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'FACE OFF' CONTINUED....


Badder

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On ‎12‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 7:25 PM, beefy66 said:

Now that is looking muddy marvellous   :yes:

 

beefy 

You should see it now Beefy!

 

I've given all of the mud and grass a coat satin varnish, not just so that I can apply some more washes, but also to help bind everything together. The varnish is still wet, so at the moment it looks like my Sherman has just driven through a puddle of gloop. But actually, I want most of the mud on the hull to be 'frozen' in place. I imagine that 'the thaw' has only just begun, so 'wet' mud will be confined to the wheels and tracks, and the areas around the exhausts.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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17 minutes ago, Robert Stuart said:

The mud and grass looks great, but ... pity the guys who are going to have to clean that up ready for inspection!

 

Congrats.... you have inadvertently come very close to the theme for the diorama.

I shall say no more!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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It was one of those 'Do I, or don't I?' moments.

 

I've got the hull more or less done in terms of mud and grass, and I've got the bogies done to the same level. But there are still some washes to do, and of course the snow/ice.

I could do that work and then fix the bogies to the hull, or I could fix the bogies first and then do it.

 

I've decided to fix the bogies first. (:lol: bogies sounds a lot like bogeys)

 

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

 

Now, the mounting points for the bogies are not large, and nor are they very secure. There's just a pad-to-pad contact, with a small rim around the mount and a notch-and-stud for positioning, and I guess for increasing the surface contact area. Even so, the area of contact is little more than 2.5mm x 5mm - which isn't a lot considering the size of the bogies and the strain that the tracks are going to put on them.

I opted for Tamiya's Ultra Thin Poly, applied to each surface several times, letting the surfaces dissolve slightly before a final application and the 'mating'. Usually, I'd have used CA, but dry-fitting taught me that there's a fair bit of play in the positioning of the bogies and the last thing I wanted to do was CA the bogies 'on the squint'. The poly allowed me to adjust the positions of all the bogies for alignment and horizontality both laterally and longitudinalalllerlylyly. If needs be, thin CA can always be 'capillaried' in afterwards.

 

Pics in a bit.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

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Just the idler and sprocket wheels to weather a bit more, though obviously not too much.

 

tQIlJUD.jpg

 

8i5x9cR.jpg

 

Tomorr   Later today, I'll try some snow effects. Will try bicarb and varnish 'off the model' and see how that goes first.

 

TFL

Badder

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Well, bicarb mixed with enamel varnish doesn't work- at least, it doesn't for me. Maybe it would work better with acrylic varnish.  I will give it a go, but I'm thinking thin CA is the better option. I've used bicarb and thin CA before and it dries rock hard. It's a daunting thought though... deliberately wetting a model with CA.

 

I've been very tired all day so I've got nothing else done. However, a couple of items turned up: 'Marqis' figures from MB, and a sheet of 'nuts and bolts' from Meng. So, I am about to add the 'armour bosses' to the armour plate. They aren't quite to scale, but they are close enough.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

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41 minutes ago, Badder said:

Well, bicarb mixed with enamel varnish doesn't work- at least, it doesn't for me. Maybe it would work better with acrylic varnish.  I will give it a go, but I'm thinking thin CA is the better option. I've used bicarb and thin CA before and it dries rock hard. It's a daunting thought though... deliberately wetting a model with CA.

 

I've been very tired all day so I've got nothing else done. However, a couple of items turned up: 'Marqis' figures from MB, and a sheet of 'nuts and bolts' from Meng. So, I am about to add the 'armour bosses' to the armour plate. They aren't quite to scale, but they are close enough.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

I've taken delivery of some of the meng nut and bolt sets too, I've got to get a sharp blade now though to get them off, the shermans looking a  right mucky pup, i should think it will fit right into the ever evolving diorama perfectly, tis looking splendid so far

Glynn 

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14 minutes ago, Hewy said:

I've taken delivery of some of the meng nut and bolt sets too, I've got to get a sharp blade now though to get them off, the shermans looking a  right mucky pup, i should think it will fit right into the ever evolving diorama perfectly, tis looking splendid so far

Glynn 

Hi Glynn,

I got set 'C'. The largest diameter bolt head is 1.7mm, which is actually a bit on the small side for what I wanted, but the blurb on line didn't specify the sizes. They will have to do. I haven't got a razor saw but I found I can remove them with a scalpel if I'm careful and cut underneath. Then I can tidy up the underside by pressing the bolt down on some sandpaper and pushing it back and forth.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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 Good idea on the sandpaper, I've not got a fine razor saw, the one I've got is more like a jack saw :P it would obliterate the nut and bolts, hobby craft or my local model shop tommorrow for me, to get some scalpel blades, might see what else they've got too:penguin:

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15 minutes ago, Hewy said:

 Good idea on the sandpaper, I've not got a fine razor saw, the one I've got is more like a jack saw :P it would obliterate the nut and bolts, hobby craft or my local model shop tommorrow for me, to get some scalpel blades, might see what else they've got too:penguin:

If your Hobbycraft is like the one here Glynn, then it'll not have ANY of the most commonly used paints, no dark earth weathering powder, an empty hanger for static grass and lots of European Theatre universal carriers, or Universal Carriers Forced Reconnaissance. ;) Pretty sure they don't sell razor saws. Or Cyanoacrylate glue. I guess they don't trust us not to slice our legs off... which having CA glue on sale would surely encourage us to do.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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21 minutes ago, Badder said:

If your Hobbycraft is like the one here Glynn, then it'll not have ANY of the most commonly used paints, no dark earth weathering powder, an empty hanger for static grass and lots of European Theatre universal carriers, or Universal Carriers Forced Reconnaissance. ;) Pretty sure they don't sell razor saws. Or Cyanoacrylate glue. I guess they don't trust us not to slice our legs off... which having CA glue on sale would surely encourage us to do.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Yep , sounds like the same stock,uni carriers,  old panther tanks, old chieftains,  old tigers, early and king tiger,and none of the certain tamiya paint you need!  your right its a trip out to a proper model  shop, trouble is it always costs me a right few quid, I'm like a kid in a sweetshop with all his pocket money

Glynn 

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I've added bolt heads to he top armour plate, paying homage to the nuts/armour bosses of the original. It's hard to be certain, but I reckon there were 8 nuts in total on the original, but 6 is plenty enough for me.

 

Studying the photos, I reckon the bottom plate is welded directly to the bolted plate, probably on the reverse side, the plates then flipped over before fixing to the bottom of the glacis. There's no sign of any other method of fixing.

 

wZsD9mo.jpg

 

Wb3fTph.jpg

 

TFL

Badder

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1 hour ago, Hewy said:

Yep , sounds like the same stock,uni carriers,  old panther tanks, old chieftains,  old tigers, early and king tiger,and none of the certain tamiya paint you need!  your right its a trip out to a proper model  shop, trouble is it always costs me a right few quid, I'm like a kid in a sweetshop with all his pocket money

Glynn 

My LHS closed down last year with no warning whatsoever. I was a regular over the past couple of years after a 35yr gap. Same owners all that time. Beggars didn't even have a closing down sale, or say 'goodbye'  or anything. So now it's just Hobbycraft and what used to be a 'model railway shop'. Luckily they are now stocking AFVs, getting extra custom from the likes of me. Every time I go in there's a couple of new models to tempt me, and often I crumble. The other week they had Tamiya's Archer in there. I'd just read up on it as well, so was well tempted, until I saw the price! 49 quid! It's a great model, but hey that's a bit steep.

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1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

Nice work on the frontal armour Badder, you and Glynn need to come and live in Salisbury we have 2 well stocked model shops.:yahoo:

I'm allergic to tall medieval ecclesiastical architecture. I go all dizzy and fall over.:D

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Photo-Etch.

 

I had to bend 8 tiny, tiny handles for the PE stowage rack on the back of my Sherman. There's 10 handles, just in case you lose a couple to the carpet monster. Well, I put a large sheet of A2 paper under my table to catch any escapees, and set about bending them. Rather than cut them from the sprue and bend them individually, I found that I could bend each set of 5 in one go, by careful positioning of my PE bending tool. So it was a quick and easy job to bend all 10. Then it was a simple case of cutting them all free and CA'ing them to the rack.

so my Blu-Tac'd toothpick was called for. I spent two and a half hours trying to glue them on. Needless to say, all of the handles that stuck to the PE were slightly out of position and had to be forced off and cleaned up ready for a re-fit, two broke during that process, two were dropped and all future attempts, at some point led to the remaining six pinging off into space, expressing their contempt for the sheet of A2. 

 

So that was a complete waste of time, effort, and money.

 

 

I now have a PE rack with the two struts fitted (not an easy job either, when both struts snapped at the fold) I wasn't going to fart around with the PE for the barrel cleaning rods as it's all tucked away under the rack and won't be seen. So the rods are as per the kit. There's two 'stoppers' on the back of the rack which hold it away from the rear plate. One of those is now orbiting Uranus. I will use an offcut of PE to make the other one.

 

I'm still going to try making the straps for the stowage, and just 'bodge' some way to attach them to the rack.... maybe making over-sized handles to replace the escapees. Better than nothing, I guess.

hdM0xh4.jpg

P4P6yne.jpg

 

TFL

Badder

 

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Nice work on the PE Badder I had some strap loops for the tools in PE, they looked a bit of a faf there was also so plastic ones I found on the sprue.

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29 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Nice work on the PE Badder I had some strap loops for the tools in PE, they looked a bit of a faf there was also so plastic ones I found on the sprue.

I think I'm going to have to admit that I'm too old for the smaller PE and my illnesses make things worse! My eyesight is rubbish, my fingers are numb and don't work properly and the smallest PE parts are just stupidly small, even for a perfect specimen of a human being. The butterfly 'nuts' are amongst the worst.

Looking at the kit, a lot of the parts aren't too bad to be honest - Like the fenders. There was no need for the PE replacements.

 

BTW I've bought PE for almost every kit in my stash. :D

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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I sympathise on the PE mate, stuff can be a royal pain in the rear.....Tacking parts with white glue can help with the positioning issue somewhat, allowing you to wiggle them into place before committing to the CA, but the stuff's still a nightmare to use.

 

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I won't be fitting the rear shelf until the painting stage. I've put the periscopes on the driver and bow gunner's hatches and will be trying the PE 'baskets' tomorrow. If they break I won't be farting around with them and will just use the kit parts. I'll also be making the 'cheek' armour for the turret adding the equipment rails that are shown in the photo. All going well, I'll also be looking to paint the tracks with the base colour and weathering, but no mud, grass and snow just yet.

 

In the photo below you can see that I cut away the armour plate below the MG embrasure. I did it properly this time. That plate is now fixed to the lower plate, but they are just dry-fitted. I'm going to put a weld bead along the join, though there's none visible in the photo

FrawjIj.jpg

 

TFL

Badder

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16 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Tacking parts with white glue can help with the positioning issue somewhat

:D I'm wondering if bogeys will do. The wife has a bad cold.......

 

Badder

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I've run out of likes (because new dogs thread), but you can take it that I do.....Very much.  :thumbsup:

 

Considering this is a STGB we are going to have a wonderfully varied gallery with all the customising and individualistation that's taking place in various threads. 

 

Tacking your bogies with bogeys.....That's just wrong!  :analintruder:

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2 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

 

Considering this is a STGB we are going to have a wonderfully varied gallery with all the customising and individualistation that's taking place in various threads. 

 

I was wondering earlier, does all this 'customising' go on in the aircraft GBs and if not, do they look at us as lunatics?

 

 

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