I started working on the resin pieces getting rid of the mold blocks and sanding where required. I wanted to get that out of the way first off so I could go right to dry fitting. All while wearing my trusty respirator. (Resin baaaad!))
The first fit I went after was the rear bulkhead, which was a donor kit piece which glues to the rear of the vehicle. The top half of the hull is resin, the bottom half of the hulk is plastic. So the bulkhead mates the two on the rear.
The fit is not exact. The AFV rear bulkhead needs to be trimmed on the top edges to match the contour of the top of the LAV hull, which is not the same as a Stryker. The Stryker is squared edges, the LAV has bevelled edges. The resin hull sides do not go back far enough, so I had to use some Evergreen 40 thou by 10 thou strips to extend the upper sides, which you can see in white, with white Squadron putty filling the seams. This took a few days of careful dry fitting and trimming.
I am using Testors tube cement and liquid cement on the styrene to styrene fits, and using thick CA glue for the resin to plastic fits (and everything else as well, like metal photo etch to resin or plastic).
The next big step was to articulate the front wheels to pose it as if making a turn. The undercarriage for the AFV kit is fixed forward, but I wanted a turned look for this one. Both front wheels turn so I have to do the same operation twice. The wheels mounts are posts set into the roof of the wheel well. The swing arms hold the posts to the chassis, and the posts can turn until they are glued. The challenging part was to cut the steering linkage apart to make it articulate like the real one. I used a razor saw for this. I carefully cut off the pitman arms from the tie rods and center link. I then used a small drill to drill out the ends of each. I glued Evergreen rod in to the pitman arm holes and let it dry. I dry fitted the tie rods and pitman arms to the model, and put the center link in place. I did the rear first, in an understated turn, then did the same for the front, using a slightly increased turn, just like the real thing. When everything looked right I glued everything in pace, all the ends of the tie rods to the pitman arms and wheel posts, and the center links to the pitman arms. While the glue was setting, I posed the wheel posts exactly where I wanted, then I glued the swing arms to the posts with liquid glue. All of this set over night.
The next day I dry fitted wheels to the wheel posts to check to make sure it was right. I think it looks OK.
After that it was some plastic handles, and other parts from the donor kit. The instructions are very busy and it took a lot of focus to see which little parts were needed and what were resin. I will go over it again to see if there are any parts missing but I have the rest of them in a bin and will put them on before painting. It takes a while to remove sprue marks and mold seams. Very tiny parts, AFV is getting like Dragon in the detail. I will be doing a lot on handling as I put on the photo-etch, so I will be leaving those parts off for now, and there is a lot of photo-etch!
So the next step was to start laying in some photo-etch. I am sure that photo-etch gives most modellers the creeps every now and then, and if the pieces are large enough to work with that is fine. There are some VERY small pieces in this set. I cringe when I think of the little attachments for tie down straps. I have to put the maximum magnification on my goggles. Try doing this with Super Glue and not sticking your fingers together! Keep the debonder close by!
So this is pretty much where I am now, the front drivers hatch is on, with a nifty black plastic/rubber cover over the rear so garbage, water and hot casings don't drop on the drivers neck as he opens his hatch. A start tot he photo-etch pieces but will let is sit for a day or so to dry and bond completely.
Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment