The model has been painted grey in a satin finish. Prototypes were painted this colour to facilitate photography. The parts were etch-primed before using an airbrush to paint them.
The tracks will be immersed in a mixture of colloidal graphite and white spirit. This will help with lubrication. They will then be painted.
The gear lever installed. There are three forward gears and reverse in an H pattern. The gears are locked in neutral with spring loaded pins. Moving the gear lever left or right acts on these pins which releases the interlocks - as in the prototype.
Here is the underside of the gear selectors. The forks are CNC machined from gauge plate. They are attached to steel blocks which slide on 4mm steel bars. The detents which hold the gears in mesh are machined in these blocks.
This is the left manhole cover for the transmission. There is another matching plate on the right. They give access to the steering clutches.
The hand wheel was initially threaded on the lathe and the spokes cut on the mill in a vertical chuck. The spokes were drawn in AutoCAD.
This was the jig used to braze the ball bearing onto the spokes. The jig is made from a graphite block and was jig-drilled to hold the balls in the correct position.
The finished cover before painting. The covers were machined out of 4mm steel. The ribs were machined before the outer profile was cut. The taper was hand filed.
