Thank you Painless and Herman. Now that the bigger structural changes are done, i will be going into details of each area one by one.
Moving on to the glacis.
This is the typical glacis on a late Mk 5 Sho't Meteor, not a Mk 5/1. There are two larger headlights in the middle with a guard, replacing the small British headlights. There are two sets of spare tracks. There is likely a ration box on the right, they call it the biscuit box, sitting on a metal frame at the bottom. Two hooks at the tip and that's about it.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 1.JPG (2.96 MiB) Viewed 1269 times
Of course, there are variations. This one has additional larger headlights on both sides, with guards. I also noticed variations in height for the middle headlights. The ones on a Mk5/1 with add-on armor on the glacis are usually a bit higher.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 2.PNG (278.35 KiB) Viewed 1269 times
Let's start with the spare tracks holders. Notice the shape and the opening mechanism with a bolt on both sides.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 3.PNG (352.52 KiB) Viewed 1269 times
View of the anchor. Removing the bolt will separate the frame from the base in the middle.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 4.PNG (217.51 KiB) Viewed 1269 times
The TONGDE part is technically ok, dimensions are good but it has been simplified. The rods are square and there is no opening mechanism. With such track holder, there is no way to retrieve the tracks...
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 5.JPG (519.41 KiB) Viewed 1269 times
The main concern is that i need two, TONGDE only provides one. So, i am building new detailed ones in brass.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 6.JPG (778.6 KiB) Viewed 1269 times
The rods are 1.19mm in diameter and seemed to be a perfect fit. They need to rest on a 2mm tube. As i did not have enough fingers, i created a simple jig to hold the rods in place while i concentrated on my poor soldering skills.
Someone with more soldering skills than me could separate the base tube in 3 sections and make the track holder functional. This was already stretching it for me.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 7.JPG (1.14 MiB) Viewed 1269 times
Getting them on the 2mm tube was way simpler than anticipated, rough job done in a few minutes.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 8.JPG (1.09 MiB) Viewed 1269 times
Then a few minutes to shape the soldering using files of different size and grain. Looking strait and sharp, that jig created in less than 1 minute did the work.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 9.JPG (710.07 KiB) Viewed 1269 times
Putting on the traverse was more complicated. The trick is to measure the right lenght through trial and error to squeeze them in position so that they hold by themselves, then a tactical drop of soldering is locking them in place, then finetuned with files, one at a time.
- 1/16 RC IDF Late Sho't Meteor Centurion with 105mm - build
- 10.JPG (368.97 KiB) Viewed 1269 times
Continuing on following post
For hedlight I recommend Tamiya No 9115122 spare part. It is widely available and improves the appearance of lamps.