New Project

[steve_pickstock]

So.
A few years ago I made one of these:

1/72nd scale and about complete and ready to sail on my local boating lake.

Then a couple of years ago I bought one of these:

Heng Long Sherman 1/16th scale and pretty much ready to trundle round my garden, and lob BBs around.

A friend of mine owed me a favour or two and he started work on the Sherman to turn it into one of my favourite WW2 tanks the Sherman VC Firefly. This went well:

With a new barrel and lots of nice bits scratch built or cast in resin, or 3d printed,


Until...
Someone pointed out that the Vc Sherman has a longer chassis and larger gaps between the bogies than the Heng Long model.
Oh well, some more work (which I didn't have to do for a change) and it became a Ic Firefly.

The work was mainly changing the stowage boxes, and some other details but now I have a 1/16th Sherman iC that is ready for painting.

And that brings me to the new project.
This

is 1/72nd scale.
And this

is 1/16th scale.

You can buy r/c LCM 3s but despite the box art of Airfix version, the Landing Craft Mechanical wasn't really that good with a Sherman (they preferred an LCM 6, which was 6ft longer), and I was tempted to have a go at an LCT Mk4 such as this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJa6oPgCaH8- which used to be a few miles from me until they raised it and took it away for refurbishment.
However that would be massive, and I did still have the plans for the LCT Mk5.

So the plan is to
a) Get the Sherman painted and weathered as a troop tank from 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry from the 11th Armoured Division.
b) Build a 1/16th scale LCT Mk5 - working ramp and anchor winch, four sections, three motors and rudders, and paint as the 1/72nd version.

This will be a long - and a BIG job. This puppy is has a 2ft beam and is 7ft long (84 inches) with a draught of a couple of inches. The construction is pretty simple but there are things to think about - bracing the joints and sides, how to join the hull sections and make them water-tight, and how to brace the hull so that the bow and the stern don't sag under their own weight.

I will keep this post updated.
Some more pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJa6oPgCaH8



This is the Vc version but it does show that lovely turret

[Peter]

Two interesting projects! And I love that boat!

[steve_pickstock]

In line with my interest in 1/16th vehicles my wife agreed that it was okay for me to get myself a Christmas present - something that I have wanted for a while.
The WPL R/c truck range are cheap(ish) models often with lots of good features but they have one main aspect that really attracted me - a common and very modifiable chassis. I bought one but it never made it to our house, so as soon as I knew the refund had been sorted out I went on e-bay and picked up one that stood a better chance of arriving.

Arrive it did, and I began the process of turning it into a WW2 Bedford QL truck.

This is the basic WPL B14 truck


These pictures show the chassis that's common to many of the WPL early models, and what makes them easy to convert.



The Bedford QL.
The wheel base of the Bedford is about half the diameter of a wheel longer that the C14 model's.



I have a couple of IBM 1/35th scale models to work from a QLD (the troop carrier) and a QL the all purpose work horse.
A friend is building me some parts on his 3D printer, but I'm building the bulk of it from styrene sheet and Evergreen plastic strips (the price of which has gone stupid due to recent political announcements from the US).
I will probably need to move the rear axle and spring assembly towards the back of the chassis (and extend the prop shaft) but I won't know by how much until I have the cab floor and can work out how much space I have on the chassis.

All the figures are on hold at the moment while I get this done, more pictures when I have them.

[PaulRPetri]

Christmas present Steve? It's April 14!! Boy you are burning up the wish list early!!

[steve_pickstock]

Christmas present Steve? It's April 14!! Boy you are burning up the wish list early!!

Oh no - this year's Christmas list is simple - the second edition of Dragon Rampant is released in the Autumn, that'll be this year sorted.

The C14 was ordered for Christmas last year, though it was due to arrive mid-January, which of course, it didn't. The refund took another month, but once that was sorted the one of e-bay arrived four days after that.

With other projects to finish first, there has been a lot of research and much cogitation around this. I looked at as many pictures as I can I've looked at other people's models, made a rough version in cardboard, just getting my ideas together.
One plan is to have the tailgate of the load bed hinged. My dad used to make model farm carts and caravans in 1/12 scale, usually working in wood and brass. Now he had skills I can only dream of - for one model of a cart for transporting bulls had to have pins made so that you could move the shafts from one end to the other (Bulls, apparently cannot be made to back up, so the wagon was double ended. You led the bull in, closed the door, took it to where it was wanted, took the shafts off and led the bull out). The pins for these shafts on dad's model were about 8 or 10mm long but articulated, so that once they were in place they folded
down locking the pin in place.
So it was as a kind of tribute to dad that I wanted to do this. Except that unbeknownst to me - the model shop that I usually get the hinges I use had shut down last October (much to everyone's surprise). It's little things like that that have delayed the start of this project.

The friend with the 3d printer initially volunteered to do the cab roof, and complicated domed shaped affair, and I was glad he offered.
There were several options for doing this, the first was do it solid, carve the shape out of laminated styrene but leave the inside. The second option was to do the same but dremel out the underneath. The third was to make a plug and heat form the roof. I didn't want to ask my friend to do it on the printer but when he volunteered to do it, I thought 'go for it'. But then he also said 'I've done the cab floor and the back of the cab', (which will save me a lot of work) but then he said 'I've put all of this interior detail in' (because that is the kind of modeller that he is), tow which I had to say that I only needed the basic forms.

This was never planned as a show piece model - I want it to look good but I do intend to run it as an r/c model.

Sorry, this post was much longer than I intended to write, but I do hope it informs people of what I want to do and how I achieve it.

[steve_pickstock]

Just a few pictures to show the progress so far.

The tailgate so far - with hinges cut down from nylon model aircraft hinges, the pins need to be shortened. These fit into pockets laminated into the plastic of the tailgate and the load bed.
The outer face

The inner face

I cut the two faces out of one piece of plastic - having used a scribing tool to mark out the planks (so that I would get them matched on both sides), then placed a third piece of styrene between the two.
There are locations marked for the numerous rivet or coach bolt heads that are prominent - I will do those from slices of plastic rod - it will be a case of sit down one day and just take the whole day of swearing and dropping little tiny pieces and having to cut new ones to replace those that have pinged off into the distance.

This is the bulkhead that sits at the cab end of the load bed, once again this will get bags of rivets.
The forward facing part - this will be hidden behind the fuel tank and the spare tyre.

This faces into the load bed.


The underneath of the load bed I cut this from a single sheet of styrene and made it too long on purpose, to give me working room. Once again scribed to show the planking detail.


This shows the actual length - blue line with the arrows pointing towards the cab end, and the two cut outs for the wheel wells. I'm still not certain exactly where these will be depending on the size of the cab.
.

[steve_pickstock]

Bit of a frustrating week. The sheet work has gone well - the relatively simple white styrene. The load bed is made, the hinge pockets made and the hinges work. I've started laying out the sides.
My friend with the 3D printer has said he's made an STL file for most of the cab but it's not printed yet.
This is the first frustration in that I need the cab to know where it sits on the chassis, with the spare wheel and fuel tank to know the precise location for the load bed - I'll come back to this in a minute.
The second frustration was that I started to dismantle the model to get at the chassis. For some reason none of the cross-head screw drivers I have would fit the WPL screws precisely enough. I spent an hour and a half on it and got quite dispirited, though that may have been my blood sugar running low.
I left it for the night and this morning picked up a cheap knock-off Swiss Army knife I've had for donkey's years. The cross-head on that fitted exactly and in about twenty minutes I had the chassis down to where I wanted it.
So back to the location of the load bed.
While talking to my neighbour about it (he let me have some scraps of stuff) and I while I was looking at it, I noticed that the cross members were moveable in the the frame of the chassis. So this morning I did some measuring and discovered the following:-



So actually mounting the load bed is going to be relatively simple - I need to drill the chassis to move the cross-members, trim down the part B, fabricate the end of the chassis and fit a tow bar. Then I will screw through the holes in A & B into the load bed supports and that's it. I may add more supports but that's a minor job.

And that's where the third frustration comes in - Easter.

Happy Easter by the way, if you're a believer, happy chocolate day if you're not.

But we don't have any visitors this weekend as we normally would but despite this Mrs P wants the dining room table cleared, so production has had to come to a halt for a few days. Oh well, that's life.

[steve_pickstock]

So! An update on progress on my model
The side panels have been roughed out, the length is okay, height fits nicely and the basic detail is done. The L shaped supports need rivets adding.

Rivets are the next big thing to be done with the body work. The easiest method I have found is to slice lengths off a piece of plastic rod and glue them on using Tamiya Thin polystyrene cement. It’s very much a zen type of thing. Clear the mind, calm music, no disturbances and then get on with it. It’s actually quite relaxing, it’s just that there are so many to do – there are hundreds of them - and the positioning need to be quite precise.

The tailgate is pretty much done. This has had the rivets done. Some are a bit long/tall and I will knock them down a bit with an emery board, but overall I’m quite happy with this.



The load bed from the underneath. Still haven’t cut the wheel wells out, I’m saving that job until I know the precise layout of the chassis. But the nice thing is that the dimensions of the WPL chassis are very similar to the real life Bedford chassis, and the only major adaptation was notching one of the cross members to accommodate the motor housing.


I will be waiting until I have done all of the rivets before I glue everything together, mainly because it’s easier to mark out where they are going to go when I work with the pieces flat.

These pictures show the load bed and tailgate fitted together. The nylon hinges have been cut down and fitted into pockets in the bed and the tailgate. I still have to cut the pins in the hinges down, but I’m really happy with the positioning and the fit, in the upright/closed position the tailgate sits just right.





To close the tailgate, I’m going to cut some brass rod and fit it so that it protrudes through the gate, and I can put a pin down through it to lock it. This was done in real life, so it’s an authentic mechanism. The pin will be on a short piece of chain.

The base of the cab was printed in three parts for me by my friend. Originally he had said that he would do just the roof – a complicated shape with curves in multiple directions. Then he announced that he’d do the back of the cab as well. That was after we had discussed the various options for doing it the old school way. Then he told me that he would do the floor, and later that he was working on the front and the doors as well.

The parts were joined together using superglue, which held them fairly well, but then I ran another bead of glue down the joints and reinforced it with baking soda. That made them rock solid in seconds. Once that was done I hit them with Vallejo liquid putty.

The prints are rough because of the number of supports that the software added so they’ll need a good sanding, with the rotary drum sander.





Now, I don’t want to sound like I’m being ungrateful, after all I am paying him for the resin and the electricity he uses for these prints, but it does make me wonder what his opinion of my model making skills is. I was planning to do most of this myself - after all that was what the whole exercise was about - going back to making a model, rather than just painting something.

Now it may be that he wanted to save me having to do the complicated stuff, or he genuinely wanted to help but it has brought about a whole new set of issues.

My friend is working from a 1/35 scale model of a Bedford QLD (a long bodied troop carrier) and reproducing the kit parts but scaled up. I use the other version of the model – a Bedford QL general workhorse, but I adapt the scaled up parts to fit the chassis as I am scaling them up.

The issue is that the 3D printed parts need to be adapted to allow for the fit of the r/c board and the working headlights and the battery storage. So although I AM grateful for him doing these things, I wonder whether it would have been easier with less printed parts.

It’s all an interesting journey to be sure, and I am quite a way out of my comfort zone with this. The basic fabrication I’m okay with (that’s just sheet styrene) but the r/c side of things is new territory for me.

[steve_pickstock]

Quick update - I'm going off travelling for a couple of days.
Sat down with my friend last night and pointed out that the floor of the cab is an issue, and that the longitudinal supports under the cab floor need moving outwards to match the chassis. I could have done this by carving the cab floor up and rebuilding it but rather than do that with all of the nasty toxic resin dust, he said okay, he'll go back to the .stl file and make the changes and reprint it.



The yellow details are the parts as they currently are, and the red where things need to match the chassis.