Comet A34- Ludwig kit

[43rdRecceReg]

This air intake is built a bit like a sandwich. But it's certainly no BLT. Here the sandwich is completed by the panel that contains the access hatch.
Looking from underneath (deck side), it's possible to check that the bits align properly. Whoopee....they do!
Now, for the four homemade sides:

After a bit of trimming to fit, the next order of business is filling and shaping.
For this, I used Plasto (made by Revell). It dries very rapidly so it's necessary to work quickly. I used it here, though, as it fills fine gaps more easily than Milliput.

Ok, it looks pretty grim right now, but I just wanted to ensure that all gaps were filled, and dips levelled. After drying, it was time for coarse, then very fine grade sanding sheets.

Getting there...
I'm happy with the shape.

Then I put a bit of early primer on it, and bonded in place on the deck (and early temporary coat primer often shows up defects to be sanded out later, at the customising and finishing stage.

[43rdRecceReg]

...and the primer helps to identify defects for later rectification...

[43rdRecceReg]

Just realised that an intermediate pic of the 'sandwich' is missing. Looks like I forgot to add it to the text
Anyway, this is what the initial sandwich looked like:

Now the arrangement should make more sense.

[PainlessWolf]

Roy!
It's coming along quickly and neatly. What you are doing is much more difficult ( IMHO ) than modding a RTR tank. Kudos, Sir.
regards,
Painless

[43rdRecceReg]

Roy!
It's coming along quickly and neatly. What you are doing is much more difficult ( IMHO ) than modding a RTR tank. Kudos, Sir.
regards,
Painless

Many thanks for the support, Painless. Some RTR mods require consummate skills, an eye for detail, and -as with semi-scratch builds (such as this one), can also require some real inventiveness.
With RTR, though, there's a good chance that there'll quite a few examples of how fellow modellers have tackled a mod, that one can refer to. Bespoke parts may also have used, and accompanied with useful installation instructions.
Here..the instructions run out, and the void has to be filled with homemade parts, often conceived by lateral thinking. It can really tax the old grey matter....

[43rdRecceReg]

One feature included in the kit (and a prominent one on the real Comet), is the gun lock/cannon clamp used to secure the 17-pounder when travelling.
Again, not all of the parts needed have arrived. But I decided to fashion the missing ones myself.
These are the main parts (note, they need trimming later to remove residue from the moulding/printing process). They may look a wee bit ragged, but all parts will be sanded with fine grade later and treated with surfacer if needed.

One part, the tiny latch, is not shown here- but did come with the kit. The feet/swivels that fit on the arms of the lock bracket are not here yet, so I'll have to make them, as well as the two pivots they are bolted to.

Here, the first component has been bonded in place.
and the second piece here. The drills really help to keep parts aligned properly during bonding.

Then the three parts the locking arm consists of are glued together. I left the little bits of sprue in place, to add rigidity during the bonding process

[43rdRecceReg]

Put together with M1.6 hex bolts (8mm) it looks a bit like this:


The little latch with the drill bit through it actually moves..., as does the arm itself. Ok, it's not brass, but it came with the kit and it's worth the effort.

[43rdRecceReg]

But...the two feet that form a swivel on the arms of the lock bracket, as well as the pivots they engage with were also in a 3mm sprue I'm still awaiting..
This is how I made them. Do ignore the roughness of the imked outlines. I really did know what shape I was aiming for, and had the old Cromwell sprue to act as a template for the pivots (that bolt to the engine deck).
The swivelling feet I had to invent.

Tools I used to fabricate the pivots and swivels/hinges. (+ some fine grade emery paper)

Checking the fit against the rough sprue template:

and a second one:

I used a number '2' circle to approximate the size of swivel casing the pivots would suggest...and roughed out the shape of the two feet needed, as well as the slots the arms of the lock mechanism would be fitted into.

Here, I've cut the swivels out and bonded them onto the lock bracket. The two pivots are in the foreground on a drillbit.

Finally, the components are assembled and cemented to the engine deck. Amazingly, it all works and looks (pretty much) as it was intended to. But says nothing about the amount of time spent on it...

Time for a slurp, I think.

[c.rainford73]

Absolutely beautiful work Really well done

[43rdRecceReg]

Absolutely beautiful work Really well done

Thanks a million, Carl. It's going to be a long, long journey before this model gets its tracks into Highland heather. Partly, because I want to get everything right first time, but also because time is limited by other demands (keeping an eye on an ailing dog, for example)
I made (and rectified) lots of mistakes with the Cromwell build. Luckily, none were fatal.
The lessons I learned there, are proving really useful here.

I had a stroke of luck today. A 5/8in aluminium tube turned up today, via Ebay. Its internal diameter is 12.6mm... a nearly exact fit for the gun. This means I can use it as the sleeve for the gun barrel to slide in.
It's a good start, given that the sleeve/trunnion part seems to be unavailable from Christian , and an alternative is needed.