Happy New Year!
Just a question, are there the tow cable eyes marked in the picture somewhere in 1/35?
I’m asking about my M88A2 project.
Andreas
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I’ve been looking through various kits since 2008 and have not seen one.
Best best seems to be to make one from existing eye with the loop removed, and add one from curved piece of rectangular Evergreen stock. Even that could be somewhat daaunting as the curved and is thicker.
I’m having trouble posting pics, but I used heavily modified WWII Russian tow cable ends on my M1A2 SEP V3. They’re almost the same shape, and with a bit of sanding and cutting they look fairly good
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They are similar if not the same as British MBT tow ropes, Accurate Armour make them as do Eureka XXL. There are also some on E-Bay in the US, and also US stockists.
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I used T55 Russian/Soviet tow cables on my M88A2. I scratched the holder from styrene angles, sheet, and a couple bolt/nut heads.
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Thank you, Gentlemen.
It occurred to me to wait for the new M1A2 SEP V3 from RFM. It should have the newer tow cable eyes and copy them. Maybe one or other 3D printer or CAD enthusiast will read the topic.
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I believe they are slightly different on the V3, with more detail between the actual cable and the end, and of course I can’t find a pic right now
This area is different on the V3 as compared to the 88 tow cables, in fact, the whole cable end is different
It doesn’t look hard to CAD. An hour job if I get enough good reference photos.
That sounds very good.
I’ll see if I can find some reference pictures and send them to you. The drive sprokets and light guards are yours, a friend printed them.
Feel free to use my two photos above. Total length = .4 inches.
Cool. Thanks for your support, Andreas. I’ll wait for your reference photos.
Okay. I found some nice pics, you could use also 18bravos pics.
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@Quartercav , what do you think? I’m not completely happy with the fillet between the top part and round cylindrical bottom but this is the best I could do - probably not going to be noticeable in 1/35.
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Hello James. I think it looks very good. Thank you very much!
Please dm me the price for the STL file. Thanks.
Andreas
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Very nice! Thanks for posting, Andreas!
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The new tow cables are in position.
I think they came out pretty nice.
Thank you James for your great work (I got your blue force tracker file).
Andreas
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Great job, Andreas!
Btw, do you happen to have some good reference photos and dimensions of the newer heavy duty tow bar on M88A2s? Not the older type you have there. I’ve been meaning to CAD it but haven’t had the time…
Like this one shown- https://www.army-technology.com/news/bae-systems-upgrade-us-m88a2-hercules/
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Thank you James.
The built has its problems and is not perfect.
I’ll could find some photos. Maybe another colleague has the dimensions, I haven’t.
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