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'FACE OFF' CONTINUED....


Badder

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2 hours ago, wimbledon99 said:

This is looking rather superb!! The mud is great and the texture of the metal really brings it to life :clap: 

 

1 hour ago, beefy66 said:

I like the look of the grassy muddy look my favourite part of the weathering making a mess all over the lower parts  ;)

 

beefy

Thanks guys,

Whether to muddy, or not to muddy? That is the question. There's some nice details lost under that lot, and it can only get worse!

 

Reaguards

Badder

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Progress report:

 

Lights and brush guards fitted at the rear. Scratched handles fitted inside driver's and MG gunner's hatches.

Don't talk to me about the handles. Three Doggone hours that took me! Damn my useless fingers.

 

Made a start on the tools.

 

Pics tomorrow when the light's better.

 

TFL

Badder

Edited by Badder
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Tools are on with PE straps. RY2MYQ9.jpg

 

I found the PE easy enough, cutting just the strap end gate and leaving the other end attached to the sprue, then bending the strap end around to meet the buckle.

 

The instructions show the straps being attached to the tools first, then fitting to the tank. but I suppose it would be better to glue the straps to the vehicle, insert the tools and then bend the straps around and through the buckle. I followed the instructions though.

 

During the process of cutting the tools from their sprues, I lost the spare wooden handle to the infinite expanse of my room, so that's missing in the photos above. I replaced it with the handle of a British infantryman's pick axe and fitted that instead. See below:

7J847iw.jpg

Then I found the lost handle in front of the TV while putting a DVD in the player. Ho hum.

 

My next job will be to add the retaining chains for the filler cap handles. I will be using the reference photos for their placement, ignoring the instruction sheet which incorrectly shows them attached to the very ends of the handles, instead of at the bend in the middle.

JQE13x0.jpg

 

qIT64mZ.jpg

 

I've decided not to try replacing the solid plastic engine cover handles with wire ones. While it is one of those jobs totally within my capacity, they are mostly going to be hidden anyway, if not with stowage then certainly with other details which I will keep secret for now.

 

I'm getting very close to giving the upper hull some sprays with OD now. Obviously the winter camo will cover some amount of the OD, but I'm not sure yet as to how much whitewash there's going to be. I like the idea of the donated frontal armour having a different hue of OD than that of the recipient, but I'm not sure if that will stand out if there's a lot of whitewash remaining.

 

We shall see.....

 

TFL

Badder 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I've had some success working out how to make the travel lock mounting points. It involves some intricate and precise carving, but hopefully I can work out the order in which to do things and then it should be possible, even for me.

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On ‎07‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 9:59 AM, Badder said:

 

 

379730DSC01373.jpg

 

I've added the PE retaining chains for the filler cap handles, using the photo above as a reference for where they attach. I wasn't an easy job getting them to fit in the small spaces available, remembering that my filler caps are closed and the chains would therefore have to lay more or less within the crescent shaped surrounds. But they're there and although not perfect, they'll do.

 

BTW, for those who don't know, the photo above is that of a model Sherman of 1/6th scale. :Tasty:.

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

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4 minutes ago, Robert Stuart said:

Looking good Badder, I'll be interested to see your different Olive Drabs

Thanks Rob,

:think: I'll be interested to see what they look like as well!

 

As I said, possibly the differences won't be obvious if I cover it all with a lot of whitewash. I know from experience that small areas of different colours showing through where whitewash has worn away all tend to look the same (unless the colours are high contrast)

 

In truth, I won't know how much whitewash will be left until I've started rubbing it off, playing by ear until I get it to something I'm happy with. I don't envisage the tank being almost totally white with worn patches though, nor mostly OD with just some patches of white. It'll probably be somewhere in the middle.

 

Off to feed the old nags, and then I'll be getting on with trying to make those gun lock mounts.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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Excellent progress Badder! The combination of your scratch-built parts and the kit parts are starting to blend seamlessly! Great modelling! :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

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1 hour ago, PlaStix said:

Excellent progress Badder! The combination of your scratch-built parts and the kit parts are starting to blend seamlessly! Great modelling! :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

Thanks Stix,

That PE was pretty easy because there were no complicated folds, unlike some of the pieces. Nothing snapped, nothing pinged away into the great beyond and it all glued effortlessly with the CA hidden from view. I'm quite happy with the scratched armour plates as well, so I'm thinking so far so good.

 

I'm going to add another rail to the turret as per the photo - running along the side beneath the commander's cupola. I'm guessing there's another one on the opposite side. I'm not sure if the photo will confirm this (I think that part of the turret is hidden from view) but I will add one anyway.

 

All that's left to do is the tail stowage rack (not sure if I will use the PE one or the kit one) the 50cal,and the travel lock. And on the subject of the travel lock I've just scratched two mounts for it. I just have to check the photos again and see if they are close enough to pass muster.

 

Hope you are well,

Rearguards

Badder 

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I just noticed that a photo is missing. So here it is:

iPASa9T.jpg

The dust, dirt, debris etc is muck on your screen, not muck on my Sherman.

 

TFL

Badder

 

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Badder,  great work on the chains, have you been codding us about tiny pe all along,  ;)and that gunners periscope gaurd is an absolute stand out on top of your turret,  i destroyed most of mine  trying to fit them after I'd misplaced my spectacles, i may try the dreaded soldering, after seeing yours, good work. 

Glynn  

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4 hours ago, Hewy said:

Badder,  great work on the chains, have you been codding us about tiny pe all along,  ;)and that gunners periscope gaurd is an absolute stand out on top of your turret,  i destroyed most of mine  trying to fit them after I'd misplaced my spectacles, i may try the dreaded soldering, after seeing yours, good work. 

Glynn  

Hi Glynn,

First off thanks.

In my defence, the brush guard on the gunner's periscope only needs two folds, both of which can be done without a PE folding tool. Just pin the ruddy thing down and use a sharp blade to lift the two pairs of legs. That wasn't a problem Sticking the ruddy thing to the hatch was the problem. I used Blu-Tac on the end of a cocktail stick to pick it up. dabbed CA on the feet and then positioned it. WRONGLY, several times as it turned out. And on the last attempt a leg snapped off. The replacement was just as awkward, but I got it fixed eventually. It's legs aren't bent inwards as they should be, but hey ho. And of course, using the extra brush guard meant that I didn't have enough to do the driver's and MG gunner's hatches so I used the kit's parts instead. They may be way over scale, but they are better than nothing and were a doddle to fix.

As for the rest of the PE, they were tiny bits yes, but again required just a single bend or curve and then some fiddling about. My PE disasters arise when you have a part requiring multiple folds that have to be done in a particular order and that order is never explained in the instructions.

 

I've not had occasion to use the soldering iron yet as the only parts that would benefit from soldering are the front fenders and I didn't use them.

I do have larger PE for several other kits including the shield plates for the 88mm flak, and the Flakvierling, and those will definitely require soldering.

 

Hope you are well,

Rearguards,

Badder

2 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Nice going Badder on you PE activities.

Thanks Ozzy,

I refer you to all my comments above, including the 'hope you are well'.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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It's been one of those days.

 

First off, I was messing about with the travel lock mounts, and spoiled them. Several attempts to make others didn't go well due to my increasing frustration and impatience. 

 

Instead, I carved out the little 'scoop' in the armour plate beneath the MG embrasure and added the 'cut marks'.

 

Next, I decided to join the upper and lower turret together instead. That went ok, except that I'm lying, as the fixing caused flexing of the turret's sides which pulled the gun slightly off centre. Grrrr. I got that fixed by pushing on the mantlet and using CA to fix the mantlet to the er... part underneath that, and then that part (the bit that has the pivots that insert into the nylon bushes) to the underside of the turret roof.

 

I think that's sorted it. I keep looking at it and thinking 'is it straight, or isn't it?' I've NOT said 'Nope, it's bent' so that's a good thing I suppose.

My gun is now an immovable object. But that's no issue as I won't be playing war with it.

 

Next job was to clean up the joint between upper and lower turret. No problems there. Just a bit of sanding and no filling required.

 

Then I added a stowage rail to the turret, just below the commander's cupola. I used the wire from an electric guitar string again. Several pinged off across the room, so I expect to puncture my bare feet on them at some point. Anyway, I got that done, and then tried to make one for the other side. Several more pinged across the room. Guitar string wire is awfully pingy stuff! And at that point I gave up for the day.

 

Pics maybe later.

Does anyone really want to see a bit of bent guitar wire?

 

TFL

Badder

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The other stowage rail:

EsAMIr7.jpg

 

The stowage rail done before the other stowage rail:

GqkJZDC.jpg

 

Just some cleaning and tidying up to do and that'll be the turret reading for painting/decals/weathering. I will be hanging stowage on the rails, but that can be left until the end of the project. Oh, and the hatches will be fixed in place half way through the weathering process.

 

TFL

Badder

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Here's the hatch on the commander's cupola. There are no mechanisms for locking the hatch from the inside, nor a handle for pulling it shut from within. Can anyone tell me @Sgt.Squarehead  @Bullbasket if these parts just haven't been modelled by Tamiya, or is this actually what the hatch looked like?

SSofS7L.jpg

 

Cheers,

Badder

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1 hour ago, Badder said:

Can anyone tell me @Sgt.Squarehead  @Bullbasket if these parts just haven't been modelled by Tamiya, or is this actually what the hatch looked like?

As far as I know, Tamiya haven't missed much off of the hatch.

a608a7bf-370a-4561-8dbd-6d5795e74a09.JPG

This is the one that I did for my M1 Sherman and the only thing that Tamiya left off was the latch for locking the rotating periscope in position. I've looked at photos of these commanders cupolas in the Sqn/Signal M4 Walkaround and the Armor Photo Gallery book on the M4A2 76mm, and they are all as I've depicted. It was probably a case of watching where your fingers were when you slammed it shut. I can only surmise that any locking mechanism is actually inside the cupola itself and not on the hatch. 

HTH's.

 

John.

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Thank you very much John @Bullbasket, that's most helpful. I very nearly stuck a grab handle on there.

 

BTW, The photo of the Sherman I'm loosely basing mine on shows all the hatches have triangular brackets on their outermost edge. These have holes in, presumably for accepting a 'ceiling-mounted' bolts when the hatches are closed, thus locking them. They aren't on all Shermans though. 

 

Your latch looks to be a nice option. Have you any photos showing the latch in better detail?

 

Cheers,

Badder

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TOP TIP

 

Whilst cleaning up the turret in readiness for a coat of OD, I realised that I hadn't made or fitted the missing centre-forward lifting ring.

 

I'd had a go at making one previously, after a dozen attempts had come close to making something nearly adequate. Then I forgot all about it.

 

So I set about making another. I knew it was going to take many attempts to get it right, because it's an inexact science trying to stretch melted sprue to the correct shape and thickness. One would have to be VERY lucky to hit the bull's eye first attempt.

Indeed, I was on my third attempt when I suddenly had an idea, a neat little trick, one that would make the process a bit easier.

So here's what I did:

 

I gently heated the middle of a length of sprue over a tea-light, in the usual way, rotating the sprue until it began to droop at the unsupported end. At that point, I held both ends of the sprue, and quickly transferred it to a nearby 'form' upon which I would stretch and bend it. That form was the handle of a diamond file, because it was about the diameter I required for the ring.

 

Stretching and twisting the sprue slightly, I then brought the thinning section down over the handle, like so:

PtbG7qM.jpg

 

Now, if I'd been lucky, that might have been it... a nice loop of the correct thickness and length and diameter. But it wasn't quite right. The diameter of the bend was slightly too large. I'd tried rectifying similar problems in the past, by gentle re-heating and bending, but again this is all a bit hit and miss; risking all the while it snapping, or melting, or catching fire. 

 

But I cut the 'U' out anyway:

9CvOUxG.jpg

 

Nearly right, but not quite. The thickness of the sprue is virtually perfect, but the gape of the U is too wide. My diamond file handle then, is NOT the right diameter for a form.

I'd reached the same stage several times, or to be precise, twenty six, using a variety of forms, and had failed in in my efforts to re-heat and bend the U's correctly. The problem is their size. Applying heat to such small items ruins them as the heat is not consistent across the whole object.

 

Now, my tea-light had been burning away for some time and was virtually spent, and that's when I had my brainwave, using the tea-light in an entirely different way.H0IPUVJ.jpg

It doesn't show up particularly well in the photo above, but there is liquid wax in the cup. Hot liquid wax. And I could re-melt the wax by heating the cup from below.

 

So that's what I did. Then I dropped the 'U' into it, thinking that the 'U' would heat up in liquid wax, uniformly, with no risk of overheating and melting, or catching fire. Sure enough the 'U' heated up with the wax and became slightly malleable - confirmed by a gentle squeezing a pair of self-closing tweezers.  And so I continued to squeeze the 'U' until the gape looked about right.

 

JjjagBO.jpg

 

And here it is fixed to the turret.

zE40QJW.jpg

I'm particularly pleased with how the innermost 'foot' of the ring is slightly thicker than the outermost, which is true to the real thing. The only thing missing is a slight 'lip' around that foot, which I tried to recreate by pressing a heated blade against it, but after one attempt I worried that I might overdo it and ruin what is otherwise a good lifting ring.

 

So, I'm going to remember this 'melted wax' process. It may come in handy in future.

 

If anyone else has, or does try this, let me know how you get on?

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Badder said:

Your latch looks to be a nice option. Have you any photos showing the latch in better detail?

Leave it until tomorrow and I'll see what I can find.

 

John.

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