Reply To: Collab 2020: Modeling Heavy Equipment (Backhoe)
Bonus links – for everyone! Some more stuff I’ve found.
I managed to find a site that has very clear drawings of almost every component we’re all building! Accurate ones too. About the only thing I couldn’t find were diagrams of the tires – of the wheels though, yes. Note that with a very few exceptions these are not on-axis orthographic drawings of the parts; they are mostly drawings from angles, but they show a lot of bits and details that you’ll have a difficult time finding in other images. I’ve found this resource invaluable!
Examples:
It’s worth the time exploring the catalog. Don’t bother with the categories “Machine Arrangement” and “Engine Arrangement” as there’s nothing useful to us in them, but dig through the other categories, and keep in mind that you may find more than one useful drawing of a part, spread out under different categories and possibly with unintuitive names. Also, some components, particularly the front-end loader bucket, have several different variants; you’ll have to look through them all in that case and find the one that matches the variant you happen to be building.
You can also try using that catalog to find the part number of a certain part you’d like to see more of, and do a Google image search for “caterpillar [partnumber]” to try and find some actual photographs of the parts. I’ve had some mixed success doing this for myself; your results may vary, and it’s also a little time-consuming, so you’ll have to decide for yourself if it’s worth the effort.
For @duerer specifically, I happened to come across this site that has some very hi-res closeups of the axles and the insides of the wheels. Go to this page, and in the left-hand column click the large link that says “Gallery (29)” in Russian. Or, just look for the (29) at least. Have a look through all of those until you get to the axle and wheel images and grab what you need.
Enjoy!