V2 - Vengeance From Above

[Allen Dewire]

Afternoon Folks,

I have been kinda slow as of late due to work and the rising temperatures of over 30° C. I live under the roof and it gets too hot. I can wear the optivisor for about 5 minutes and then the sweat in running down my face.

John, Don't worry as I won't be buying much anymore for this project. I did win another Azimut 4WD kit that is exactly the same as the one above. It was from the same seller too and once again missing the roof and the cab. Should be here next week. Oh and you'll be around when I finish this for sure...

Paul, The price was great and the second one was €14 higher, but still, 2 kits for €34,87 is a steal. It has been so hot except yesterday, but when I got home after a 700 km trip, I was beat to death. I will drive on my friend….

Gary, My whole plan is/was for 3 dios in the V2 story. The one I am doing now is the prep and fueling end and there is no Strabo in use here. Number 2 is the loading of the V2 onto the Vidalwagen from the railroad cars using the Strabokran. Number 3 is the transfer of the V2 from the Vidalwagen onto the Meillerwagen again using the Strabokran. Here is most of the line up,

I also have a bunch of kits and resin conversions to be used for support vehicles as a V2 battery had over 100 vehicles of all types in it. I did eye this kit up, but I have 2 Strabos and 3 Hanomag SS100s already and 4 rockets too. What I really need is time to build it all......….

It is a holiday here in the Fatherland on Monday, so maybe, just maybe, I can get something done in 3 days. I just hope the temps stay reasonable and under 30° C.

Prost
Allen

 

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Again Rocketeers Around The World or Around The Block,

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth like you might think. I have been working the 4WD F 405 T-Stoff Tankwagen and am making some headway. The tank portion is 2 pieces of solid poured resin. They are not light and come in at about a pound when CA'd together. They also had big resin pour blocks that had to be removed. Out with the saw but it wasn't as easy as you would think,

I mostly had to saw them off by holding the saw blade in my fingers and going slowly back and forth. Then followed some further cleanup before I could glue them together. Out with the Deluxe Roket Max (thick) and,

and we have a tank!!! As you can see, it is a solid chunk of resin when glued together other than the open rear compartment for the plumbing and pumps. Next up was the tank frame underneath. This piece was warped and off-cast a bit,

Sawing into the end piece and removing about 5mm of resin, the upper two frame pieces reached the other end of the tank. The two cross beam supports were then CA'd to this frame. This got rid of most of the warping. The frame was then CA'd to the tank bottom and it all came out rather well and you won't see most of it anyway. You can't do anything with the drawers on each side so I just glued them shut with the doors,

So far, so good and now it was time to fill the back end with the cool Junk stuff. The resin conversion kit parts do leave a bit to be desired in the details. I could only attempt to make it look a little better,

Here is the motor and the pump. there was no driveshaft between them. punched out a few discs and a couple of sprue pieces to make one. The motor sat lower than the pump, so I shimmed the feet to raise it. The shaft is now level between them. I also scratched up a drip pan against oil or petrol spills,

Finished building up the rest of the motor, the manual pump and added the shaft to the pump. I also modded the fire extinguisher and made the exhaust pipe for the motor. Unfortunately, The Azimut motor is quite wrong in the whole. More on this later,

The motor and pump glued in place on the drip pan and the main pipe works that needed to be hacked up to correct too,

On the right is the manual pump I scratched up about 6 months ago. In the middle is the reworked main pipe assembly and on the left is the modded pump/motor works. You can see I had to shorten the petrol tank pipe so it would sit on the big oval wrong tank piece underneath. It will all make more sense in a few minutes folks with two pictures. Stay awake now!!!!!!,

Now if you look at this picture carefully, you will see that my manual pump was 5mm too tall. I had to gouge out the 5mm of resin so it would fit. Also note that the pump motor big oval piece should be the housing for the air inlet fan to cool the motor when it is in use. The shield and the starting handle (brass wire) and the exhaust pipe are in place. The whole nonsense should look like this,

Without attempting to hollow out the whole back compartment, this is as good as it will get. You can see here the cooling inlet housing is really much smaller than the given piece. I didn't find anything to correct this major malfunction in the parts bin. Now I could go crazy and super scratch the complete details, but that would put me another 2 months behind schedule. I will correct the starter handle as it is too high over the cylinder head. This is the 4th one I have made and they were all too short, DOH!!!

Oh, there is still lots to do on this one. I am still playing with the rest of the Opel and getting the 4WD crap in place. With all the resin involved, this vehicle will probably tip the scales at around 3 lbs when it's done. Tomorrow is another holiday here in the Fatherland, so temps willing, I can get some table time. It was 33° C today, but they are calling for thunderstorms in the morn…..

Thanks for looking in and have a fine day tomorrow. Stay dry and moggell on!!!!!!!!!!!

Prost
Allen

 

[BigGreg]

and more to come...and more fantastic work... love it..

 

[JR]

Great photos of the work Dude 1, think you are doing well on this. Keep it going
No slacking tomorrow now, we the V2 Appreciation Society need more photos.
Dude 2

 

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Once Again Rocketeers,

I know, I know, two days in a row. You are all thinking the world has gone to hell in a hand basket, but...…….

Thanks Greg, I am trying to get much done before the Sahara Summer hits us and wearing the optivisor is impossible. Hope you are well my friend.

Come on Dude 2, a V2 Appreciation Society??? I thought I warned you about those Doobies Buddy. I am like the sign in the Loo at the Pub, "We aim to please and your aim helps!!!"

Seeing as it was a holiday here and the temps played pretty much with, I did manage to get some stuff done. I didn't really have a choice with that slave driver JR telling me there will be no slacking today. As some of you might know, I won two of these from evilbay,

The second one must have sat in the window as the cover is a bit bleached out and fly crap on it too. Anyway, I made a comparison and found that there is a big difference in the casting of the front grill,

The casting of the second kit was way better than the one on the left even after I attempted some cleanup on it. You can see the different resin color too. I will use the piece on the right for this puppy. Pretty much the whole time at the table today, that damn incorrect motor piece bugged the hell out me. I finally decided to drink a beer fix it as best I could. I pried off the offending pieces and with some dicing and slicing and a beer, we came up with this,

I still needed to add the fuel tank to the top left. It's not perfect, but it did look better and more like the pic. The beer wasn't too shabby either!!! Now it was time to play 4WD games on the chassis. After fiddling here and fiddling there, I mounted the diffs with the wheel hubs in their proper (I hoped) places. After the CA dried, I moved on to the transfer case for the drive shafts. Scratched up the second support for it, placed it and let it all dry. Lastly, I trimmed up the white metal drive shafts until they fit the axles and the transfer case. And,

With the shafts CA'd in place, I wanted to see how the shaft to the tranny would line up. The motor/tranny is moulded with the cab as one solid resin unit. Sort of a dry fit type of thing,
It is just a tick off center in alignment, but you won't see it after the cab and tank are on the chassis. So far everything is going good or at least I thought. Hard to believe, but the front right hub hangs about 3mm in the air while the other 3 hubs all touch the ground. It's not really a big deal as the groundwork for the dio would come into play and fix it. I wanted to see how the tank would sit on the frame along with the cab,

Lo and behold, all 4 hubs sat on the table now and I had to have another beer to celebrate. Ya gotta love heavy resin parts!!! Now it was time to work on the cab. I really wasn't ready to bust up a brand new Blitz kit, so I decided to destroy utilize my scratchy 4WD cab instead. It was out with the saw and scribe to do the nasty,

iPad has gone crazy again with the colors!!! This took a while as I had to be careful cutting up the old cab. It turned out ok with no mishaps, but the Italeri cab is about 1 - 2 mm wider (at the hood join) than the resin part. Doors are cool and fit perfect. I will have to play around with this a little, but no biggie. Another test fit was in order,

Slapped the tires on to see how they would look. They will be painted before being permanently glued to the hubs. Also in the pic is what's left of my 4WD hood conversion and the fuel tank I added to the pump motor on the left. So how will it look when it has the major components thrown on it??? Hmmm, Uhhh,

Damn, it looks like a 4WD F 405 T-Stoff Tankwagen that still has to be finished!!! And when it is finished, I do hope it will look like this,

A 4WD Opel Blitz (this one has normal street tires on it). I might even throw the horse shoe on the grill for good luck.

That's all for today folks. Thank you everyone for looking and all comments, critique, suggestions, questions and envelopes filled with cash are cheerfully accepted. See ya on the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prost
Allen

 

[scottie3158]

Allen,
That is some top work going on there and well worth waiting for. Keep it up mate.

 

[Si Benson]

Hey Allen,

I see lots of progress on this mammoth project, hardly any wonder it’s taking so long with all the resin, scratching, modifications and beers

MkII motor/pump looks better, I really don’t envy you putting this little lot together!! Great stuff mate

 

[JR]

Dude1.
Now look here, I don't mind be blamed for you having to stay at the table, certainly not when you have produced these little gems.
But showing the underside of a truck showing axles and diffs is another more serious complaint, that's just rubbing it in.
You are well aware that photos like that give me nightmares, so could you please give a warning in future.

Dude 2

 

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Gents,

No update tonight I'm afraid as it is too hot to work at the table. Yesterday I did do quite a lot, but forgot to take pics of the work. I can't use the hissy stick either and the line of vehicles is getting longer in front of the paint shop. This coming week is also pretty bad as the weather experts have forecasted temps into the low 40°C for us. Gonna be a beatch!!!!

Paul and Si, thank you for the encouraging words and I will do my best to make it happen. I don't know warm it is on the Insel, but here it is murder and the optivisor is out....

Dude 2, I am so sorry for not warning you in advance. I actually thought that the pics might have a positive effect on your chassis phobia. In the future I will warn you as requested using the old fashioned skull and bones symbol like the one found on poison bottles and such. Thank you and again, I meant no harm……………..PM in the morning too, as it's too late tonight!!!

Stay cool and send ice cream…...….

Prost
Allen

 

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Rocketeers and Mad Moggellers,

Over the weekend it did manage to cool down a bit and I could finally work at the table. Hissy stick was still out, but hairy stick and scratchy was in. I even remembered to take a few pictures too. So with out further ado, we'll start with a little bit of scratchy. The Azimut kit supplies no ladder for the T-Stoff tank. I had a few ladders left over from the radio cabin parts from the Italeri Tankwagens. I attempted to bend the ladder a little with heat, but that went south real quickly. I trimmed the rest up and using some wire, came up with this,

It looks kind of funky, but with a coat of paint, it should be alright. Next up was some hairy stick work on the motor/pump assembly,

I used Mission Models late '44 Dunkelgelb paint for this and have to say it is not a real brush paint. It could be that my bottle is 2 years old, but I don't think so. The aluminum is Tamiya and I still need to paint the exhaust pipe and the cooling cover. After that, I can muck it up with weathering and spills. Tires were the next PITA, but came out pretty good using AK and Mission Paints,

They too will get muddied up a bit covering the oopsies with the hairy stick. I also painted most of the frame and diffs as well as the interior with dashboard. I did add a brake and clutch pedal as there were none there, only a gas pedal blob,

The dash is pretty well detailed and will get some finery painted in. I had to drill out the steering column so the shortened steering wheel shaft would sit properly. The parking brake handle on the far right is also a scratchy thing. The interior needs some more color and shouldn't look too bad when it's all weathered up and finished. You won't see a lot of it with the cab mounted anyway as the doors will be closed on this Blitz…...…..

Progress is a bit slow and work has been a bear as of late. In the morning comes a container with over 200 top cases for our quads and buggies and I have no clue where to store them in the warehouse. I'm still trying to get the rest of the 816 tires put away on the racks!!! I love it......

The show will go on though. Thanks for looking in and have a wonderful week with lots of bench time.

Prost
Allen, suffering from a severe case of "Dragon Ass" (old Chinese disease)

 

[scottie3158]

Evening Rocketeers and Mad Moggellers,

Over the weekend it did manage to cool down a bit and I could finally work at the table. Hissy stick was still out, but hairy stick and scratchy was in. I even remembered to take a few pictures too. So with out further ado, we'll start with a little bit of scratchy. The Azimut kit supplies no ladder for the T-Stoff tank. I had a few ladders left over from the radio cabin parts from the Italeri Tankwagens. I attempted to bend the ladder a little with heat, but that went south real quickly. I trimmed the rest up and using some wire, came up with this,
View attachment 349640
It looks kind of funky, but with a coat of paint, it should be alright. Next up was some hairy stick work on the motor/pump assembly,
View attachment 349641
I used Mission Models late '44 Dunkelgelb paint for this and have to say it is not a real brush paint. It could be that my bottle is 2 years old, but I don't think so. The aluminum is Tamiya and I still need to paint the exhaust pipe and the cooling cover. After that, I can muck it up with weathering and spills. Tires were the next PITA, but came out pretty good using AK and Mission Paints,
View attachment 349642
They too will get muddied up a bit covering the oopsies with the hairy stick. I also painted most of the frame and diffs as well as the interior with dashboard. I did add a brake and clutch pedal as there were none there, only a gas pedal blob,
View attachment 349643
The dash is pretty well detailed and will get some finery painted in. I had to drill out the steering column so the shortened steering wheel shaft would sit properly. The parking brake handle on the far right is also a scratchy thing. The interior needs some more color and shouldn't look too bad when it's all weathered up and finished. You won't see a lot of it with the cab mounted anyway as the doors will be closed on this Blitz…...…..

Progress is a bit slow and work has been a bear as of late. In the morning comes a container with over 200 top cases for our quads and buggies and I have no clue where to store them in the warehouse. I'm still trying to get the rest of the 816 tires put away on the racks!!! I love it......

The show will go on though. Thanks for looking in and have a wonderful week with lots of bench time.

Prost
Allen, suffering from a severe case of "Dragon Ass" (old Chinese disease)

Good to see this on th go again mate, some nice scratchery

 

[minitnkr]

Looking very good Allen. PaulE

 

[JR]

Considering the heatwave you having I think you've acheived a great deal. All looking spot on Dude 1.

 

[SimonT]

Mega build Allen - coming on nicely

 

[Mickc1440]

More steady work Allen, looking good.

 

[Allen Dewire]

Paul, PaulE, Dude2, Simon and Mick,

Thank You all so much for the support and encouraging comments Gentlemen. They help me keep going when times get rough and the heat wants to kill me too. You folks are the best!!!

If I have learned anything during this project, it is do not take too many close ups of your work. The damn iPad camera shows every little problem, blemish, screw up and paint mistake there is!!!!!!!! Looking at my own pics makes me want to tear things apart and re-do them from scratch. (lord knows, we don't need that or I will never get this project done) More to follow soon and thanks again!!!

Prost
Allen

 

[Peter Gillson]

Allen

The whole project is coming along nicely, great detailing work.

Peter

 

[Steve Jones]

Lovely work mate. Your additions are spot on. I admire your desire to keep going on this mammoth project. Have all the kits been brought now or is there more to come??