some small parts…

 

See part number c36 in instructions

 

Here’s that part on the sprue with a #11 scalpel blade for reference. Where the part ends and the sprue gate begins is up to interpretation.

 

[CDW]

What at first looks like a fly speck is part c36 after it’s cut off the sprue.

 

 

[Egilman]

Yep, those are some tiny tiny parts.... (and probably in a location you will never see them)

 

Molding tech is advancing...

 

Rapidly...

[CDW]

First page of instruction manual completed.

 

Look closely and you might see some of those small parts. All were used in the assembly shown.

 

 

 

[lmagna]

Got my hammock and brittle. Where do you want me?

 

Models that bring stories to mind are the best kind. Looking forward to both the build and stories. If it were not for spell checker I would be much better at spelling and would not have to edit quite as often. It seems like I never catch it until I hit the save button.🤔

Edited July 25, 2022 by lmagna

[Canute]

Those are superb castings; too bad many will be buried under the skin of the tractor. Starting to think this will be a "barn find" parked in an old barn and ignored for years. What do you think?

 

I went looking for an HO version, without the dozer blade. Don't see any blades on the Cats the circuses used to load and unload their equipment flats.  My quest will continue.

[CDW]

19 hours ago, Canute said:

Those are superb castings; too bad many will be buried under the skin of the tractor. Starting to think this will be a "barn find" parked in an old barn and ignored for years. What do you think?

 

I went looking for an HO version, without the dozer blade. Don't see any blades on the Cats the circuses used to load and unload their equipment flats.  My quest will continue.

Did they have a side boom? This D7N would be the basis for a side boom scratch build if I had a good set of drawings to reference.

[CDW]

A model like this one has so much detail, assembling and painting it in subassemblies is a necessity. Otherwise I could not get paint on the subject. In this case I am using a very well reduced Mr Surfacer dark primer that will be covered in a Caterpillar yellow in the end. The primer is highly reduced to prevent the paint pigment from obliterating detail.

 

 

[Canute]

Details in the kit are super. Good magnification and lighting are a must here. I take it by reduction you are adding a thinning agent to the primer? Consistency of skim milk?

 

Crawlers for the circus seemed to be generic Cats, without attachments.. Although I need to dig into more circus equipment diagrams. For such a wide spread activity, there isn't much pictorial history.

[CDW]

I reduce Mr Surfacer at a ratio of approximately 3 parts levelling thinner to 1 part paint.

[Egilman]

59 minutes ago, Canute said:

Crawlers for the circus seemed to be generic Cats, without attachments..

Absolutely, a basic CAT D-7 without the utensils, I doubt your going to find a specific tow version for the circus, what they did was buy standard and adapt it to the used they used it for... So a standard Cat with the blade removed would be historically accurate... Some of them actually went to the length of removing the mounting hardware but most did not... Ringling Bro's bought their first ones to replace the elephants for pulling the big top up... Which they did so well that they used them for all other pulling as well...

 

I would go ahead and get the standard CAT and adapt it to your scene, just like the real circus's did... {chuckle}

[Canute]

Yep, the choices are out there. Now for beginning a search. May even try Shapeways.

[CDW]

To remove the small fragile parts from the sprue trees a razor saw as shown is an invaluable tool. Even then some breakage may occur.

 

 

[CDW]

The pedals and linkages shown in the previous photos go here. It took some extra cussin’ to get it to fit.

 

 

[lmagna]

3 hours ago, CDW said:

It took some extra cussin’ to get it to fit.

AHHH The magic universal modeling technique.

[CDW]

Just now, lmagna said:

AHHH The magic universal modeling technique.

We were never allowed to cuss when I was growing up, but I learned the technique at Parris Island. Since then, I have had many years learning to perfect this skill but remain a novice compared to THE mentor, Senior Drill Instructor Lee Ermey.

 

 

[mtaylor]

That video took me back a few decades.. more than a few actually.   Drill Instructors do have the artform perfected.  Note.. not sure about the other branches the Marines, definitely perfected.

[Jack12477]

I had a recruit in my basic training company at Fort Dix that one upped the Drill Sergeant who caught him dozing in the bleachers in the cold in February during a lecture on tear gas training/use. 

 

SGT : Private are you sleeping during my lecture ?

 

RECRUIT: No Sergeant ! I was just checking my eyelids for holes !

 

The SGT admitted that was the best comeback he'd ever heard from a trainee.   

[CDW]

[Canute]

I really like my micro-saw. I got it thru UMM. Fits in some tight spots, sometime better than my sprue nipper or the Tamiya nippers. Unfortunately, with these limited run kits, the sprues are thick and inconveniently located in the joint area. Wonder what the designers were thinking, doing that. Handy for removing resin plugs, too.

 

Blue air is sometimes the only "lubricant" to get parts to slip into place.Works better that throwing it at the wall. 😉

 

Your Cat is coming along nicely.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Canute
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