Good Afternoon Once Again Rocketeers and Hamilton Fans around the Insel,
I have been a bit quiet over the past week and a half. I had to take a break from the table as work was a bear and the etch spokes almost landed in the trash along with the whole thing...
Lee - Thank you Sir! I'm glad you like it and welcome to my nightmare. I only ask for a little patience as this project is gonna take some time to complete. There are cold beers in the fridge if you're thirsty...
Paul - I understand my friend. It's finally cooled here, but the coming week is supposed to be in the 30s C again. Hope it's cooled of by you and glad you don't have a prob with hurricanes. Now get cracking while you can!!!
Dude 2 - Hey John, you know the truth now and this week hasn't been easy. I still love the project and the Steyr, but needed a break. Don't go teasing Stevie like that though. I'll post a teaser for him next...
Stevie - Hey Buddy, You don't know how right you might be about this project. It could last into the time for my retirement, but I hope not. As far as the table looking like a shop, nah, I have plastic shelves for the stash. Here's one...
And that's not the whole shelf in the pic...
So back at the Ranch, we have 5 head of cattle...Uhhh, I mean progress I
hope think. First, the reason for the break. The Aber etch set spoked rims for the DKW have a diameter of 14mm and the
Tamiya tires had an inside diameter of 9,5mm. Didn't have a big enough drill bit at home, so I took them to work. We didn't have a 14mm bit there either, but I found something to do the trick...
The wonderful industrial sized reamer was perfect for the job. The downside was trying to hold the tire with the fingers on one hand and turn the reamer with the other hand. It took almost 2 hours and really sore fingers, but the job got done...At first, I attempted to CA the rim pieces together and then form them concave. Didn't work and CA came undone. The rims wouldn't seat inside the tire as I wanted them to. Trim here, file there, sand on the edge and lose your mind!!!...After 2 days of it, I needed a break. This is where we are now...
You can see they are a bit beat up, but I'll get them together come hell or high water!!! In between bouts of insanity (and a few cold ones), I broke out the hairy stick and went at the chassis. It helped calm the nerves and came out like this...
The good part is you won't see most of it later, hence some visible mold lines. It's done in a combo of AK,
Tamiya and
Mission Models paint.
Today was a nice sunny and warm day here in Bamberg and what better to do as to fire up the hissy stick and shoot a coat on the little
crap pieces. I have never sprayed
Mission Models paint, so it was a learning experience. Most of the time it's
Tamiya thinned with 50% IPA and it goes on smooth as glass. I thinned the MM with about 33% thinner and tried it. Too thin, so I added more paint and tried again. Worked well, but MM takes a bit longer to dry as Tammy does. The last few pieces were shot with the MM almost straight from the bottle. That worked too!!! Live and learn and it looks like this...
None of the pieces were primer coated and I didn't wash them to remove any oils or such either (too lazy) as I was afraid bits would fall off if I did. I also forgot to prime the etch pieces with my Mr. Metal Primer too. They look a little better in real life than in the pics! Another shot...
Hey, wake up there in the back row!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The MM set is the late war German cammo set and the dark yellow is lighter. The little box down front (I guess) is for the field telephone for comms. There is also a small reel of telephone wire mounted below it on the back wall of the interior. I will let the pieces dry for a few days and then I can detail the panels and gages and the like. Gotta bust out the tiny hairy sticks for this work as well as the 3,5 X lens to see what I'm doing.
Slowly getting some things done here and it looks like progress, to the un-trained eye. Thank again for looking in and
drink one for me have a wonderful evening!!! All abuse is welcome and probably needed...………….
Prost
Allen