Comet A34- Ludwig kit

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PainlessWolf
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by PainlessWolf »

Good morning, Roy,
Those Shapeways bits in that clear material are done so to preserve and recreate fine detail in small objects. I've used them to a great degree on Crazy Joes M36 B and they were just fine. Easily as durable as molded plastic would be at that scale. Just treat them like you would any fine detailed part and you will be fine. ( even small objects folded out of brass like ABER 's stuff need extra care in use ) They glue, prime and paint just like any other plastic. Following along!
regards,
Painless
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In place with a solid mount..JPG
In place with a solid mount..JPG (90.83 KiB) Viewed 2561 times
Gunsight plus plastic widget modified to fit the gunsight base..JPG
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Model Builder 4
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by Model Builder 4 »

Evening Roy,

I used the same add on parts from shapeways for my Cromwell build, I agree with the items seemingly being a tad brittle, most of them were fine though aside from the side storage box clasps which are very small and finely detailed so extra care was needed to remove them from the sprue and put in place, I'm sure you'll do a great job with them :thumbup:

Cheers, Lee.
Me ? Addicted ? Never !! :crazy:
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tomhugill
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by tomhugill »

Model Builder 4 wrote:Evening Roy,

I used the same add on parts from shapeways for my Cromwell build, I agree with the items seemingly being a tad brittle, most of them were fine though aside from the side storage box clasps which are very small and finely detailed so extra care was needed to remove them from the sprue and put in place, I'm sure you'll do a great job with them :thumbup:

Cheers, Lee.
Do you have a link to those parts?
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Model Builder 4
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by Model Builder 4 »

Hi Tom, the main add on parts came from this guy on shapeways, https://www.shapeways.com/shops/zavod3d , there are a couple of other items under 1/16 Cromwell as well :thumbup:

Cheers, Lee.
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43rdRecceReg
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by 43rdRecceReg »

Thanks, Lee. :thumbup: I thought I'd posted Zavod's link, as it's good practice to give useful references. Slipped up there :/ :D
Thanks, Painless, Lee, and Tom for looking in. Yes, I bought some Cromwell bits before (from Shapeways) that were highly detailed, like these, and which also appeared as delicate as a souffle. Once bonded, though, and painted they should last. Most of the bits in Zavod's set I made myself, in the Cromwell build, and it shows. Still, when not peeked at too closely, they look OK- but they're not in this league. I want a tank that runs without bits falling off, and so 'museum quality' is not my avowed aim. But I do want it them to look authentic at first sight. :problem:
I'm not into battling my tanks (no-one to share a lazy afternoon's armoured incursion with around here ;) ), and so there's no real need to sacrifice detail for robustness.
That said, as runners, they should be able to take a bit of rough Highland brae.
I've been using this overhead projection (age has withered my recall of Geometrical and Engineering terminology). Anyway...
What I do is to scale the drawing up on my iMac screen so that the drawing's almost exactly the same length as a corresponding part in the kit (side-plate, in this instance).
This is how I worked out the angles, and dimensions of the Upper Hull lifting eyes (below), and the fact that the hatch handles are around 10mm wide. That will prove handy later :thumbup:
This is me measuring the length of the lift eye/lift bracket:
Image

Note: these brackets don't appear in Christian's kit, so if you want one- you'll have to make one. The dimensions are roughly 12 mm (vertically), 15 mm horizontally, and the angle is roughly 33 deg. (with top edge as base)
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
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43rdRecceReg
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by 43rdRecceReg »

A tip I'd like to reinforce ( no jests about viagra..) is keeping hold of old sprues- especially from CL's kits. If you mess a part up, or lose one, you can always use the outline of it in the old sprue to mark a new one out.
Here's one where I'm marking out the sides of the Storage bins using the old parts sprue from the Cromwell build.
The bins, along with several other key components, can't be constructed at the moment, as crucial bits haven't yet arrived (one or two smaller detailed sprues never made the post... :problem:
Image
Aside from providing a handy templates for creating or replacing parts, the sprues themselves (1.5mm-3mm) can be shaped into donor material :thumbup:
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
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43rdRecceReg
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by 43rdRecceReg »

Using some 3mm offcuts, and the dimensions I gleaned from the screen, I marked out the lifting eyes/brackets roughly:
Image

Then, cut and shaped a prototype. Getting the hypotenuse angle of the bracket (approx 33 deg) was a simple matter of holding the bracket up to the blueprint. Getting the angle at which the brackets attach to the front armour plate right..was not quite so simple. The brackets lean forward like horns:
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So that's two angles to fashion correctly. :problem:
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Getting the same angle on the brackets where they will bond with the front plate...
One in place:
Image
It sort of looks the biz...
Now for the second:
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Hmm..well, I'm happy with the shape and angle of fitment. But to circumvent the possibility of them being knocked off later, by some shout-worth mischance, I'll drill and fit some tiny pegs to make the bond stronger, and then conceal them with some filler. :thumbup:
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
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PainlessWolf
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by PainlessWolf »

Good afternoon, Roy!
Splendid work! Whenever I hear that someone is pegging a part to ensure it stays put, I know that this modeler knows his stuff. I am about to attach some metal spare tracks and mounts I put together onto the the lower of the IS-2. Posts and drill holes to match will definitely be used for such heavy pieces. Following along,
regards,
Painless
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43rdRecceReg
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by 43rdRecceReg »

PainlessWolf wrote:Good afternoon, Roy!
Splendid work! Whenever I hear that someone is pegging a part to ensure it stays put, I know that this modeler knows his stuff. I am about to attach some metal spare tracks and mounts I put together onto the the lower of the IS-2. Posts and drill holes to match will definitely be used for such heavy pieces. Following along,
regards,
Painless
Thanks, Painless, for the vote of confidence. :thumbup:
Most of the styrene joints in a kit or scratch effort of this sort are practically welds, and will never come apart easily. Grafting pieces on, however, like these obtrusive lifting brackets, is always going to make for weaker joints than in other areas. Thus, the pins will be a bit of insurance. Good luck with the IS 2 mods. Though luck probably won't be needed :thumbup: It's a fine looking beast!
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
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43rdRecceReg
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Re: Comet A34- Ludwig kit

Post by 43rdRecceReg »

I'm just chugging along waiting for bits to arrive. I'd like to start on the lower hull, but need some metal-friendly 2-part epoxy to bind the halves of the alloy swingarms together (Each arm consists of L and R halves).
And part of one arm missed the post. :|
Feeling a tad frustrated, I've decided to try and finish as much of the Upper Hull's exterior before moving on.
Time to build the Air Intake box.
These are the only parts to arrive. The sprue containing the edges (six bits in all) should appear before too long...
Image
Meantime, I decided to make the edge pieces myself from 3mm sprue offcuts.
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The outlines/ templates for these four bits came from the old Cromwell sprue. Glad I didn't throw it away ;) The long front and rear edges were also sourced from sprue. Luckily, I had some good printed straight edges to work with.
Here are the bits I need now, after a lot of sawing and cutting, and the first has just been bonded in place (rectangle)
Image
Then the main, sloped, inner struts
Image
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
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