Scratchbuilder
SMF Supporter
Awesome! Modern armour is not on my list but this kit looks great. I am an interior freak so am greatly intrigued and will follow.As the Warrior enters its final stages, the next item on my build list is the IDF M109 'Doher'.
I was going to base it on the Kinetic kit that I had just added to the stash BUT, after trying to get the twisted lower hull square in hot water, I gave it the elbow and plumped for the AFV Club M109. Later on I will return to the Kinetic one and revert this to either a British version or an American....
So.... out came the kit, the reference and the extras....
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The extras include Black Dog resin interior, Voyager etch and AFV Club 'workable' tracks...
So the first job was to assemble the lower hull...
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This consists of seven parts and needs to be square. I started with the rear panel and the floor, these were squared up on a sheet of thick glass rescued from someones discarded video/dvd recorder cupboard, Then came the sides, tops to the track sponsons and finally the sides and front of the hull.
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As I am adding the interior I decided that all of the ejector pin marks and the holes that you have to drill out would all be filled, this prevents the rivet counters from their "Ooooohhhh!!! let's count the ejector pin holes (sniff)" factor...
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First job was to add the floor and here because the hull sides are at a slight angle the floor has to be slid in from the front to the rear and then the front of the floor slightly bent to clear the final drive housing...
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... As seen here, I also used the spare center torsion block to support the front of the floor. I decided to fit part of the drivers compartment which would then give me a reference for the other bulkheads to fit.
Now that beautiful clean bench that you saw earlier - well now they look like this....
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The pliers are there to hold the resin blocks when sawing...
More later
Cheers
Mike.
how did you do the handwheel? Solder iron?I get the tube from EMA supplies along with other odd shapes I might need,
Thanks Mike! Very useful info from which I have taken notes. Will also check out the saws from John.Hi Magneto,
Welcome to the blog.
Now for the answers.
1. LED's - no I leave the electrics to those that know better than me.
2. I use either Blue/Black/Green on acetate sheet taken from those packages you get at the supermarket. The Blue and Green come from the AK clear colours 505/504 which I take a largish blob from the bottle and then use gravity to move it around the sheet. Then when it has spread I place it under a cover and leave it to both dry and level itself out. Then I cut to size and apply with pva. The black is either Black paint or my sadly depleting supply of exposed 35mm film which I collected when at Uni/College doing my degree in Graphic Design. With so much photography there was plenty of waste from failed project sessions.
3. I always use a face mask made by JSP, which I also use for spraying paint. One thing I learned if nothing else after a heart attack through bad diet, lack of rest, smoking and drinking was DBS - Don't Be Stupid....
4. I use what are commonly referred to as 'Zona' saws Fine, Medium and Coarse for general cutting both resin and plastic. For fine cutting I have a variety of ASK Razor Saw Blades 70/70 teeth or finer (available from John at The Scale Model Shop). Main working knife is a Stanley knife, not the retractible blade type. Also a variety of scalpel blades 10A, 10, 09, 11.
5. Move Away.
6. No, you cannot see very much, and the 'exploded' tank model has been done to death. I have a Panther with the full interior (did not read the description fully) so it will eventually be completed without it.
The Handwheel. This is a ring made from annealed copper wire wound around a drill bit of the diameter required (or nearest) it was then c/a'd at the joint, the centre was from punched out discs of plastic and the same with the handle.
Hope this has helped you out some.
Cheers
Mike.
Cheers Scottie, more to do yet.Lovely work mate.
Thank you...take a bow Sir.
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