Stickframe
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Posts posted by Stickframe
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Well Pete, I'm deeply shaken to see you destroying a remarkably versatile household implement, the humble spoon 😄 The rescaling effort looks great, taking the Jag into a completely different realm looks cool - and looking forward to seeing more!
Cheers
Nick
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@silverfox63, well Silver, it seems the nose is indeed sagging:
So, it seems I need to figure out a way to balance this out.....🧐 My low tech analysis shows it -
I saw this, and pretended I didn't - as you can see above, there is a dip in the lower portion of the fuselage - I hoped that my filler pieces would square this up, and well, they didn't. For now the strategy will be to add opposing angles above and below, then file toward a level center line, like this:
Like above - define a center line, add above and below, and define by filing - or, continue to pretend it's not there!😄
Something to ponder -
Cheers
Nick
EDIT: *****Oh what a treat, I decided it would be a good idea to address this, and to my delight, all went ok, or so I thought - as I worked my way through this, well, managed to snap the right anti-g unit clean off the fuselage! yes! how much of it? all of it! - so my simple adjustment of body work became a bit more of a challenge - 😄ok - let's carry on -
Nick
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Hello gents, well, considering how small this is, I have been able to install a lot of styrene:
I spent what seemed like a lot of time getting the bracing for the front anti-g units to look and feel stable - followed by plenty of sweeping sheet material. No, practically all curing and not a square piece to be seen 😄
The rear needed some help - it was fussy and included several varied planes and surfaces, so I cleaned that up with some unifying bodywork.
And added some little wings up front - and of course, lots of styrene on the bottom:
We now layers of sweeping ducts and channels!
OK gents, thanks for having a look -
Cheers
Nick
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Hello dio builders,
While I'm delayed on my current project, well, I went back and revived the final images an old dio. I was never pleased with the pictures of this build, even though I took lots of them, yet still like the build. The battle occurred near the beginning of the Iraq war, in early April of 2003. A Special Operation Command ODA group and Peshmerga forces held a cross roads, despite overwhelming numbers of opposition forces and armor making several attempts to take the pass. A key to the success of the operators was that they had Javelin anti tank missiles, but, eventually ran out of them - an heroic effort was made to resupply them - and this is what the dio is representing. This is a noteworthy battle, and is well chronicled - at the time I read as much as I could about it, and at one point, received an email from one of the soldiers involved, which was quite humbling.
It turns out the battle occurred over the course of two days, with on and off again rain. A twist of fate for me was when I finished the build, it was raining on and off here too, so, out into the weather the dio and I went - for some outdoor pictures, At the time, I hadn't figured out how to make convincing backdrops. As I live in an urban place this is an important consideration, as without either a good physical or digital backdrop, well, that means all of the things you see in a city - people, dogs, trees, vehicles, you name it can alos be seen in the dio - none of which is good for taking pictures of a project! At the time I made a backdrop out of very thin plywood (the kind used for high quality model air planes) and painted it a shade of dark blue. This worked, but not great - about half of the pics were good and half awful.
So, as my beloved SF Giants were busy losing to the dreaded LA Dodgers tonight, well, a guy went ahead and worked on bringing these pictures up to date - please have a look:
I was in the "zone" so to speak on this project - yes, the trampled grass the soldier is walking through was done so to represent where the GMVs drove off the main road -
This was a great build - I really enjoyed making up the GMVs and the M1083 gun truck and lots of the Javelins - at the time, I couldn't find a kit for these, so, well, made them instead. I even enjoyed working on the figures - which I usually dread.
I did not enjoy making the acres and acres of grass! this is a lot of grass - and it took forever to make and install - it took a long, long time - but, I like it, and with the rain drops even more!
As I recall, one of the GMVs was overheating, so I showed the soldiers working on it -
These trucks were laden with weapons and gear -
In addition to cargo and ammo, this truck had a full coms rack -
While supplies were exchanged on the road two of the four trucks kept sentry on an adjacent bluff
Yes - real rain on all of it!
For the pics, I added the background image behind the M1083 gun truck, and kept my painted backdrop - darks skies, toward the enemy. This was just a coincidence - there was no reason to switch the photographed background when used on this side of the dio.
The dio is about 24" (61 cm) x 30" (76 cm), so it's fairly big, but not huge - and below, some wip images:
And there you have it - thanks for having a look,
Cheers
Nick
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@Pete in Lincs, I agree! no kit or instructions gives you an equal opportunity for a great build, or a bad one you can keep rebuilding until it gets better!
@Peter2, yes! we are on the same page for color - I don't know what colors this will be, but it won't be bright red!
Now, back to serious business:
I was not happy with the location or structure holding the front anti-g units- so, I cut them off. Following the numbers: 1) as it was; 2) gussets added: 3) anti-g units cut off, and; 4) anti-g units reinstalled, now, about 1/2" narrower, and, beefed up!
thanks for having a look!
Cheers
Nick
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For this post, getting back to some of the more adventurous parts of the build - the forward anti-g units:
This has taken some head scratching - and I'll leave it a that! I'm not convinced this is done, but, don't want to start chasing some weak ideas and wind up with something I really don't like 😄
I've kept this build somewhat modular - while glue is setting up in one place, I've worked on another, including the cockpit! Which now has panels for the pilot and copilot, and a stick for the pilot -
Back to overall:
So, while the tails turned out as hoped, the rest of the back will get more attention - I'm not altogether sure what that means, but something will change 😄
In the last few, you can see all three anti-g units installed - two smaller in the front, one larger in back. For a relatively small model, there is plenty going on now, so it's getting hard to handle - and easier to drop! As I've now proven a few times 😄
So, I'll keep after this -
Thanks for having a look,
Cheers
Nick
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Thanks guys-
@Pete in Lincs, ha, you should know I enjoy messing about!, and @Hunter Rose, thanks, yes, the landing gear - the subject of plenty of messing about indeed - lets start in back:
So, while my donor kit, an F1 car, certainly has some stylish lines, it doesn't provide much room for shenanigans, like adding landing gear and their storage for example. To resolve this I added a lower section to the monocoque which would at least suggest that these giant tires and their gear could be folded in - what a treat. To do this, I tried to maintain vernacular the car's lines, which curve and swoop - hmm....happily, I kept an old set of railroad curves, which are/were used for drawing very long, curves which are necessarily quite flat, which is ideal for this too - so, I did the mortal sin of cutting styrene, while using the radius curve as a jig - the drafting gods were likely not pleased 😄
With the body work in place, next came some detailing to the landing gear and making up some bay doors. As you can see - plenty of styrene and some remnant Aber PE from a T-55 Enigma - a natural choice for adding some stiffeners! Naturally, you can't see the two hydraulic rams added to each side! 😄
Above you can see the hull, doors and gears in some context -
The front doors worked relatively smoothly, but as they are not as robust as the rear, this was a bit nerve wracking.
I've since moved into the cockpit, to continue my struggles - like the rest, lots of slow going! 😄
Thanks for having a look
Cheers
Nick
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Hello gents -
Am pleased to report that I'm making some discernable progress:
As this will need some landing gear, I built up a bay for it to squeeze into, which allowed me to push ahead a bit more with the cockpit
I managed to finish the floor and add a console, and on the underside:
A nice and tidy fit. The ugly chewed up plastic on the left, well, the price a guy pays when designing as he goes - I'll clean it up later. There are relatively few straight pieces of material in here, so lots of filing, sanding and reworking. I had some pictures of this area, showing the wheel in the up position - and, not to worry, I deleted them, so, just imagine a nice fit! 😄 and what it looks like as whole:
One goal was to try and keep or at least not detract from the basic F1 car lines, so, adding the landing gear bay required some head scratching. To do this, I would add a piece or two on the underside, then essentially mirror them on the inside - I'm working on the doors now. The body work is thin styrene over internal ribs.
The rear poses its own problems:
Like the front, I'm adding room for bays that will fit the landing gear and those huge tires under the body. I'll add in some hydraulics, like the ram in the front, to suggest that this gear will tilt inward when flying about. The body work and bay doors is requiring plenty of fussy work, but it's coming along.
thanks for having a look
Cheers
Nick
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It's fun to see how you are conceptualizing, cutting up, and pulling all of this together. The Jaguar is a cool idea - and I'm curious to see with what you do with/make the spoon top work.
Cheers
Nick
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@Agent K, thanks very much. For a while now, I've been taking pictures of projects outdoors - on the up side, the colors are crisp and the light/shadow relationship has to be right 😄 the sun is where it is, and the project is too! on the not up side to taking pictures outdoors - well, natural light seems to feature a relentless measure of honesty - that is, if you have some mismatched or skipped some paint, it will be remarkably obvious, and the same goes for the build. If something it not flush and it is supposed to be, it will indeed cast a shadow. These challenges aside, I'm going to stick with outdoor pictures! thanks again-
@Jim Wasley, you know, this did take some work. But, there was enough of it to go around between the actual dio, figures, and vehicles that it was easy enough, or to be more clear, the best way to protect my sanity 😄 was to skip between them - maybe a week on figures, the next on the base, and so on - thanks
@Andy H, thanks very much - I appreciate hearing that. You never know if the idea actually works until someone (the builder's opinion doesn't count! 😄) actually says what they think thanks
Cheers
Nick
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Hello gents, thank you, and I'm glad this passes the collective "eye test!"
In the last few years, I've found I enjoy taking pictures of the final almost as much as building it! I really struggled through the first few efforts....just not very convincing.
These are not photo shopped, but I use a generally similar process. Each photo is resized, then using a free online tool called "Photoscape X" I make a cutout of the subject, followed by a super high tech step - I import a background that I like, and the picture into....Powerpoint. Once in PPT I enlarge and reduce pics to work together - that is making sure shadows are basically going in the same direction, and that there is a believable vanishing point. This is a slow process, but having done it a few times, and like the result, I don't mind. I don't use any picture corrections or filters ever - the picture of the subject represents the model as built.
Ok, thanks for having a look!
Cheers
Nick
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A Dyson???? how hurtful! Model builders have feelings too!! 😄😄
I'm still working on the calculations for defying gravity, but I'm getting very close, I think my findings will be pretty big.
As I'm struggling a bit with gravity, I began thinking about horizontal control - how can I make the vehicle turn or not turn under power? so a guy went ahead with some basic calculations:
The results are clearly obvious enough 😄 to work, this will need twin tails/rudders to perform. So, went about making up some pretty sassy tails:
As a result of my rigorous analysis (🧐😄) I located the bases for two tails, one on each side, just inside the engines. Naturally, these needed to be canted outward, at a 20 degree angle - what a treat!
As this is supposed to be an overlander, the space between the tails is for gear!
To work through this I made a simple, but very useful template:
Perfect! ideal for laying out the tails and setting the base angle too!
But, to get this done, some remarkably ugly assembly:
Hmmm, while these are giant at 1/20 compared to what you might see in 1/48, their frame and inner ribs are absolutely tiny.....this picture makes them look huge. They are not.
How much simplicity and beauty? All of it! 😄......and, with some skin:
Not bad. This was some slow going, but, I now have two almost matching tails. I'll scribe the rudders into the surface. Believe it or not, I pondered making each piece with two parts, tails and rudders....I was then hit by a tsunami of common sense! No, one piece with some scribing will be just mint!
Thanks for having a look -
Cheers
Nick
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What a great build - absolutely beautiful - 😃
Cheers
Nick
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Hi gents,
ok, I guess we're moving! or tying to make this move!
@rockpopandchips, yes! with my complete lack of knowledge of aviation, and well, shaky understanding of physics, we should be good to go! of course it will fly! 😄
@PeteH1969, ha! a glorified Fiat eh??? 😄 a perfect base for this!
@Pete in Lincs, yes! the goal is to demonstrate convincing realism! that is, to make it look close enough to be credible!
@Hunter Rose, thanks! yes, that's the plan! I'm trying to get the basics done and at least somewhat believable, but as @Pete in Lincs, there is that little problem of going in reverse....???hmmm - well, as this is air ride, maybe maybe it pivots in place?? hmm, sort of like turning a tank? lock one track and turn the other?? but with thrust???🧐😄 Maybe a big fan on the front??
@Peter2 yeah, about that....😄 In case you need more proof, think of the treasure chest of etch, small brass bits, resin bolt heads and other gems hidden in plain sight directly beneath the workbench! I know they are there somewhere!
@Thom216, thanks! let's see how it goes!
And on we go - first up, well, only having an idea for this, well, it seemed like a good idea to just keep building:
So, what you see here, obviously, 😄is the rear anti gravity device for lift, and two engines for thrust! The majority of examples of these vehicles I saw placed four anti gravity devices around the vehicle, one on each corner. But, it occurred to me that by doing this, you are just adding more places where the antigravity unit could rip from the hull - especially in the back which would likely be more heavy than in the front. So, I made up one bigger device, and placed it in the middle, attached to the monocoque! perfect! leaving room for engines in the air ducts.
The idea, being the bigger anti-g unit is doing the heavy lifting, merely defying gravity that is! As this would be a herculean task, the thrust would require less force than if they were also being used to, uh, defy gravity, so smaller engines of some kind go on each side -
et voila! these F1 cars prove a nice base for this! I have carefully cut up a lot of the red plastic, but it's coming along. As for the anti-g:
So I did some quick calculations and figured that this should be about right! or, well, it looks a lot like what it's supposed to, and it fits! Thankfully, I have plenty of left over parts!
And where it sits today - so, on we go!
Cheers,
Nick
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@dnl42, I hear you on this. The RFI pictures are like final exams - let's (literally) see how you did..... 😄 I've come to think of final pictures as the last step in the build, and enjoy pulling them together. I'm willing to "pretend not to see" a few things 😉, but others, well, add a glass or two of wine, or a cup or two of coffee 😄 and out comes the knife! thanks for leaving the note!
@Pete in Lincs, hi Pete, yes....you know, having now built a few projects, the prospect of digging into something that is essentially done is a bit less daunting, and well, crucial! 😄 Somewhere along the way I came to realize that if I managed to get the build this far, well, even if I cause some heavy damage during the repair, chances are pretty good that I'll be able to figure out how to fix it, so why not???
@keefr22, hi Keith, I think you summed this up pretty well! I suppose that problems like this sort of creep along, and while somewhat evident, it becomes easy enough to trick yourself into thinking it's ok, and then....RFI pictures, and looking at the build more carefully 🧐....well shoot! time to fix this! thanks!
@busnproplinerfan, hi Bus, well, yeah....it was wrong. The root cause of the problem was two fold. First, the kits would have the hood/grill assembly floating in the front, and attached in the back, via two "arms" that connect the fenders to the frame rails. Next, by reworking a lot of the chassis and engine components, the already weak connections get weaker - I wonder how it would go together as a stock kit? anyway, thanks -
Cheers
Nick
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Hello gents,
I just finished a project that I really liked, but realized it was the latest in a string of the same subject, and concluded that a guy needed some variety in model building. So decided to get after a concept I've been pondering for a while. As you can see below, I thought it would be a good idea to start with a Ferrari F1 kit that has been sitting unbuilt for far too long:
Step one was to cut this kit in half so that I could make it into a two seater and so far so good. As I am not a follower of current thinking on anti-gravity cars, well, went ahead and looked at several conceptual art and design sites to see what the prevalent thinking on this subject is - and well, some ideas were pretty cool. I saw a few versions that were based on F1 cars (though from the images, I really can't say how they would be powered? or why they "boasted" really long noses?), but none caught my eye, though I suppose I will include some of the current vernacular of thinking on the subject 😄
I noticed a recurrent theme of what turned out to be rings of spinning, super conducting ceramic and a series of solenoids located where four wheels would otherwise go, but mounted horizontally. So, I suppose I will have some of those.... Evidently these devices create a magnetic field/force that would serve as the source of power (force?) used to elevate an object off the ground - aka making it gravity defying.....well, there you go. I am going to go with it, as I want to build something new to me. What I didn't notice in these concepts was a consistent source of thrust or propulsion to allow for horizontal movement, so I'll make something for that - I don't want an anti-gravity vehicle that just floats 😄.
As I pondered all of this I thought back to my days in college...and trying to pass physics, and remembered the formula that solves everything: force = mass x acceleration 😓😥 Aside from those being awful days, I took from them that lifting something, anything, requires the exertion of energy, and that well, gravity is not as easily defied as someone using graphic software might suppose, hence my idea of an overlander - something of a low level/elevation craft, that can be lifted and can scoot around, But, not something that would instantly spring upward and zoom about at great speed - I guess each of those vehicles would have one heck of a robust power and fuel source? - Not mine - it will have enough power to get some lift and zip around, but I don't think any of the teen series of fighters would have much to worry about from this - maybe more like an old Toyota FJ 45 or Chevy Blazer?
I'm thinking about adding a utility bed of sorts, for hauling some gear - who knows? maybe these are used for patrolling remote places? or research? whatever the case, I think it will be more interesting, maybe a streamlined version of an Ian McCue air ship? I don't know just yet -
Ok, thanks for having a look
Cheers
Nick
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Hello gents,
It's time to call this project done. It is an International Paystar 5000, which I converted to 6x6, extended the chassis, made a winch and rack, and flatbed and ramps for. The project also includes a scratch built all terrain geotechnical drill rig chained to the bed.
If you're interested, here is the build log
It turns out yesterday was quite sunny, so I took the model outside for lots of photos:
I include the two pictures above because this project includes a fair amount of interesting details, in this case the front suspension and dual steering, which usually go unnoticed! But, I like these, so posted them 😀
The goal of the project was to build a tough old truck hauling an equally well used piece of equipment. Building the drill rig was fun, as I know nothing at all about these in real life. The truck became more of a technical challenge as I am more familiar with them, but needed to design it to accommodate the drill rig.
In retrospect, there are few things about the truck build I should have done differently. Starting with the suspension. I built my own leaf springs/brackets and so on for the front, which worked out really well. But, for the back I used some kit parts for a walking beam suspension - this was a mistake, as the parts were (evidently) somewhat warped, which of course I noticed, but didn't worry about it. Well, as you can guess, I spent far too much time fooling around with it to get it so sit level, and should have just built my own.
Next, the cab, and specifically the hood. The mounting points on the kit part were/are not solid/clear. I should have just just cut them off, and made my own. Should you go back to the build thread, you'll see I spent way too much time dealing with this, all the way up to the end of the project...😄
I really enjoyed the weathering process, which I hadn't done in a while.
Finally, just for fun, the photo grouping below. I don't use any photo filters/processors etc, on any photos, but these have some pretty strong saturated color right out of the camera. I took these images the day before I took the finals, used above. As these were taken the day before the others, you can see the cab and hood were not seated correctly:
OK gents, thanks for having a look - time to find a new project!
Cheers
Nick
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As we are all model builders, well, we get that: some parts take hours and hours to get resolved, and you never see them....and; some parts take hours and hours, don't look right, and, you can easily see them.....
On Friday I went about finishing the model, making last minute paint touch ups etc,, because as it turned out, yesterday was glorious and sunny, a perfect day to take a model outside for some photographs, which is exactly what I did - and what a treat it was - walking down my neighborhood street with model in hand, looking for flat places that might serve as good bases for this task! It turns out there are several relatively squat bollards here and there, and they are ideal for this purpose, so I went about my business, taking lots and lots of photos! Oh the good times - getting bright colors, strong shadows, and, talking with many of the walkers, joggers, and cyclists making their way past - a fantastic celebration of how nice the model turned out! 😎 😀
So, once I had many photos, back home I went to resize, crop, and cut out - perfect!
Except, along the way, I couldn't help but be distracted by exactly how bad the cab and hood looked! - what the???? I already spent a lot of time "fixing this"...more than once! So, after some wine with dinner, I concluded that I could not abide a screwed up cab - and, out came the knife, some force, and once again, off came the cab and hood!
As you can see on the left, I apparently chose to pretend to not see exactly how bad this looked.....(but, you can also see the chains are in tension! 😃)
Now as you can see on the right, it is now better, or as good as it will be!
So, back out into the neighborhood I went this morning with the model, and took lots and lots of photos, and again, chatted with friendly passersby. Then spent the afternoon, picking images to use - lol - good times.
I'll probably post the finished model in RFI later today or tomorrow,
Cheers
Nick
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@dnl42 - oh, thanks for including the link! I'll check it out - I hope you're not setting me up for an impossible project! 😁
Cheers
Nick
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Hello gents, and glad you approve! Mood lighting eh? 😄 That's a good enough story for me!
Meanwhile, it appeared that this was about done, well, in some ways yes, and in others clearly no.
First up, how about attaching the cab? how hard could that be? well, pretty hard - as I cleverly added hoses to the motor, cut up the chassis and whatnot, well, getting the cab firmly in place was a challenge. In addition to my self imposed "challenges", it turns out the cab location is governed by the exhaust stack on the back, and big air cleaner assembly in front. Not to worry though, none of it lined up - and cutting, rebuilding, and repainting was involved.....
And here it is - attached! and while I was at it, fixed up some of the streaking grime on the paint I didn't like.
So with that done, I went about finishing several other tedious tasks which I wont regale you with - and will instead jump to the truly evil task - making four chain stretchers. This turned into an awful task, which took over two hours to complete!
What is a chain "stretcher"? well it's a mechanical device used to apply tension to chains when they are use to hold things in place, like a drill rig to a bed, which is what I decided to do.
And what do these sassy, evil bits look like?
Here's one in the open position - and below:
In the closed position - oh what a treat - a total of 9 PE parts, plus, two brass rods each. And yes, they are considerably smaller than these pictures suggest.
While these are pretty nice, I have no idea if they are intended to be operable, but, mine are. Why? well, my plan is to mount the drill rig on the bed, and hold it in place with chains which attach to D rings on the bed - but, I figured out pretty quickly that it would be difficult if not impossible to insert these in the chains in the closed position and keep the chains in tension while doing so - hence, I built them to be operable.
While hard to see, there are two moveable D rings installed in the corners of the bed (front and rear). I attached the binders to the D rings, and the chain to the drill rig - just no fun at all
Anyway, I now have four of them, here are two:
My solution for making these operable was to insert brass rod where the ratchet connects to the "eyes" - easy enough, but not as simple as that, because to allow the ratchet to close I enjoyed the pleasure of filing the ends of the brass rods flush with the hardware....and now, they work, and are installed, and my chains that bind are in tension!
If tomorrow is a nice day, and I have some time, I'll take the project outside for some pictures!
Thanks for having a look -
Cheers
Nick
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Hello model builders,
Well, work was slow over the last few days, so went about paint and weather in earnest, and now have a pretty rundown looking truck, which will hopefully look good hauling the equally decrepit drill rig. Unhappily, it's foggy here today, so sort of a dark day, which is relevant to me because my place has a few really big skylights - hence, sunny day = bright place; cloudy day, darker place, and pictures!
I usually don't include pics of individual project elements, and despite the poor lighting, well, you'll see the engine and tandem rear end:
I'm particularly happy with the photo directly above, as despite the headaches this rear suspension caused, I like what it looks like now!
For at least right now, all of the added bolts look the part!
With the poor lighting, it's hard to tell that the engine has several shades....oh well.....😄
And on to the cab and body panels dryfit:
The protype I used happily includes ample rot and grime, and the fancy stripes! I must say, I was quite surprised to see how well the stripes worked - very little color bleed and uniform spacing of the lines - and then, well, some weather
Now, the bigger victory:
What a treat! it sits flat! On all ten!
Now, back to the cab:
Which only leaves the bed - it looks ok, but again...the light! Not that good for taking pictures of models.....😄
I'll mount the rig onto the bed, before mounting the bed onto the truck. What you can't see above is that the bed has some D rings for securing loads, and the drill rig has some too, so the plan is to chain the two together - which I suspect would be awful with the bed on the truck
Alright guys, thanks for having a look -
Cheers
Nick
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Hello model builders, thanks
Yes, as Trevor, said, "two steps forward, one back"....right. And, Andy, good eye! the resin rims are indeed two part, and because the tandems connect, only the inner halves are shown for now. As I've explored this problem I've come to wonder if the "levitating"/"anti gravity" tire/tyre situation might be exaggerated because of a loose fit for now. I'm adding some backing between the wheel hub and wheel to see if that helps.
And, if it doesn't, well, maybe a custom base is in order 😄
OK, thanks for having a look -
Cheers
Nick
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Hello gents, and thanks for taking some time to leave your comments! I appreciate them!
Especially, as the headaches mount 😲😄
So, the upside of scratch building: it's a challenge, requires some research, allows you to build some non-kitted projects, requires the builder to consider how to best represent whatever it is - good fun!
The downside, well, shoot - sometime a guy might build what he thinks he sees, rather than what he actually sees.....sometimes, the "eyecrometer" needs adjusting, and sometime, for the sake of laziness, a guy might just go ahead and use some kit parts because they look to be close enough.....even though, there appears to be a problem from the outset 🤦♂️more on this below.
But, in the meantime, I went about making up the bed:
So this is coming right along, and almost done - I need to add some D rings to the bed, and a few odds and ends, then on to other parts.
Looking pretty good - no problems at all! 😀
Oh what a treat! so much model building goodness! but, - uhh, wait a minute.....is that?? is that rear end still floating!???? what the?? I have torn apart and rebuilt that at least twice already! what the??? Hmmm - I guess I'll need to figure out what's wrong now.
This is what I referred to above. At the outset, I was concerned that the kit's walking beam suspension parts did not look right, and I keep getting proven right - hooray for me. First time through, these wheels, inside and outside were floating about an 1/8" above the ground....and now, well, only the inside part is floating. Early on I pondered just making up my own walking beam and brackets, specifically because when you do that, you can keep the central pivot point moveable, which results in a self-levelling suspension, which in turn, lets wheels and tires/tyres to seek the ground independently - which translated means that all four sets of tires and wheels usually touch the ground as planned. 🧐 Not sure what I'll do about this.
The good news is the bed and tires/wheels are not attached, so it's easy to reach this area. But, well, what to do next? I used brass axle shafts, so I could bend it upward, but, that might just raise the outside tire, and make both float.....again. I guess I'll futz around for this when I'm done with the bed.
While the purpose of this picture was to show the ramp, and tilting extensions, I realize now it also proudly illustrates my floating wheel! 🤦♂️
At this point, I think I'll get back to the bed later - and will instead fool around with the suspension and try and resolve the floating tires, without destroying something else!
Cheers
Nick
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HI Keith - what a build! she looks great - really nice finishes all around
Cheers
Nick
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1/20 scale anti-gravity overlander
in Work In Progress - SF & RealSpace
Posted
@silverfox63, well Silver, thank you, but your comments are fine with me - especially when, well, they are quite reasonable. To that point:
It was that kind of week.....almost right after fixing the sloping nose and related problems, I realized the cowl behind the cockpit was also not square/level.....🤦♂️🧐
So, I went about fixing it too, and unlike the front, I had subsequently added some other parts to the cowl, specifically, a rollbar of sorts that projects forward from the cowl to over the instrument panel. Oh what a treat.
Above, you can see that the nose is still level, and the cowl is too. The blue and yellow device under the nose is a turret mounted thruster to assist on slow speed turns - good times.
You can see the roof above - and will note that it tapers inward - because, as demonstrated by these Hasegawa Ma. K. figures, well even though my bet is they are closer to 1/18 than 1/20 scale, getting in would be a tight fit, so, I left them some room.
So, we are looking pretty good. I've since added a couple of spotlights on top, and it's been primed!
Thanks for having a look -
Cheers
Nick