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Time to ditch the wingy things and armour up! First AFV WIP - Academy M3 Grant 1:35


clive_t

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27 minutes ago, Kris B said:

To be honest this version doesn't look good. A can add that they are uneven to high will be visible later. 

Maybe you wish to spend few quid and get the Bronco one's? 

 

If it was only a small sum of money I might have been tempted to invest in an after market track set, however for something that will be about 90% hidden - either by being in contact with the ground, or obscured by the side skirts - it doesn't sound like value for money to me.

 

I have another idea in mind if Milliput doesn't produce the desired result: I am going to try cutting a double-I pattern out of thin styrene sheet, and gluing it to the supplied track (after removing as much of the surface of the track section as I can). Just another idea to try :)

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I know that you are saying that you don't want to pay out for AM tracks, but if you do  something like this again (ie; M3/M4 based), It's worth investing in a set of Panda tracks. They are a doddle to assemble, and you also get many spare links too.

Just a thought.

 

John.

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On 28/05/2017 at 0:55 PM, Bullbasket said:

I know that you are saying that you don't want to pay out for AM tracks, but if you do  something like this again (ie; M3/M4 based), It's worth investing in a set of Panda tracks. They are a doddle to assemble, and you also get many spare links too.

Just a thought.

 

John.

It's a good point - but I had to at least try and see if my idea(s) would pay off first.

 

The Milliput castings, although they didn't shrink anything like as much as the Das ones did, still showed a small but noticeable difference in size to the original :( 

 

My final throw of the dice came with the styrene sheet solution, which required that I trim away the top millimetre or so of track surface on the supplied rubber tracks:

 

34829452182_556bd91231_b.jpg

 

Actually, my ham-fisted failure at leaving a tidy surface made it look quite realistic, according to some reference photos I have seen. Nevertheless I set to cutting out the double-I shapes out by hand, and gluing with CA:

 

34182521543_caf5179700_b.jpg

 

I limited the number of track links to 7, given that was the number that was visible with the track in situ on the tank. It's a similar number at the back, when one takes into account the presence of the rear track guards. Here's how it looks from the front, with the track in place:

 

34860933601_1f116b8490_b.jpg

 

It looks a bit uneven, to be honest, and once sprayed the uneven-ness, though reduced to some extent, is still visible:

 

34952989566_85e6aaf13c_b.jpg

 

The other problem I found was, the rubber tracks do not take the spray primer at all - it just slides off with the slightest touch. Not a good base to paint on :(

 

I was tempted to try and apply some filler to the modified track to simulate compacted sand etc stuck in it, to see how that looked. However, this evening I bit the bullet and ordered a 'Worn WE210' track set from Panda Plastics, for a shade under £25 including shipping.

 

Ah well, one must try these things I suppose.

 

Thanks for watching :yes:

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3 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

They can be a good option, they will look good (if you get them assembled, I'm not too good ... sigh), and they are not very expensive ...

Cheers Clive :D

 

I've never made tracks before -  obviously it shows :D - so will be very much a learning experience for me.

 

10 minutes ago, Cromwell said:

Not a bad idea. You doing just the visible track links. Or are you a gluten for punishment??

 

I'd like to think I could get away with doing only the visible links - I may change my tune, though, depending on how easy or difficult I find the whole process :)

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16 hours ago, clive_t said:

However, this evening I bit the bullet and ordered a 'Worn WE210' track set from Panda Plastics, for a shade under £25 including shipping.

 

Ah well, one must try these things I suppose.

You won't be disappointed Clive. Dead simple, especially if you make a jig. If you look at page 2 of my wip on the Sherman M1, there are some photos of the jig that I made.

 

John.

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There is some continuing great dedication shown in this build. Very interesting work on the tracks, I am watching and listening to the smart folks out here, always a pleasure.

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3 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

You won't be disappointed Clive. Dead simple, especially if you make a jig. If you look at page 2 of my wip on the Sherman M1, there are some photos of the jig that I made.

 

John.

Thanks John, I found that thread of yours, looks like I will need to come up with a jig of my own.

2 hours ago, Blaubar said:

Very interesting work on the tracks, I am watching and listening to the smart folks out here, always a pleasure.

You and me both! :)

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46 minutes ago, clive_t said:

looks like I will need to come up with a jig of my own.

It's not essential, but it helps. I've made up a set without a jig. It just took longer, is all.

 

John.

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I might have gone for one of the Bronco track sets, the price of which is quite variable but you can get them for about a tenner.  Not as easy as Panda.  The horns and pins are moulded as a "chassis" which are sandwiched between the top and bottom link halves.  Join lines to clean up where they can be seen front and back.

 

I received my sample EDM nuts, bolts and rivets from NG Trains. I have to say they are really excellent.  Identical concept to Grandt Line with each moulded on a tail to be inserted in a drilled hole, with the tails attached to the sprue.  The heads can be cut off and applied flush - easier said than done with the very small sizes.  In fact I think the bolt and nut heads are crisper than the Grandt Line products, whose moulds have been in use for a long time.  The range is also wider and EDM do both bolt heads and nuts with protruding thread, hex and square, with and without washers.  The un-washered hex head varieties will be most useful, I imagine.  There are also dome and conical rivets in a range of sizes.  The smallest I received was 0.5mm, and the largest 2mm.  Prices are £2.90 or £3.20 per pack.  A little cheaper than Grandt Line, usually £3.50 or more.  But in any case I'd rather reward the enterprising Brit who has an excellent product at a reasonable price.

 

So it's just a shame that the proprietor of NG is having problems at the moment, because I think many of us would like to cross his palm with silver for his products.  He's been ill and is having trouble setting up an e-commerce platform.  I have proposed to him that I might sell some on his behalf on eBay, and await his response.

 

eBay hoodwinked me into upgrading to a business account so that I could sell more stash items concurrently than the usual item limit, which would have taken me many weeks to get through them.  But now I can't convert it back: I'd have to close it and start again, losing all the history, feedback etc.

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Thanks for the feedback Peter, very interesting. I will keep tabs on Mr NG Trains to see what happens.

 

Being something of a 'new kid' right now where AFV kits are concerned, the choice of AM stuff, tracks in particular, is bewildering to me. I guess in the fullness of time I will get the opportunity to try other makes of tracks etc, and hopefully learn about the relative merits of each. Certainly I am looking forward to that.

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Mind boggling isn't it? There are many AM tracks available. I tend to buy for the project. If it's something that needs tracks that sag, such as a Cromwell or T-55/Tiran 5, then I use Fruilmodel. But I wouldn't use their tracks for a Sherman. That would be Panda every time. The one that I avoid is Bronco. They are a PITA to build, they're fragile and once you have a complete run made and laid out flat, they curve around in a sharp "C" formation making them difficult to fit around road wheels, idlers and sprockets. There are many other track manufacturers and each has their plus and minus points. A good site to look at for in depth reviews is Perth Military Modelling Site. Terry, the man that runs it does full autopsies on new items.

HTH's.

 

John.

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The track links I ordered from Panda are officially 'on their way', Apparently orders take 10-15 days to be delivered, so nothing else to do with the tracks until they arrive. So, progress was made today in other areas. The hull rear had a few PE bits added, which then enabled me to fit the panel to the hull:

 

34211310084_ccf1e1b0aa_b.jpg

 

I fitted the instrument panel to the inside of the hull. As it stood, the panel would be vertical once glued into place, and would have the appearance of a solid box with instruments in the front; all the reference pics I have on the Grant interior, however, show a simple panel facia which is angled upwards by about 20 degrees from the vertical. So a bit of trimming was called for before fitting. I also took the opportunity to blank off the machine-gun ports to the left of the driver's position:

 

35055141085_75d9b3aa70_b.jpg

 

At this point I was able to turn my attention to the turret basket. Just a bit of pre-painting at this stage, and unfortunately a few pin marks to fill in:

 

35055133745_43a31dbe89_b.jpg

 

Finally for today, I made up the 37mm gun and its neighbouring machine gun. The machine gun needed a bit of trimming in order for the whole thing to fit correctly, but not too bad once done:

 

34244481173_600a7d0501_b.jpg

 

Thanks for watching, and your comments of course :yes:

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It's coming along nicely Clive. That 10-15 days is the standard handout. My last set that I ordered, arrived 5  days from posting, but they usually arrive within the 10 day span.

 

John.

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10 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

It's coming along nicely Clive. That 10-15 days is the standard handout. My last set that I ordered, arrived 5  days from posting, but they usually arrive within the 10 day span.

 

John.

 

Thanks John, that's good to know - I will keep an eye out for it from the end of next week.

 

8 hours ago, Jim Wasley said:

Very impressed you really spend some time on the small things, will well and truly make the bigger things more FANTASTIC,great work.cheers. 

 

Thanks for the kind words, Jim, much appreciated.

 

Before I sort out today's progress pics on the Grant, I would like to share the details of my third WIP thread, describing the building of the diorama base - here.

 

Pics of today's progress to follow!

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OK, today's progress - not massive, it must be said. Most of the time I spent on this thing was putting right some issues with the 37mm gun armoured fascia, that fits in the front of the turret - or, should fit in the turret. Sadly, there is a gap between the fascia and the turret one could actually shoot through, if reduced to 1:35 scale!

 

35032781506_4b8fe6be74_b.jpg

 

Worse was to come though - a dry fit of the 37mm gun mounting showed there was a massive gap between it and the side of the fascia that one could drive a bus through, never mind shoot through it! In fact, it would be fair to say that it was a poor fit all round, and all the reference photos I have show either no gap at all, or at the very most a tiny gap:

 

34261902883_16602da688_b.jpg

 

It took  a whole lot of fettling the fascia mouldings to get them to line up with the front face of the gun mounting, not to say some shims made from thin styrene off-cuts:

 

34908695342_15fcec04df_b.jpg[/url]

 

Finally, some model filler putty to try and hide the joins:

 

35072987765_ed66b5c87c_b.jpg

 

When that's gone off, I should be able to sand that to its final shape.

 

As I said, not massive progress but sadly necessary as the poor fit of these parts was just too noticeable for me to leave.

 

Thanks for stopping by :)

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When you be jointing the bottom part of the turret with the upper do not forget that there was a visible weld seam. 

Good job with this fascia. 

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9 minutes ago, Kris B said:

When you be jointing the bottom part of the turret with the upper do not forget that there was a visible weld seam. 

Good job with this fascia. 

Thanks Kris, yes I will make sure not to sand that away :)

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Not much in the way of progress to report, other than I am making a start on the 75mm rounds for stowing in the rack on the rear bulkhead. There is space for 14 rounds. I intend to have stowed:

2x smoke

2x cannister

5x AP

5x HE

Pure guesswork on my part, I freely admit.

Something that rather puzzles me is the stowage in the turret basket appears from the instructions to also be 75mm. I would have thought the turret basket would have rounds for the 37mm gun stowed there, ready to hand for the loader's benefit. Unless some of you more knowledgeable fellows can put me straight? In fact, as far as I can see there is no 37mm ammunition included in the kit at all! I may have to make some of my own from some suitable diameter plastic rod. 

 

In other news, my WE210 track links arrived from Panda Plastics today, so pretty prompt service given the distances involved.

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I do not know anything about 75mm ammo being stored in the turret basket. There was only 37mm rounds inside.

37mm ammunition is on the sprue D (there was also parts for the 75mm gun on it) as on the photo:

 

PICT0030.JPG

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13 hours ago, Kris B said:

I do not know anything about 75mm ammo being stored in the turret basket. There was only 37mm rounds inside.

37mm ammunition is on the sprue D (there was also parts for the 75mm gun on it) as on the photo:

 

 

Thanks Kris, for some reason I assumed they were 75mm rounds. Having offered the projectile end up to each barrel, it becomes more obvious. 

All of which means that I need to somehow make a few 75mm rounds to go on the rack on the rear bulkhead!

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