M29C Water Weasel

[Jim R]

A good, and successful, idea to fit bogies to track rather than the other way round.
As for the rear pontoon. Would a couple of saw cuts take out the required 2mm? Sanding the sawn edges if needed to get to the 2mm.

 

[Jakko]

Sawing is what I’ve been leaning to as well, but it’s very tricky to do that neat and straight. That’s to say, I don’t really trust myself to do it right … I’ve got a mitre box, but the slot in it is far wider than my saw, so it’s bound to wobble.

Given that this is resin, I don’t want to sand a millimetre off on each side (with a belt sander, for example). The dust isn’t as dangerous as we were meant to believe 25 or so years ago, but it’s still a fine dust with the normal hazards of that, not to mention it’ll get everywhere.

 

[Jim R]

Maybe use a scriber to scribe a straight guide line which might help keep the saw straight. I can't see how you would get a perfect join so a little filling is inevitable.
This is a real exercise in problem solving. Still most of your builds fall into that category

 

[minitnkr]

Use a smaller kerf saw to make another slot.

 

[Jakko]

Elsewhere, someone suggested to use an electric chop saw, as those apparently have a 2 mm thick blade, so one cut down the middle and join the halves again. But I don’t have one of thosr, and don’t know who I know who might have one.

 

[Ian M]

When I have to make a cut like that I start buy grabbing the P cutter and make a good scribe line. Then the saw. The part and the cut dictate which saw. For a cut like that, I would go for the fine exacto saw.

 

[stillp]

Sawing is what I’ve been leaning to as well, but it’s very tricky to do that neat and straight. That’s to say, I don’t really trust myself to do it right … I’ve got a mitre box, but the slot in it is far wider than my saw, so it’s bound to wobble.

Given that this is resin, I don’t want to sand a millimetre off on each side (with a belt sander, for example). The dust isn’t as dangerous as we were meant to believe 25 or so years ago, but it’s still a fine dust with the normal hazards of that, not to mention it’ll get everywhere.

I've got an electric tile saw with a 2mm thick blade, which runs in water so there'd be no problem with dust. Do you know any local tilers?
Pete

 

[Jakko]

In the end, the problem was solved by my father, who said he could mill off the necessary amount using a router fitted to his lathe:



It couldn’t reach the bottom few millimetres, but that was easy enough to trim with a knife. After that, I cut back the thick part at the top and added 0.25 mm plastic card over the top and sides:



This I did by superglueing oversized pieces to it and then trimming and filing them to size once the glue had dried, as this is far easier than trying to cut them perfectly to size first. The reason for the plastic card is because on the real thing, the rear floatation cell overlaps the sides and overhangs the rear deck:



It needs a little more work doing to it before I can mount it to the model, though. In the mean time, I did install the cell at the front:



I first bent and then glued the etched parts to the floatation cell, so I could get it at the right height the easy way — glueing the cell to the hull first and then adding the etched parts would again be making your life difficult. I did have to deepen a little hollow in the front of the splash guard around the radiator hatch, because a little shaft protruding from the cell couldn’t go down far enough otherwise, preventing the etched parts from reaching the deck.

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
All coming together nicely.

 

[Jakko]

The hard part is still ahead, though — all of the etched bits for the skirt plates, mainly. For now, I added the stern cell to the hull:



It would have been hard to glue because the hollow in its front face, coupled to having narrowed the whole thing, left little area for glue. By mixing some two-part epoxy putty and pushing it into the lower part of the hollow, I could stick the cell to the hull, though. The lid on top is from the LZ kit.

And that puts this build at roughly the same point where the last one stalled:

 

[Jim R]

You're getting there Jakko. It makes you realise that every problem has a solution - hopefully.

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Wow Jakko,all that extra hard work that you've put into this sure has paid off ,looks superb!!

 

[scottie3158]

Looking good, a nice solution.

 

[Jakko]

Thanks, but I’m not on the home straight yet … though getting to this point has definitely been easier with the Takom kit as a base than on the original attempt with the LZ kit. Of course, had I waited a bit longer for the Takom M29C kit to come out, it would probably have been a lot easier still

 

[Jakko]

Not done much for a while, but I did some more work on the bow now.



The etched hatch you get in the LZ kit has about the right size and shape, but its lid is noticeably too thin, so I added a bit of plastic card to raise it up a bit. LZ’s base for the capstan is far too large, though — it’s the etched part towards the front (and loose), with its plastic card and rod replacement in the correct position.

LZ also doesn’t give you any supports for the transverse etched piece, so I made them from some plastic strip. They were not placed symmetrically on the real M29C.

Then the surf guard:



As I had already discovered on my last attempt, LZ’s etched part doesn’t fit, so I used the same method now as then to find the right shape: I taped a piece of paper to the bow and marked out its contours. After cutting it out from the paper and pasting it to 0.25 mm plastic card, I cut it out, bent it to shape, and superglued it to the bow.

Here’s my template on the etched part by how much the two differ:



It’s not perfect (and, in fact, not quite symmetrical) but at least it fits reasonably well, unlike the etched part.

 

[Jim R]

Your usual well considered, neat progress. That LZ surf guard is not even close. Your version is much improved and fits!!

 

[scottie3158]

Great attention to detail.

 

[Jakko]

Thanks My surf guard is a little uneven, but you only really see that from above, so I will claim it got dented, and that’s what I’m sticking to