Sunny here at Race Towers few clouds and some blue sky.
Good progress on the Panzer Ausf 1. The main part went ok, a few little gaps, so a little filler can sort that out. The instructions are rather odd, and do doubt " old school " Very few pages, in fact one large sheet of paper printed on both sides. No sprue letters ! just a number id which there appears in no chronological order whats so ever. Made the finding things quite
fun frustrating at times, having picked most of the sprues up at twice if not more when looking for small bits.
.
Took my time with the small items, the plastic was some fragile even using the saw to remove from the sprue was fraught.
Either it was the plastic they used or the kit has been kept in the incorrect temperature I don't know. The bar above the open door was broken on the sprue when I came to do the other side , so ended up trying to make a wire one.
I haven't fitted the front or rear fenders, thought the least stuff in the way for track fitting will help, so the plan is to paint , fit tracks and then the fenders.
The bit of wire protruding from the second support arm to the right is the result of yet another broken in the box part. The seller just wrapped the box in brown paper ! nothing inside was wrapped in bubble wrap, so the sprues has a battering coming through the post.
.
Below are the front fenders, I decided to have a bit of a play and added some wire, how much will be seen under the snow is another thing , but all good practice.
That fire extinguisher ? had so many seem lines I would have damaged the detail if I'd tried to get them all off .
No photo of the rear fenders, one was snapped in half, so stuck the two halves in some blue tack and ran some glue down the break, still slightly bent, but that can be damage.
Turret , the hatch had some weird brkts either side of the hinge part , but on some photos I found they were not to be seen , any way they were so poorly moulded they are better off in the box !
Could not understand the " no glue here " part of the instructions, there were 4 parts, one held the slide for tilting the guns, but either way there appeared to be no method of fixing that curved section to anything. The front part just fell off ! The instructions were so unclear just a series of lines showing how they went into each other . So glued it is. Awaiting the decent barrels from our technical weapons expert in Bamburg.
.
Now I'm no lover of the hairy string tow cable, even after it has the flame to remove any hairs left after its got wet from painting. So out came so very thin wire. Using 9 strands held in the pin vice and the other end in the bench vice I slowly wound the wires together . After they were coiled I applied a spot of CA to hold them together.
The lugs were too small for me to attempt any holes , so a straight join was the only way.
Now any other time I would have either glued them to the cutting matt or my fingers, but using the kitchen cutting board the CA can't stick. Fantastic , I was going to use the board to make a track jig, as nothing in the glue that we use for modelling sticks to the board.
Meanwhile the track jid that I did get mentioned by Dave Amos has been put through it's paces. Ok not perfect , the bolt head doesn't fit in the counter sunk hole on the under side, it needs some cleaning up , but that can wait. A smear of vaseline stops the TET and Contacta from sticking. As long as the links are really well sanded and de knibbed, (every single link has had to be sanded and the smallest mould line removed they just won't fit ) Made me appreciate how Steve felt about them the other day.
The tracks half done on one side .
Note the
Tamiya tape, thanks Si
Oh and the wire thingy above the closed hatch.
Now the
neat trick of the week, TRY NOT to laugh please.
I had to glue these two wheel together to go onto the long shafts. Thinking the wood would not stick to the TET I just gave the sticks a light sanding, pushed the wheels on and ran some glue around the join. Ah thinking this was a neat idea
I went and carried on ! But left it too long, one set came off with a struggle , and the others, well lets just say when I find the correct size drill I'm sure all will be well.
. Oh well can't win them all.
That's it for today, some .5 mm drill in the post to do the Fruils and enjoying the build.
Comments as always. oh are those wheels to the left of the last photo rubber outer edged ? and as I need to paint them before fitting I would like to know the paint colour, is it grey of that yellow Dunkle thing.
John.