The half-track is a vehicle design that has gradually fallen out of favour in the decades since World War II. Combining the benefits of easy driving and handling of wheeled vehicles with the strong mud and snow performance of a tracked vehicle, they served a niche before largely being phased out with the rise of the armoured personnel carrier. [JackCarter] wished to build his own, so whipped up a lasercut RC version of the SdKfz 251 22.
The work is impressive, with [JackCarter] creating the design in Solidworks from photos and illustrations of the vehicle. The moving parts are lasercut, including the tracks themselves, assembled from many tiny lasercut MDF parts. The benefit of using lasercutting to make the model is that it was easy for [Jack Carter] to create simple jigs to ease the process of putting the tracks together. A NodeMCU with a motor shield controls the gear motors used to drive the tracks, and drives a servo for steering. Control is via a smartphone, thanks to the Blynk framework which makes building apps for custom projects easy.
The finished product really shows off [JackCarter]’s 3D design skills, and looks like great fun to build and drive. We’d love to see it with a lick of paint and some period decals to really complete the look. Hackers love a good tracked vehicle, and we’ve seen some impressive builds before. Video after the break.
“We’d love to see it with a lick of paint and some period decals to really complete the look.”
Sorry leave it as is so you can see the laser cutting, With the paint and decals becomes just another half-track model
+1
I agree, a major part of the beauty of model design is that you can see how is is assembled. And keep in mind that not all army material is green… So there is no need to paint this, please don’t!
Well to take a middle ground I think he could have used the cutter to burn in the proper markings but leave it bare of paint so we see the production work.
Paint the wood olive drab before laser cutting it and have the best of both worlds.
Some paints really don’t like to be laser cut, either by expelling nasty smoke or catching on fire.
Bridge over the River Kwai for a German half track, why? Thank you.
Great looking model and terrific video! If I have to be critical of anything… 1) not enough weight on the front to afford adequate steering, 2) it’s not clear if the tracks operate independently to assist with turns. I suppose I could have read the original Instructable to see details.
Hello ! I’m currently the author of this halftrack, and I see it is very appreciated, thanks everybody :D
Indeed I had some last-minute problem with steering. The center of gravity is too far from the wheels, losing some grip. In addition, I prefered to make independent-steering tracks because I thought only front wheels could not really bring much difference in steering, and they could be damaged too easily.
However, I take this into account for my next designs, thanks for having raised up such details.
I LOVE the lasercut plywood! It looks like a steampunk cartoon.
I’m less happy about the likelihood that no one will ever be able to make something that is cooler. Might as well just put our lasercutters in the closet now.
Can you please guide me into where I can buy this design and get an instruction manual. I would love to build it myself.