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

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 3/28/2022 at 8:34 AM, Jasper dog said:

Your interior is looking suitably busy, sure with a bit of paint it'll really come to life! 

 

I think one short session of assembly is needed before I can do some painting. [edit 30/3/22 Hahahahaha!] That should see the floor and back wall done. Then I'll be able to fit the hull sides, after making some holes in them of course.

 

On 3/28/2022 at 8:34 AM, Jasper dog said:

don't have move

 

I'm actually quite relieved. It was all a bit of a mad idea, to be honest. Looking on the bright side, I've thrown out some redundant stuff, and cleaned up the flat a bit. I even culled some of the models from my display shelves. If they weren't worth moving to a new place, they obviously weren't worth keeping here either. I'd have dumped some more old models were it not for the Entropy GB; I'll need those to practice on.

 

For anyone who hasn't heard of the Entropy GB, here's a link.

 

 

[JeroenS]

18 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

It was all a bit of a mad idea, to be honest.

Sometimes good stuff comes from having mad ideas so don't stop having them, just make sure you build in a tiny moment of reflection somewhere 🙂 

[Bertie McBoatface]

32 minutes ago, JeroenS said:

Sometimes good stuff comes from having mad ideas so don't stop having them, just make sure you build in a tiny moment of reflection somewhere 🙂 

 

It's good having mad ideas about a model, like cutting holes in it 🤪. There's nothing to lose.

 

Bigger things, real life changing things, need suitably long periods of reflection, as you say. It's difficult to remember that sometimes. I've made some awfully poor choices on impulse throughout my life. Funnily enough, the worse the decision, the faster I've been going. It's as though I had to make it happen quickly before the wiser part of me woke up and vetoed it. 

 

[edjbartos]

Interior is looking very good Bertie, should look great with the cut outs so that you will be able to see things....

 

Ed

[ColonelKrypton]

4 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I'm actually quite relieved. It was all a bit of a mad idea, to be honest. Looking on the bright side ...

 

I try and spend at least five minutes every time I go into the workshop to sort and clean up some of the old stuff that is laying about and after many ( many ) years of collecting and storing "good junk" there is no shortage. 

 

The trick I have found is to spend no more than 15 minutes sorting, cleaning up, and culling. Right around that time mark I find I start to second think my decisions and start to keep some of the better junk of what should be tossed out and I start to keep more than I cull.

 

Just the other day I spent a good 15 minutes sorting through some old kits, paint, and other assorted bits - managed to clear away a good bit. 

 

Felt good, a bit mind and soul cleansing in fact clearing away some of the clutter.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

[THEscaleSHOW]

4 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

It's good having mad ideas about a model, like cutting holes in it 🤪. There's nothing to lose.

 

Bigger things, real life changing things, need suitably long periods of reflection, as you say. It's difficult to remember that sometimes. I've made some awfully poor choices on impulse throughout my life. Funnily enough, the worse the decision, the faster I've been going. It's as though I had to make it happen quickly before the wiser part of me woke up and vetoed it. 

 

Model making lets you get philosophical from time to time 😁

[Bertie McBoatface]

56 minutes ago, THEscaleSHOW said:

Model making lets you get philosophical from time to time 😁

Oh yes. Philosophy. Psychology. Engineering. Art. History. Geography. Chemistry. Economics. Physics. Politics. Moddeling has everything that real life does, but at 1/35 the size!

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, ColonelKrypton said:

The trick I have found is to spend no more than 15 minutes sorting, cleaning up, and culling. Right around that time mark I find I start to second think my decisions and start to keep some of the better junk of what should be tossed out and I start to keep more than I cull.

You are absolutely right about that. I’m exactly the same. Little and often is the best way to keep the clutter down. 
 

I have another little trick. It’s a kind of a mantra really. I constantly tell myself that if I don’t miss the occasional thing that I dump, I’M NOT CUTTING HARD ENOUGH!

 

last year I disposed of a bookcase full of aircraft monographs that I bought for builds years ago. The build is finished, the model long gone but the book remains. Since I rarely do the same thing twice I don’t need them. Many are so thin that they take little shelf space but they are really heavy and some of them have moved house with me a dozen times. 
 

I stayed within the 15 minutes by throwing all of them away in one go. Once the bin men had been and gone I asked myself how many titles I could remember. The answer was surprisingly few. 
 

Of course, I still buy books and soon the books will begin to own me again, I will spend more time and energy looking after them than the pleasure I get from using them. And then I’ll do it again. 😈

[HAMP man]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:55 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

That’s really good news! Well done!

Subsequent attempts have had mixed results, probably due to shoddy cleaning, but I must remember to keep to the 80% thining, that extra droplet can mean the difference it would seem. May even have a bash at my old Xtracrylix.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Assembly of interior and opening of hull sides. 4 hours.  So much for 'a short session before painting'.

 

Total time 24h 50m

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

16 minutes ago, HAMP man said:

Subsequent attempts have had mixed results, probably due to shoddy cleaning, but I must remember to keep to the 80% thining, that extra droplet can mean the difference it would seem. May even have a bash at my old Xtracrylix.

 

That's why I told you to use ink. df

[Bertie McBoatface]

11 hours ago, edjbartos said:

Interior is looking very good Bertie, should look great with the cut outs so that you will be able to see things....

 

Ed

 

Fingers crossed, Ed. 

[HAMP man]

15 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

That's why I told you to use ink.

I got excited and lost sight of the target given; postit is now underlined.

I tried to find a stationers local that sold ink, a very rare breed now, I seem to remember more.

Cass Art it will have to be.

 

I painted my return rollers grey cos I always thought they were rubber, green they will be.

 

Box On 

 

Strickers

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

This was the task that slowed me down yesterday; deciding where the lower hull cutaways would go. I wanted maximum opening but with the loss of the minimum amount of interior detail. You will see the rectangular location mark on the forward opening, that was to take a rather boring metal stowage box. I can live without that.

 

 

The rearmost hole presented a more complex problem. I really want the engine to get maximum exposure but the little hatched area was all that I could afford to lose. Forward of that on the other side is the aft bogie attachment points, above it is the vital engine mounting bracket and to the rear, again outside, is the idler mounting. 

 

 

After just a few more parts were added, I finally got to apply three coats of my tank interior 'white' as described above.

 

 

Already, the details seem crisper. 

 

 

The turret seems stranger!

 

 

This was all the cutting I could do on the port side. Forward of this is detail that's too interesting to lose and which will be visible through the holes in the upper hull sides and roof.

 

That big hole in the top of the engine bay leads into the fuel tank. I'll make a corresponding hole in the hull side so that you will see the engine through the whole fuel tank. Ive done the same on the other side too. To maintain interest, one side will actually reveal only the fuel tank in its armoured housing. First, I have to find out what that looked like. Was it a bag, a steel plate box, or were the sides actually the armour plate? Dunno yet. If anyone has information on this I'd be pleased to hear it.

 

 

Four holes this side.

 

 

These cutaways are only knee high to the crew, waist high at best to the museum visitor.

 

 

 

I like the low down views.

 

 

I may leave the escape hatch off for more light and a secret view of the roof from inside.

 

I tried to leave file marks on the cutaways to simulate the flame cut edges. I may revisit them with a scalpel before I'm done.

 

 

Ah, there's the detail I wanted to keep. The driver's tommy gun and its ammo drums.

 

Another two hours and ten mins on this today so 

 

Total time elapsed = 27 Hours.

 

It's certainly a value for money kit in price divided by time terms.

[fatfingers]

Aye up Bertie,

 

Super job on this. It will look superb with some paint on it! 👍

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

6 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

The rearmost hole presented a more complex problem. I really want the engine to get maximum exposure but the little hatched area was all that I could afford to lose.

You don't need really the whole engine deck ?  There is know reason to say the museum didn't have an upper balcony or walkway above your tank ? 

[Bertie McBoatface]

45 minutes ago, fatfingers said:

Aye up Bertie,

 

Super job on this. It will look superb with some paint on it! 👍

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

It's got some paint on it you cheeky monkey, three coats and primer! 😤

 

🤣  Don't worry Steve, I know what you mean. 🤣

[Bertie McBoatface]

8 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

You don't need really the whole engine deck ?  There is know reason to say the museum didn't have an upper balcony or walkway above your tank ? 

 

There's going to be very little of the engine deck left after I've done with it. Bur the engine is a masterpiece that demands full exposure, above and below. Especially if it means I don't have to paint the tools.😆

[Blade2009]

Looking good Bertie, I have bit of catching up to do not had much spare time over the last few days.

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 minute ago, Blade2009 said:

Looking good Bertie, I have bit of catching up to do not had much spare time over the last few days.

 

"Spare time", what the ping is that?

[PlaStix]

Hi Bertie. Excellent progress with the interior and the cutaways look like they will do their job really well!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

Before...

 

 

During... (OK, not really during. "As a result of?" It's late and I've been drinking and some comment on the Entropy GB has just this minute made me doubt my sanity so you'll have to bear with me. And, no there isn't really a bear with me, just a smallish dog. So, this is one part Payne's grey oil paint and 99 parts white spirit for a wash designed to look mostly like shadows, because it's a bluish grey, see. Also if it looks like general oily grime that's good too. Let's just move on to the after photo, eh?

 

 

After. This has the agreeable side effect that it makes painting the details easier because I can see the places where the paint has to end (for example, the black on the steering lever handles ends at a moulded ridge) and I don't even have to paint right up to the line but just up to the wash! It needs to be dry first though so I started back in on my bogies.

 

 

I had a brainwave and realised that if these three component sub-units were glued together on the square and on the level (Masonic references, don'tcha know?), if they are done proper the rest of the bogies will assemble flat to the floor. Truing them up with a straight edge was easy peasy. 

 

 

And sho' nuff' (I'm watching Justified), four of the five remaining bogarts went together like Tamiya. That number five booger fought me every millimeter of the way though and required some heavy clamping. That was the one with the cutaway roadwheel and roller and while I don't understand why that should make a difference, it seems a bit of a coincidence. Anyway I glued it pretty well and clamped it together like an oyster. And then went back and glued/clamped the other four as well, for insurance. I don't want the wheels coming off when I'm trying to sort out the tracks! I'll leave them overnight for that half pint of Tamiya Extra Thin to do its stuff.

 

 

Time Elapsed 29.5 hours

 

 

[PlaStix]

Hi Bertie. Good to see more progress and it looks like your wash worked well on those interior parts.

Kind regards,

Stix

[edjbartos]

That does look good Bertie, the cut-outs are in the right places to see the important parts. The wash is nice and subtle, this will look smashing,...

 

Ed

[Bertie McBoatface]

4 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Bertie. Good to see more progress and it looks like your wash worked well on those interior parts.

Kind regards,

Stix

 

Thanks. Yes, it's coming along. However, we are almost half of the way through the time and I'm not sure that I'm a third of the way through the Lee. 😐

 

2 hours ago, edjbartos said:

That does look good Bertie, the cut-outs are in the right places to see the important parts. The wash is nice and subtle, this will look smashing,...

 

Ed

 

Cheers Ed. It is starting to look good, I will admit.

 

 

These are all solid now, though they need the webs adding to the tops of the castings. (Sorry about the focus)

 

 

Thomas the Tank Gun has found a home. I couldn't resist that decal. There are quite a few decals on now. Most of them make no sense but as I can't read any of them without enlarging them on here, that doesn't bother me.

 

 

This is the other one that makes sense as that really is the first aid box.

 

 

The Lee had no .50 cal. That's the box where the manuals and associated paperwork was stored.

 

 

I hope you can tell that I've highlighted all the boltheads and other places that would catch the light. It really helps with the 3d-ness of the inside.

 

 

I've added some scratched paint effects. I couldn't bear to make a model with no weathering. 😉

 

 

It was awkward but I did manage to paint the shells. I went for Mr Color brass which is very shiny but looks good to me.

 

 

They were supposed to be red but I'm reserving crimson for the cutaway edges so I varied the colour a little. These are the engine bay fire extinguishers. They should be connected to the bay with pipes and to the triggers, which are outside the vehicle, with bowden cables. I decided not to bother with that because the turret basket will be right in front of the bottles.

 

 

That's the general ambiance of the inside of the tank, with a great deal more stuff to go in there yet.

 

 

The engine bay is way too clean and unscratched. It gets the chipping treatment next and then when the sides are in place I'll make it oily with some more oil washing. 

 

I've spent three more hours today all in all and don't seem to have advanced very far. I'm beginning to fret about the deadline.

 

32hr 30min total time spent on the project