Landships II

It's looking good, Diego.

If I may, here is a couple of suggestions. There is a line of rivets you need to remove; I have attached one of your photos with the rivets to be removed circled in red. Consistent rivets can be done using Archer Fine Surface Details Rivets; they go on like transfers/decals. Available from Archer.

Hi Diego,

this is a well looking progress of the Mark I.

For replacing rivets, there are some tools on the market, otherwise you can remove rivets with a small chisel

from an old plane for example and glue them on the tank. This works very well.

Cheers

Michel

 

Just found these, Diego. Might be of use to you?

Slaters Embossed Plastikard No.0431 Rivets.

 

ALSO, this older post describes how Plastic Fan fixed the track tensioner: http://landships.activeboard.com/t43111571/track-adjuster-fix/

-- Edited by PDA on Tuesday 17th of September 2013 05:09:43 PM

Thanks Helen! For suggestions is why I posted the images! I was misguided probably by the old set of plans when I started changing the kit. I always thoght it was strange the the hatch would have been so near to the open engine exhausts... anyway, the whole concept of getting inside a metal box with a hot and unreliable engine, guns, explosives and huge quantities of fuel, while getting shot by naughty huns at was a bit strange as well. If I recall correctly the hatch was glued to the roof with just gloss varnish to avoid crazing the thin styrene.
I saw the periscopes on your set of drawings and wanted to add that detail as well. I assume they would line up with the front vision slits? (these are too near to the centre line in the model, as I widened the cab without changing the surface details). Are the periscopes just thin cilinders when deployed? I saw that in photos they show of a different hue than the rest of the tank, maybe they were either greased or perhaps made of brass?
Regarding the shape of the frame of the track adjusters... the detail is so nicely molded, and the thing so tiny, that I feared that trying to improve it, I would ruin it. I know I'll attempt that now -being an obsessive-compulsive modeller- but hope I don't have to cover that with mud to make them less visible after I finish!
D.

MK1 Nut wrote:

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Not sure if you can easily move your hatch now it's stuck, although it would be nice to see one at the right angle and position.

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Hi Helen! Just removed that roof hatch... got off the roof surface without damage to the hull nor to the hatch. In the process I managed to squash a T strip and had to restore it. Hopefully it'll be unnoticeable.
I added the flat strip passing under those exhaust plates, trimming the moldings to keep the strip well stuck to the roof surface. I noticed that one of the rear angles of the last exhaust plates was somewhat "touching" the edge of the hatch.
I also carefully erased the strip on the aft section. Here I also show the sizes of the hatch and a new pistol port cover (I made three of the things!)
Still have to drill the periscope holes on the cab roof and that hole aft the round hatch. Is that another periscope opening?

Once I get the rivets placed (whatever the method or material) I'll start assembling the "body" of the tank. Hopefully this week!

Thanks Kamil! Still a long way to go...

MK1 Nut wrote:

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Looks like you've got the MK1 bug! I will have you scrapping the rivets off next. :)

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 Thanks for the compliments. Well, I've been wondering about those rivets as well... the molds are either "tired" or there's an inevitable slight sag of the plastic around each rivet. It's a hardly noticeable surface feature, but once you compare the looks of the real thing to the kit, it looks odd. I guess that a generous coat of paint might cure this!

On the subject of new rivets, I've had some mixed results trying to add tiny droplets of epoxy glue. The consistency of the glue isn't regular, and once I seem to grasp the right amount of glue, and the right viscosity... the thing starts to set and becomes useless. I might end up cutting tiny slices of stretched sprue!

 

Very tidy work, will look good once painted
Paul

Thanks Paul and Helen!
As for a dioramic scene, I've thought on something like that, and even cut a lenght of appropiately sized thick styrene strip to cut into sections as rows of "flimsies". However this might involve a number of figures that I'm not sure if I can -or want to- add.
Another idea would be pose the male and female tanks advancing down the same potted road, with debris scattered around and a lone figure (for scale) watching the infernal machines going down the trench line (before Flers?)

Hi TeeELL! Well, I have had little progress... I've been taken into other household chores these last weeks, coupled to a new boss here at work, which has precluded me even of keeping pace with the posts of the forum. Last developments of this models were the modification of the track adjusting nut frame to make it look like a Mk.I (see picture. As usual, I thought it would be easier to do this tiny modification, but then I realized that I should do that 4 times for each tank (I'm working on a Mk.I Females as well). For this I followed an advice given here by other forum member, that told me to cut thin slices of a styrene tube and then cut each slice in half, to make the ridge of the end of the adjusting track nut recess. What was harder was to erase the previous edge, and gouge it more or less to shape and keep that recess within the boundaries of the final shape. There's so little room to mistakes there! I think I'll need a lot of mud on this model.

I also made a start on a new steering tail mechanisms (2 of them). For it I made a couple of flat jigs to help mounting the individual parts, and cut the several bits (and spares) to size. Now comes the fun part, putting it all together!

-- Edited by d_fernetti on Wednesday 9th of April 2014 05:13:09 PM

Diego,
how are things progressing, I'd love to see your jigs and tail gear end results.