Front axle stubs - 3 sized pipes: Smallest drilled and glued into the "nut" ; mid-size to strengthen the "nut"; larger size as the stub axle fitting over the plastic, and allowing the "nut" to be glued inside it, after the wheel was mounted.
The exhaust pipes wouldn't meet with the exhaust stacks on the engine - cut 'em off, drill 'em out, replace with the appropriately angled brass rod. - Lots of minute bending, test fit, more bending, test fit.......gotcha!
Looking at the fitment of the rear armoured doors - they're a very bad fit as far as the outer hinges feeding into the indentations on the hull. So, what else can I do?
I cut the right hand double-door in half, then spent over an hour cutting and scraping and trimming etc to get that one door to fit in the CLOSED position nicely. I had decided to mount all other doors OPEN.
In order to mount them OPEN, I had to cut the barrel of each hinge down the middle, then introduce another 45degrees so that they had the right bend in them. Got the angle OK on the Left hand doors, they will just fit inside the rear utility tray side. Phew!)
Whilst doing the hinges on the upper right-hand door, I thought I'd play with the flip-cap for the rifle/sight opening. It is fully molded on the inside, so all I had to do was make a suitable cover out of some spare PE, then glue that in the OPEN position.
Another flaw in the instructions is that there's no ORDER in which to install things, and als very unclear images of the assembled part(s) in later use. Whilst doing some test fitting with the above doors I realised that the chassis has to tongue through the rear utility assembly. Some adjustment of the space here was necessary - about 0.3mm to shave off.
Here's the above test fit, showing that I will now have to mount the ammunition boxes on the outside of the trays, for my OPEN doors to be OK. Easily done.
Detail shot of the radiator properly in place, together with the radiator armour. Again the vague instructions, and some inaccurate moldings caused some concern. I ended up re-trimming the bottom mount of the shields, and then glueing that to the radiator front & the chassis for a solid structure.
Dashboard created, based on photos of the real thing - covered in satin sticky tape to make it more durable. Will glue in place after painting is done.
Looks like the lenses in this kit have gone elsewhere!!
Out with the RP Toolz Punch & Die set (2.6mm) & Shadow Hobby Thinnerline circle cutter for the 6.4mm - Used the top of a blister pack as the source.
Looking at photos online shows firewall to radiator bracing - will need to add that for my display. This and other photos also show the linkage from the radiator shields. Will need that too.
Rear mudguard attached to running board & utility tray - a pretty good fit. Similarly, front mudguard installed with 2 key-in points on chassis, and underneath leading end of running board. Quite a bit of fine preparation required for the chassis mount slots, but the end result is quite solid.
Side shot showing bracket made for shovel - kit instructions just had it glued on the side - pinched some left-over "Metal Earth" PE - Looks pretty cool, I think!
Turret off inspection: There are 4 rifles supplied in the kit, but they're too long to stand upright as the instructions specify, and they'd foul on the turret rotation too. So I decided to make up some brackets to hang them on the wall.
ADF Decalling completed - by the way, the Roden Decals are shocking, with a couple of the larger ones I wanted to use just falling apart. Pinched some of my Red Roo stash, and spare from my Leopard RV.
That's it, folks - Rollin' On!!
thanks for watching!
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25 December 2024, 06:55 -
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Second-hand kit from an estate - looked to be complete, and in reasonable condition, so, hey, let's give it a try..........(heard that line before...)
Random sections have been started in no particular order, meaning that a lot of work-around and revision had to be devised & built