Project Armageddon

[sidewinder]

Top Secret: For Your Eyes Only.

OCT. 22, 1962:
ATTENTION FELLOW SOVIETS

Greetings comrade,
I bring glorious news from the Supreme Soviet. As I am sure you are well aware the expansionist aggression of the Untied States has become a threat to the safety of our intellectually superior society. The brute force and rapid expansion of the west through it's nuclear program is of concern to all civilized nations. Our humanitarian missile defense program, which has recently brought peace and prosperity to the formerly oppressed land of Cuba, has been slandered in the propagandist press run by the American Imperialist government.
Times are dire, but comrades, do not fear. The Supreme Soviet has brought us wonderful news, we will be expanding our missile production, thereby ensuring the safety of the Eastern Block forever! Our most modern production facilities will, however, need a steady supply line. This is where your engineers will become invaluable to our glorious mission. We will require a vehicle capable of transporting heavy water through the most challenging of road conditions. The vehicle must be able to carry the water, crucial to research, through the 1 to 2 meter deep mud that makes up the majority of our glorious rural highway system in the spring time.
The work has already begun and is progressing nicely, here is photographic evidence of the top secret build.

The dual motored beast will drive three axles and six wheels. the rear pod is well on its way to completeion:



Due, no doubt, to American interference the chassis was compromised during the initial mock-up. But fear not, our top engineers are working to correct the espionage. In typical fashion, we have only managed to source 4 of the tires with the same tread, however, our most esteemed leader feels this will make little difference :



As is normal this time of year we only had enough material to complete 3/4 of the drive shaft. This will of course be rectified immediately as we have commandeered the Polish leaders fleet of Lada limousines and are melting them as we speak!:




The cab will sit wonderfully high in the air assuring the driver visibility to avoid hungry citizens mistaking this for there once a year milk delivery:



Another view of the mocked up vehicle:



We have been assured that the completed truck will not sag like the mock-up, if it does there will be heads rolling in the streets of Moscow!:



The Tank has arrived from Saint Petersburgh and includes extra reinforcing flashing:



The cab and tank sitting in front of the prototype chassis:



Our most able art department has cut and pasted parts of these pictures to give an idea of what the completed truck will look like. The artist responsible for the failed perspective has been relocated to the frozen tundra of Siberia:





End Memo: Burn After Reading.



*if anybody knows what size the nut for the wheels is please let me know. I lost one during the tear down and the hardware store doesn't seem to have anything to fit.

[frizzen]

Comrade, that looks quite good.

You fool, the lug nuts are a Top Secret spec made by those American pigdogs. You will doom the entire project to having no spares unless you can get one of the glorious factories to get started making them for you.

Are the rear axles supposed to be that far apart? It might hurt performance if the rear tires weren't slick.

[sidewinder]

DA, it is a big gap, I haven't decided on the spacing yet. I was thinking the extra length might add stability since this isn't going to be an ultra low speed crawler, but, the distance may make it hang up too much. I plan on doing some testing before making the final frame.

[payaso]

That's awesome, man. I'll keep an eye out for the rest of the pics.

Good job, dood.









silla

[sidewinder]

Comrades! Joyous news!



Unfortunately we must start on a sour note, chief engineer Yuri Corbikove has been found incompetent, His initial rear chassis design was fatally flawed. Due to the inferior design of the American monster truck . No matter how many hours Comrade Corbikove spent attempting to make the frame straight it proved pointless, until, upon further inspection Comrade Smirnoff noticed that the holes for the screws in the original truck were not aligned, they are slightly skewed...no doubt because it is an American truck. Now private Corbikove will not be punished as he would in Western countries...no, he has been reassigned to a scenic area in the arctic circle where he and his lovely wife will be unburdened by other humans for the next three years.

As observed by our overseas agent code named Frizzen, stationed with our front group BitPimps, observed, the wheel spacing was egregiously long. Adjustments have been made, along with and entirely new rear chassis, now featuring and adjustable wheelbase to suite the situation. In appreciation Comrade Frizzen will receive two extra rolls of toilet paper per month for life.

The new Chassis:







Unfortunately the inept American photographer snapped the pictures before the adjustment holes were made, suffice it to say the wheels now are adjustable to three wheelbases...most of which are nearly square!

Here is a direct comparison of old weak chassis with misaligned wheels and new glorious chassis with triple the thickness and much more strenght.

[frizzen]

Ah, Comrade Smirnovka is always solving problems like that. He offered some suggestions to our Czech Comrades building my Tatra 815.

Comrade Frizzenski wonders if an H-plate between the rear pods would help articulate to glory for Soviet Pimpdom, without causing undue motion to the tank?

What's with that extravagant Chrome rim? Did you take that from the capitalist Americans again? Fools! When will they learn?

[sidewinder]

Ah yes, articulation between the rear axles has been considered, however, in the future project Armageddon may be upgraded to full propo with hobby grade electronics. the tank must therefore be solidly attached to the tank, which will conceal all of our state of the art miniaturized equipment. It has been determined that the weight of the equipment could border on top-heavy anyway and the motion will need to be reduced. Weight may have to be added to the tires in the form BBs to help solve the problem, but that will be a last resort.--Thank you for the encouragement comrade.

Well, the sub-zero temperatures have allowed extra time to be spent on this project. So, I have lowered the tank and test fitted a hobby grade receiver... I may just go with a standard zipzaps pcb unless I can find a reasonably priced esc and micro servo that fit...I also have the problem of batteries...but I have an idea, more on that as it develops.


Mocked up receiver in tank:


Everything sitting in place long enough to get pictures before falling apart:



the top:



just because it looked cool:





I have the unique problem now of the tank sitting too high. If I lower it I lose the room for the better electronics, if I don't it will bug me forever that it sit too high...arrgghhhh!

[frizzen]

Da, ist easy problem! Make a dropped frame under the structural bed, it'll visually lower without making you lose cargo room. Much easier than removing cases and fighting for every thousandth of an inch!

[redrustbucket]

That's a sweet body. What is it?

[sidewinder]

It's a KrAZ 256 heavy refuler...Russian built but sold throughout the old Soviet block. The kit itself is from Russia:



I almost hated to cut it up, but I bought it for the build, so...

Frizzen, I've looked at the idea of a drop chassis but with two zipzaps monster motors in the way I haven't found room...I was thinking of tring to wedge the receiver between the axles but I would make it difficult to change the crystal...of course I probably never will change it, but I'd like to keep it as an option. I was thinking of making a utility box below the tank to visually lower it...I'm still undecided. The good news is with the temps at -11 and dropping, there is no way in hell I'm leaving the house for a day or two, so I'll have time to play with the concept. The good thing is, like all Soviet projects, this is being done without a coherent plan.

[frizzen]

Check out my Czech thing in HalfBakery to see what I had in mind. Stick them just outboard of the rear pods, and probably about 3/8" would do for this one?

[sidewinder]

Oh, I get it...I thought you meant a functional frame. Good idea.

Thanks to the quick thinking of SGT Frizzen and his idea for the new drop frame, it made it possible to add a dropped battery box and to make use of a 4.8V Losi Micro T battery... Sgt Frizzen has been officially promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. The true genius of this contribution though, is that because of ability to use the Losi battery, this section of the vehicle--in true Soviet fashion--may already outweigh any other bit ever created!

[frizzen]

See, ist easy! No problemns!
Then just throw together some boxes, tanks, wheel chocks... to stick on outboard of the dropped frame, to break it up and make look like it belong.

Soviet government said "Build us xx thousands of pounds (kilos? what do we use?) of transportation."
Ist easy when you make each one weigh more!

[frizzen]

Hey comrade,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoSSbg4y72k
2:00 to 2:30