GMK Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Nice work @Bandsaw Steve - based on your work here, I grabbed some of that Wave Corporation gridded styrene. Looking forward to working with it! Looking forward to seeing your PzH develop. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafetyDad Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Great result from your casting Steve. And a smashing little 'how-to' tutorial as well. SD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Gidday Steve, I found the tutorial interesting also, it's got me thinking a bit (which is rather dangerous actually). Those wheels have come up nicely, I'd like to see them in the flesh (so to speak). I hate to nit-pick (actually I love to nit-pick 😁) but if one has to decant/pour/whatever equal amounts of part A and part B of the resin mix for a casting why do they come in different sized bottles? And another question, serious this time, does that pink gunk hold it's set shape indefinitely, for future castings? Obviously I'm thinking ship fittings, gun turrets etc. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendie Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 On 5/18/2020 at 10:24 AM, Bandsaw Steve said: aha... so it's going to be a paddle steamer then? Can't wait to see the paddles in place Apologies - I missed this post first time around and completely missed your casting effort. Nice work. Though if I may be so bold as to make a suggestion... if you really want to capture the detail in your master, I use Liquid Silicone. It takes bit longer to set but it captures EVERY little detail - if you have a scratch on the master, it'll capture the scratch. I've noticed a lot of folks recently going for the putty type silicone, or the re-meltable rubber for casting, as an "easy" option - To be honest, the liquid silicone is every bit as easy to use and gives much better results. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 Yes agreed. I really only used the pinky-sill because it was readily available at the local craft store. It certainly has its limits, but sufficed on this occasion. In future I will make the effort to hunt down some liquid silicone. Do you have any recommendations regarding brand or supplier? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendie Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 11 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: Do you have any recommendations regarding brand or supplier? Steve, I've used Smooth On and Alumilite in the past, both with good results. I always left the rubber to cure overnight even though it claims it can be demolded much sooner 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 On 19/05/2020 at 22:30, ArnoldAmbrose said: if one has to decant/pour/whatever equal amounts of part A and part B of the resin mix for a casting why do they come in different sized bottles? does that pink gunk hold it's set shape indefinitely, for future castings? Obviously I'm thinking ship fittings, gun turrets etc. Regards, Jeff. Hi Jeff, The two bottles are the same size. I think one looks bigger in the photo due to perspective. Once set the silicone holds its shape permanently. Apparently the moulds will wear after a lot of use but after doing this small batch of wheels my one was still as good as brand new. I think it would be a good technique for larger repeated ship fittings - especially if simple shapes like turrets. As Hendie suggests above I think smaller more detailed Subjects would be better served with liquid silicone moulds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 17 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: The two bottles are the same size. I think one looks bigger in the photo due to perspective. Gidday Steve, actually I went by the labels, 250 gm and 225 gm. Part B must be heavier. I'd like to do some USN and IJN ships in the future, and this technique might come in useful. I'll have to pick your brains at the next WASMEx. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 22, 2020 Author Share Posted May 22, 2020 7 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said: Gidday Steve, actually I went by the labels, 250 gm and 225 gm. Part B must be heavier. Oh yeah.... the weights are different! 🤔I hadn’t noticed. Good spot Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 23, 2020 Author Share Posted May 23, 2020 The Gun The observant among you may have noticed that in some of the previous posts this self-propelled gun already has a gun. 🔫 So how did that get there? Let's make the story brief and rely mostly on photos shall we? About a month and a half ago I started by searching Bunnings for a nice straight piece of dowelling, Tasmanian Pine I think, that was sufficiently long and of the correct diameter. My original plan was to raid the second-hand shops around here in search of a knitting needle but all of this Covid 19 business has shut those stores down. Bunnings however has weathered the storm and remained open - with some quite stringent precautions - throughout. Anyhow - here's the chosen piece. Looks about right. Here is the end of the barrel being drilled out to make a hollow sort of looking thing. and here is a piece of aluminum tube that's exactly the correct diameter to sit inside and make a rather clean, sharp and convincing looking detailed end of the barrel. Now it was back to the lathe to start working on the bore evacuator. That's the big fat bulge about quarter of the way up the barrel, although I expect most of you already know that. I'm really getting to like this lathe and am making more and more use of it. The hole drilled down the centre of the evacuator was also drilled out with the lathe, which allowed me to make... This! Which looks OK to me. Note the little bit of aluminium tube at the end of the barrel. That's the bit that I was talking about earlier. The fundamental dimensions are correct. Don't worry about the fact that the barrel looks too long in this photo, it's due to parallax. And now to rat around in my stash of metal tubes and rings and things that came from... 🤔 actually I have no idea where they came from, but if I ever find some more I'm adding them to the collection. These things are so useful! See what I mean! I've been very lucky - there's basically been at least one little ring for each size that I've needed. This one is held onto the barrel and the bore evacuator by the use of copious car body filler. The muzzle brake is formed from a bit of old plumber's copper piping that I had lying around. (I'm not a hoarder honest!) The actual muzzle brake is sort of squashed flat and is wider when viewed from above than when viewed from the side. So I had to cut two rebates out of the barrel and then squash the tube in the vice. it squashed out too wide so I then cut it in half and filed away the excess. Then used 'Super Strength Araldite' to stick the two halves back on. Here I'm smoothing out the join with a file. So here is the gun so far. The fundamental shape is there now, so from here I need to add a few details and then stick it permanently into it's mantle. (I think mantle's the right term - feel free to correct me). Anyhow, everything's continuing to go well with this project, at least to my satisfaction anyway, and I'm really enjoying this one. I think that the idea of doing something totally ldifferent to what I've done before is proving to be sound. Best Regards everyone and stay safe, Bandsaw Steve 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendie Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 9 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: The observant among you that's me innit? I can tell y'know 9 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: I've been very lucky - there's basically been at least one little ring for each size that I've needed I usually go the opposite way and find every other size but the size that I need the barrel is looking very ship shape from here 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 34 minutes ago, hendie said: I usually go the opposite way and find every other size but the size that I need Yep - me too. That’s what usually happens, but so far the modelling gods are smiling on this project and I’ve enjoyed an unusual run of luck. It cannot last. 🎲 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafetyDad Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 That's good work there Steve. Coming along nicely. SD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 Yet More Wheels OK - yet another post on wheels. I only write all of this for completeness you know. For some reason I feel compelled to cover everything in each of these builds - even how to make 14 roadwheels spread over three posts. I'll try to make this brief. Here I have taken the electrical conduit that will form the outer rim of each wheel and put a good length of it in the lathe. I've marked off the centre of each wheel and am using a file to turn out the slot that exists between each of the two tyres on each roadwheel. This worked quite well once I decided to use a nice fine triangular section file. Latter the conduit got carefully cut into a series of short lengths, each of which represents one wheel. I then found a bit of wood that was the correct thickness and made this sort of 'jig' into which each wheel rim would sit during filing. By resting the file flat on the top of the jig I could ensure that each wheel rim was reduced in thickness to the same width with very little variation from one to the next. The biggest challenge is to try to get each one looking as close to identical as possible. I built another even simpler jig (no photos cause it was really just a cut piece of popsicle stick) to make sure that the inside of the wheels sat at the same recessed distance from the rim. Note that at this point the resin hubs were already firmly glued to the dowel but obviously you cannot see them in this view. Once the araldite had set I used a fret saw to cut off the surplus dowelling sticking out the back and sanded any roughness away with the bench sander. That left a nice round flat back on which to use a centre-finder to find the true centre of the wheel. See what I mean? Straight afterwards the Dremel drill-press got stuck into this and drilled a little hole right in the centre of each wheel. The plastic outer rim was still a bit rough and ready in parts so I got stuck into each one with some Vallejo putty, sanding sticks and sandpaper to clean each one up. And here's what they look like now. The wheels are not attached at this point, the hull is just sitting on a block of wood at roughly the correct height. Each wheel will eventually get its own little axle, probably made from carbon fibre rod. That's about it for now except to say that I think I have settled on a colour scheme... This one to be precise! German artillery, with an arid-climate camouflage pattern, deployed in Afghanistan with extra anti-mortar armour on the roof. This looks so cool! I'm quite keen to build a little revetment for it as well, but having the entire vehicle surrounded by big meshed bags of gravel might obscure the view of the model... So many decisions... 🤔 Bandsaw Steve 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnWS Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 Fantastic scratch building, Steve. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafetyDad Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Great stuff! Impressed with your work. SD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murdo Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Loving it, excellent skills being shown here! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefy66 Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Just shows you how many people are building these days missed this completely my what a monster this will be Steve looking great so far 👍 beefy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Model Mate Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 We only usually get to see people messing with plastic and the odd bit of brass in this hobby, so it's great to see some classy woodworking. Top job! I love your jigs as well - very resourceful! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 30, 2020 Author Share Posted May 30, 2020 Back to the Turret - Turret Part... whatever? I'm losing count now of which bit I'm up to and this build is jumping around so much between turret, hull, wheels and gun that it probably doesn't really matter. Sooooo…. Back to some more skinning the turret with plastic sheet. As mentioned before I'm trying my very best to measure and mark-up everything as carefully as possible on this project. I think that the extra effort is paying dividends. Here I'm marking up turret's front armoured plate so that... it fits just nicely and covers the front of the turret while leaving the correct size and shaped hole in the front where the gun sticks out. I used these tin snips to cut the thing to shape. Tin snips can cut through thin sheet metal, so plastic's a breeze. I then used a chisel to remove any excess. This chisel can carve jarrah, so plastic's a breeze. Now it's a metal-working file used to smooth out any remaining surplus. This file can work steel if need be, so plastic's a breeze. As you can probably tell. I'm starting to like plastic. It's a breeze! Here's the front of the turret in place. Stuck onto the balsa with some cyanoacrylate. And here is the skinning that covers the recess on the starboard front of the turret. I'm not sure exactly why the turret is asymmetric and has this large recess here but the gunners seem to often use it for housing rolled up camouflage netting. Now to fill any small remaining gaps and blemishes with my favourite 'Vallejo' filler. Even so, the biggest gap remains. That entire cavity around the mantle needs to be skinned. I probably should have done this earlier so that I could have worked from 'inside to the outside' rather than the other way around. Now getting access to this volume is trickier than it was earlier. A bit more measuring is required, both for lengths and for angles. And a fair bit of fitting and fiddling is needed to work around those big magnets and other bits and pieces. See what I mean about chisels dealing with plastic! There's not many types of wood that will curl-up ahead of a chisel as beautifully as this. So, here's where we have arrived. There's still a couple of visible gaps on the top of the turret on either side of gun - I'll deal with them soon - but structurally it's essentially complete. I'm still considering whether the mantle needs plastic skinning or whether to leave it as wood. Despite the appearance of blobs of glue smeared on it, the mantle's wooden surface is actually pretty smooth and, after appropriate priming, finishing and painting, might actually suffice for final product. That's it for now. It's a long weekend here in Perth so I might get another post out in the next few days. Thanks to everyone who's following along and thanks for all the encouraging remarks. Bandsaw Steve 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendie Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 10 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: so plastic's a breeze. 10 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: so plastic's a breeze. 10 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: so plastic's a breeze. 10 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: I'm starting to like plastic. It's a breeze! Actually, plastic is a polymer. coming along nicely Steve. Careful you don't get gridlocked 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Wow! Someone actually reads this nonsense! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 14 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: I'm not sure exactly why the turret is asymmetric and has this large recess here Gidday, I think it is where the gunners set up the coffee machine and toasted sandwich maker. ☕ 14 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: I probably should have done this earlier so that I could have worked from 'inside to the outside' rather than the other way around. Don't worry, with your skill the job should be a breeze! 😁 Seriously, it continues to look good. And sorry about the comments above, but I couldn't help myself. 🙂 Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthemodeller Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 5 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: Wow! Someone actually reads this nonsense! I hang on your every word... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 1 hour ago, brianthemodeller said: I hang on your every word... Very wise Brian - very wise indeed!🤔 Do you think you could have a word with my wife and kids? 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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