Voyage to the Centre of the Lee - F..F..F..F..F..FINISHED!!!

[IanC]

Wow. I admire your patience with those tracks!

 

My track building effort normally consists of sticking one rubber end to the other. They stick with Tamiya thin too, so I don't even need a staple! 😄

 

I'm exaggerating. But only slightly...

[Robert Stuart]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Most of the length was produced in the last half hour of the morning's excitement

Great work with those tracks - sounds as though you've worked out an approach.

One thing I do differently is to make batches of 10 sets of links & 9 pads ... means I only have to count groups of tracks before assembling them into lengths.

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, IanC said:

Wow. I admire your patience with those tracks!

 

My track building effort normally consists of sticking one rubber end to the other. They stick with Tamiya thin too, so I don't even need a staple! 😄

 

I'm exaggerating. But only slightly...

 

But rubber looks like ... rubber!

 

1 hour ago, Robert Stuart said:

Great work with those tracks - sounds as though you've worked out an approach.

One thing I do differently is to make batches of 10 sets of links & 9 pads ... means I only have to count groups of tracks before assembling them into lengths.

 

Yes, I do that too when the track assembly system allows it but the first link in this one, with four unsupported guide horns, was a swine to align, an alignment swinement and the fewer of those I do the better! When I do the long side I may mark every tenth shoe with a dot of sharpie, washing it off before paint of course.

[Bertie McBoatface]

A warning to the unwary!

 

Blessed Bran knows how I spotted this before I closed the jaws of the cutters!

 

 

It's the back of the final drive unit. See those three sprue gates at the bottom? Do not cut them off flush!

 

 

You won't die without these tabs, but you will miss them. The gearbox has to line up exactly on the edge and because of the curve of the cast cover, it would be quite difficult to hold it in place for gluing.

 

As you see, I decided to save the engine for later. It's one of the best bits and can be done anytime so that's a job for one of my miserable days. For the moment, I'll crack on with the relatively boring bits. This hasn't all been plain sailing though. (It's neither a 'plane nor a boat so what would you expect?)

 

MiniArt (MA from now on.) served up another almost 'gotcha!' quite soon.

 

 

The webs on the final drive have a parting line down the centre. Hell, EVERYTHING has a parting line down the centre and usually a great big one too. But you can leave this one here and call it a gasket as this is where the three parts of the 'drive bolt together. Same on the outside of course.

 

 

That's the back of a real final drive. The thing in front is the base of the driver's seat. That big hex nut was removed to allow the insertion of a long box spanner for adjusting the brakes. Note the wire-locking? Either that's a left hand thread or some clown has locked it backwards. I'd have him for that!

 

 

Attaching the gearbox to the final drive. The plastic of this kit is soft like Airfix. There's a lot of detail but the moulder is a low pressure machine (I think). They have to use a soft plastic so it will flow and release ok. They also have an unusually large 'clearance angle. That's not the real name for it, which I have misremembered at the mo, but you know what I mean. It's the way they have to make everything tapered so it will come out of the moulds. When the two pieces of gearbox went together this was effectively doubled into a shallow V instead of the desired flat mating surface. If you don't get into the habit of squaring these off, the errors will multiply and the whole thing will assemble crooked. 

 

 

Another soft plastic/low pressure problem is sprue gates you can drive a carriage through. This was the first one I resorted to sawing from the sprue and I still broke it. Thin pipes and rods like this are really fragile when the plastic is like Cheddar cheese on a warm day. 

 

 

On the other hand, the detail is lovely. That's the floor of the engine bay, which will be hidden by the engine, but it's still very nice. And what's that big square thing? An inspection hatch? That's coming out!

 

 

T'other side of it.

 

 

Yes, you are correct. I should cut off the boltheads. 

 

 

I should also remove the hatch edge and drill holes where the bolts were. But I'm not going to. I won't do that with the plates on the top either. If pressed I will claim that the museum staff that did the cutaway left these things in place for strength but to be candid, I think it looks better like this, and it's easier, and quicker. 

 

The cutting was so easy with this plastic. The biggest danger was cutting too deep. So it's not always a bad thing that it's soft.

 

 

That's the real gearbox. That is a MAN's gearlever! On the right is the handbrake. Note the lifting eye. MA say drill the holes out. They made a hole in one half but not the other. Oops! This left me with the job of drilling half a 0.7mm hole in soft plastic. I lack the skills to do that until my drill press comes next week and even then I'd almost certainly come out through the side, so I've filled their half holes and will assert than mine has blanking plugs fitted.

 

 

For your entertainment, the final drive with differential in the middle and brakes either side. I almost wish I'd tried opening one of the brake panels. Almost 😁

 

 

The hull floor comes in three pieces (Grrrr!) but aligns reasonably well once the parting lines are dealt with. Each joint is triangulated with a piece of equipment, here the propshaft housing, which keeps it reasonably square.

 

 

See the mould misalignment on that oil filter? I didn't see it because the part is so tint but I see it in the photo! I'll make another one from rod later.

 

 

And as for these soft pieces of goo meant to be the oil fillers, or something not fitted on my photographs, I'll just bypass those and scratch myself.

 

 

Brass wire alternatives will be more to scale. I'll bend them when the glue's fully set.

 

 

And there's another two hour's progress. The damned thing looks like a bus!

 

Priming beforehand has been useful. When sanding down the joints etc, I can see exactly where I'm removing material and that's really handy when it grinds away as fast as this stuff. I'm also experimenting with working in gloves to keep everything clean. It's not an issue yet but when things are painted, I will have to be careful to avoid abrading it from the edges with my sweaty mitts.

 

I'll have one more go after tea and that will be it for the day.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

This has taken an hour to write. 🙂 Fortunately, I like writing. But obvs, I wont be doing it like this all the time. And I'm skipping the proof-reading from now on. You can all have a laugh at my tpyingg.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I wish I knew how long this will take in hours. We have about a hundred days. If it’s a two hundred hour model, I can ease up but if it’s a five, then I really need to stay up late tonight. My guess at the moment is 100 to 140 hours.

 

I'm now stopping for the day having finished the short length of track and made an abortive start on the long side. I took 20 minutes to do two links so I guess I'm too tired for any more.
 

I spent an hour priming the sprues and inspecting it all and then six hours and ten minutes today.

 

Running total seven hours and ten minutes.

 

[PlaStix]

Hi Bertie. Good to see your progress and I hope you have a pleasant Saturday with your daughter.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Bertie McBoatface]

20 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Bertie. Good to see your progress and I hope you have a pleasant Saturday with your daughter.

Kind regards,

Stix

ThanksStix. I’ll take that as retroactive permission to time travel. 😁

 

I just got home and we had a marvellous time, thanks v much. I’m even enjoying an official day away from the bench! 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Today I had a grand day out wiv da kid.

 

NFTR. 

[edjbartos]

Good going Bertie, It's coming along great, some smashing detail on this kit...

 

Ed

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

You have no idea what a relief it is to me to have the tracks assembled on the second day. And every link is free! Total time on the tracks was seven hours, including an hour wasted on that experiment with the jig. This morning I accidentally found the real secret knack to track. I wanted to turn over some pads for ease of access and my freshly washed hands were slippery with that silicon conditioner which is in all grooming products these days. I couldn't pick them up so I licked my finger and temporarily glued them to myself with spit. Temporary glue! Of course. That was the way to stop those little connectors falling away when I was trying to close the track pad sandwich around them. I gripped them in tweezers, touched them to my tongue and stuck them into their locations where they stayed, long enough for me to apply the glue, wait for it to go off a bit, place the inner pad on top and squeeze. Together with the double sided tape, which is just another temporary glue of course,  I'd found my perfect method. I bet my unconscious mind was working on the problem during my time away from the bench yesterday - so the real world does have some advantages then. 😄

 

Once I got into my rhythm, I reckon I was doing two or three links per minute. I actually overshot and had to take one out!

 

I'll leave them alone now until the bogies, idlers and sprockets are all in place, so that I can check the length before making the final joining link and then painting the things.

 

This is the best track building experience of my short armour modelling career and I now consider myself free of erucaphobia! (Fear of caterpillars)

 

 

[Jasper dog]

Hope you aren't slacking Bertie, 3 pages in and not even ready to paint....

 

Tracks look great and satisfyingly articulate. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Since I felt so good about having the tracks done, I thought I'd continue with the boring bits for a little longer. Thumbs up for my bogies then!

 

The parts breakdown matches the Takom version of these units with which I'm already familiar. I don't accuse either of them of plagiarism, it's just the sensible way to do it. Both companies are copying the original in plastic so there's bound to be some parallel evolution. One difference results from that soft plastic I referred to earlier. All of the MiniArt locating holes and the pins that are supposed to enter them are noticeably conical. Which means that they often don't fit properly. Worse, they almost fit and then jam solid as the joins wedge together. If the part is a fragile one, getting the join apart again can be tricky. It's bad enough if you are dry fitting but if you have carelessly glued, you are scrued. 

 

For example, the twelve parts Ec5, the rocker arm under the volute springs, needed their orifices reaming. Ec1 and 2, the bogie castings are the same. In fact it's kind of a trademark of MA that the holes all need a little easing. It's tiresome but not disastrous and makes me feel like a real moddeller. 😄 

 

Note that I will definitely have made this little annoyance worse by pre-priming my parts. Your copy of the kit should be better.

 

I have managed another hour this afternoon on the bogies but that's all I can stand. Time for my nap. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[edjbartos]

Well done Bertie, tracks look great..

 

Ed

[Bertie McBoatface]

13 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

 

Tracks look great and satisfyingly articulate. 

 

Yes the tracks are really good. It's possible to make the suspension 'work' and I considered putting a chock under the tracks on one side to show my museum visitors how the track and bogies operated. I eventually bottled it and/or decided that it would just confuse everyone and I'd spend the rest of its life explaining it to viewers. 

 

13 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Hope you aren't slacking Bertie, 3 pages in and not even ready to paint....

 

There are lots of sub-assemblies to fit together before I start painting. I figure that since most of the inside is white(ish) and most of the outside is green, I'll paint most of both in one monster airbrush painting session before I'm forced into brush painting for the rest of the build. I guess it's probably a week or two before that happens. 

 

That reminds me. Am I correct in assuming that the Australian Lee tanks would have been painted in a more verdant green than US Olive Drab? A jungle green perhaps? Does anyone have good info on this? Actually, I don't know why I'm asking because I've already decided that's what I'm going to do. They would have been delivered in OD but I'm betting they were repainted jungle green long before my tank was 'carefully restored' in the museum, with whatever they could get on the cheap from their sponsoring paint company. 😁

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

14 minutes ago, edjbartos said:

Well done Bertie, tracks look great..

 

Ed

 

Thanks Ed. You posted while I was writing so please see my track comments above.

[PlaStix]

Well done on getting the tracks sorted Bertie.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Bertie McBoatface]

3 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Well done on getting the tracks sorted Bertie.

Kind regards,

Stix

 

Thanks Stix.

 

I couldn't manage an evening session tonight so my 

 

Running Total is 10 hrs and 5 mins. 

 

It is mounting up surprisingly swiftly, I find.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I love this hobby in all of its incarnations. That's why find it difficult not to start new projects before the old ones have been completed, and that's why I'm in a mess at the moment. In progress right now I have:

 

M3 Lee, interior, cutaway build in the GB

Archer/Tilly range diorama

Mutant mouse figure

Ripley astronaut full figure in two scales and a bust

Fantasy witch figure

Wooden ship's boat

Wooden fishing boat

Entropy GB 'admin and marketing'

Short story in support of 1/32 Mustang WIP

A39 Tortoise, Dingo armoured car and HMS Temeraire Entropy experiments

And the rest of my 'real life' which I manage to fit in somewhere, including planning for a house move!

 

Something's got to give. I have so many irons in the fire that the fire is in danger of going out. So instead of trying to do everything at once, I'm going to make my moddelling projects form an orderly queue and attend to them to completion, one at a time (possibly two). Nothing will be abandoned, but some will have to wait a while. Taking the long view, nothing will even be delayed. The single projects will get done a lot faster and more efficiently than if I split my time and energy over several. Over the course of a year, MORE moddelling will happen, not less. It's not the shelf of doom for the other stuff, because I'm still really mojoed up about them and want to carry on working. I just can't manage it at the moment and I don't know when I will be able to re-start them. 

 

This is not one of the projects that is being set aside. My attention will initially be concentrated on the Lee cutaway, because that's in a GB and has a deadline, and a deadline is always good for keeping me moving. So that's alright then. Now I can make some real progress and get my bogies* sorted before the hay- fever season make them so much worse. (Ew!)

 

 

 

*Bogie defined: 1. An evil or mischievous spirit; a hobgoblin. 2. A cause of annoyance or harassment. 3. The second most repetitive and tedious part of a tank build.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Tonight my son came to my house for dinner and we chattered right through my regular moddelling evening session. I'd already sacrificed morning and afternoon to 'real world' (ha!) tasks like hanging curtains and spring cleaning so there's been little progress today if measured in amount of progress. But if we look at quality of personal innovation...

 

 

I made my first cutaway suspension component. A sectioned roadwheel. Clamped firmly in the proper vice which I bought this week...

 

 

...and sawn with a sharp Hasegawa Tritool saw...

 

 

...it's turned out a treat. You can't see the join between the two halves of the wheel because it was glued up with 'sprue-goo'.

 

 

You can just see a sectioned roadwheel on this training tank in Russia.

 

I need to do a tiny bit of cleaning up and then mark out the tyre/steel interface. And then paint it, of course. That can wait until tomorrow. This ten minute job was done tonight just to keep my hobby streak going. On every single day this year I have either cut plastic, glued plastic or painted plastic. 😃

 

Total Elapsed Time on this Project = 11h 35m.

 

 

 

 

[PlaStix]

Nice work on the cut wheel Bertie.

Kind regards, 

Stix

[Longbow]

That wheel looks exceptional, Bertie !!

 

I wonder if any one has tried a "cut-in-half" vehicle, like the Centurion.

[Bertie McBoatface]

30 minutes ago, Longbow said:

That wheel looks exceptional, Bertie !!

 

I wonder if any one has tried a "cut-in-half" vehicle, like the Centurion.

 

Maybe next time. 😄

[Bertie McBoatface]

Bogies are as bad as tracks for repetitititive brain syndrome, with the extra challenge of handedness and mirroring and other fancy words for it only works if you get it the right way round. With MiniArt you also have the large number of small parts per bogie assembly each with at least two sprue attachments. so mostly today, I have been fettling.

 

 

This is classic MiniArt with the conical sections. Before and after. It looks a bit rough in the photo but the tatty end is inboard so won't be noticed. I'm not sectioning one of these because I can't find any information on the inner workings of a return roller.

 

 

All cleaned up and ready for some paint. It would be easier to assemble the bogies first and then paint them but I want clean crisp tyre edges and I think this is the best way to do that. Another reason for doing it this way is that I usually assemble these first, so this will be an interesting change. It's a museum piece remember so there's no hiding the mess with mud here! I'll highlight and shade the parts before I paint - maybe that will make them extra crispy. 

 

Also, one of the bogies will be sectioned. I don't know how until I've assembled a couple of them for practice, but I think it will help if there's paint on beforehand. (By the end of this project it will be me that requires sectioning. 🤪)

 

 

My exterior paints of choice. The Mr Color Marine Green is for spraying. I don't know what it's like for brushing, I'll find out later but I don't expect it to be very good. If not, I've got enamels in a triad for a back up. Grass Green 80 is close enough to Marine Green and the lighter shade 120 will be my highlight to be drybrushed, while the darker 30 will be made into a wash for the shadows.

 

 

I slowly and carefully sprayed all the bogie components. Note the use of bamboo skewers where the only available hole is too large for a cocktail stick.

 

 

Then I sprayed all the exterior components that I could identify, and one or two inside faces too, I'll be bound!

 

I'm cutting holes in these later, and sticking them together too so there will be a lot of touching up required but I think this way will be more efficient than spending a week masking the plates after skeletonisation.

 

 

I shot four, maybe five full cups of paint through the airbrush without wiping the tip once. This is how it looked at the end.

 

 

That's my cleaning bath after brushing out the inside of the airbrush with IPA. I had also sprayed a cupful of IPA through the airbrush before I stripped it down. That's all that there was to clean out. @HAMP man and I were talking recently about airbrushing and I said 'thin your paint more' but I didn't show how much more. I tried to illustrate that in pictures today. I was using what I think of as properly thinned paint. I had no stoppages, no tip drying, no stop and start hesitations. Just efficient painting. I wasn't particularly precise about the mix but it was around three to four parts thinner to one part paint, squirted in with pipettes and mixed well by suck and blow with said pipette.

 

 

When I threw the remaining paint into my bin at the end, it ran down the bin-liner like this.

 

 

It dried, quickly, as thin and wishy washy as this. It doesn't look like that on the model because the model was primed, the bin-liner wasn't. I hope that gives you an idea, Strickers, what I mean by 'thin your paint' ?  I've NEVER heard of anyone having spraying difficulties by over-thinning. If it ever happened all you do is add a couple of drops more paint. Under-thinning causes most airbrush problems and when it does, you have to strip the thing down and clean out the sludge . I recommend that you aim for too thin and work back to perfect, rather than starting thick.

 

Goak: Why is properly thinned airbrush paint like making love in a punt? They are both ******* close to water.

 

 

The result (over exposed, sorry) is a thin and even layer which loses no detail and has no runs or splatters. In theory I should apply a second coat for best effect but I usually don't bother 😱

 

That's a good day's work for me bringing my 

 

Total Elapsed Time to 14 h 5 m

 

[edjbartos]

Very good Bertie It's coming along a treat...

 

Ed

[Bertie McBoatface]

8 minutes ago, edjbartos said:

Very good Bertie It's coming along a treat...

 

Ed

 

It's mostly routine stuff so far, I'm looking forward to getting the burrs out for the sectioning of the hull and turret. 🤤