Hi, Barry is a great influence and role model to us builders. But there is certainly no competition. Barry has a patience and a search for perfection that no one will ever match. I think every builder has his own style, likely reflecting his personality, experience, preferences but with a common need for creativity.BarryC wrote:Barry, looks like you have competition
Continuing with the hull, here is the rear hull, minus the auxiliary muffler.
First step was to clear up everything on the hull and prepare the parts.
Squadron M41 Walk around is essential and analysis is required to understand the various components. The left and right tail lights are actually different and the Shapeways offering has properly represented each of them.
A plasticard tube with a 11mm diameter is required to replace the HL armored shield for the tail lights, they were too small.
Although I usually put a 3mm LED for tail lights in order to be less bright, the Shapeways lights are designed to house a 5mm LED, so I reused the Heng Long LEDs to fit inside after some sanding.
If you compare with the reference picture above, the tail lights are a lot more accurate than before.
Here is the gun lock mechanism that needs to be reproduced. There are no parts provided for it by Heng Long.
I had great hope that the Shapeways M41 gun lock offering would provide an easy fix. However, it did not take me long to notice that it is oversized by about 10mm, and the details lack in finesse. Although advertised as 1/16, it is actually closer to 1/13. But it is solid and would likely satisfy those that consider this model like a toy. But for a detailed and accurate build, I had to create one from scratch as per references.
Although the gun lock can be raised and locked in place, I did not build it to be used with the gun with an opening eye. With a gun that is RC controlled, the gun lock is impractical to use and it would not last long.
Continuing on next post.