Old Modeler, new R/C KT build

[jarndice]

That has to be the first Tank with an ear to ear grin, seriously this has been a brilliant build and It makes tv soaps boring with all its ups and downs. Thank you for all the tips, I think a lot of us owe you. shaun

[dgsselkirk]

Hey Shaun,

Thanks for the kind words. I guess I'm never going to live down that front gap eh? Like I have said all along I am here to show warts and all because that is the reality of what the average guy goes thru playing with these things. There are masters on here of both detail work and accuracy but most of us don't have the time, money, or expertise to do that level of work so for the other 2700 members I am your friend and comrade thru the misery and pain! Having said that I love studying the masters to at least give me the ideas of what needs to be done and admiring their mad skills!

[dgsselkirk]

Wow! Thanks EF for all the kind words AND for showing me some mistakes and opinions along the way. I always appreciate feedback. You know to be honest I think the Zim was one of the easiest parts! I could do that to kits of this scale all day long till the cows come home. It was a hell of a lot tougher 20 years ago in 1/35 let me tell you!

As far as the Panther goes I keep eyeing it sitting up in the corner but 2 builds at the same time? Nah, better keep my eye on the ball and finish the KT first. I figure I am about 65% done on the cosmetics. then the electronics which is REALLY not my strong suit! so I figure I have a couple of months on the KT to go....

Figure out a way to do square burn pattern for the panther.... hmmmm

[dgsselkirk]

O.K. my $0.63 cent tow ropes!

I have been hunting for a solution to those godawful plastic tow ropes that come with the kits. I HATE the look and feel of them. So I have been trying various things. Picture frame wire, twine, different types of aircraft wire, twist some together, unravel some...
I have been back and forth on the tow rope thread (I will post this there too) and really it was MichaelC (thanks Mike) that sparked me to look at copper electrical cable. Copper made sense. Relatively soft so you can position it well, has some heft to it so it will lay better than some other types. The issue was to get the right thickness and not too many strands in the twist. So I went to my local RONA (Canadian version of Home Depot) and a nice young kid (surprise!) actually took the time to listen to what I was looking for and for what purpose I was going to use it. I had brought along a small piece of the plastic so we could spec it out and I think I found as good a match as you are ever going to find. 12 guage wire with a 7 strand twist. 1 metre $0.63 cents! I was VERY exited by this find finally and rushed home stripped it down and rough fitted it to see how it looked. The kid and I had discussed twisting it a little tighter to closer match the real thing and I will try this next but it looks pretty good to my eye.
So backing up a little, as you can see I carefully cut the supplied tow rope apart. Took the ends and drilled them out. I even kept the little square mounts and drilled them out to use. Of course I will add little fiddlebits to them to simulate the latches, wingnuts, etc... for the smaller tow rope I am going to do the same thing but use a nylon twine for it. I am going to try and paint and weather these up this weekend.

[dgsselkirk]

O.K. not happy with airbrushed vehicle ID so went back to decal sheet making and did this sheet tonight in CorelDraw on decal paper. Sigh! Another thing to fix!

(other numbers are for other vehicles. gotta use up the sheet!)

[MichaelC]

Nice looking tow rope there Dean (and it is not because of the credit !

How are you going to put the decal on the zim ? I have been putting off this for a while on my zim tanks as I have not had any success at all with the softening method. I do have a set of stencils from Montex that includes the famous "Charging Knight" but I am afraid my air brushing is not up to snuff.

[dgsselkirk]

Hi Michael,

These decal sheets are extremely thin about the consistancy of wet tissue paper so they should mould to the zim O.K. You will notice I made lots of extras! The way these work I print them off an ink jet and then seal them with clear high gloss acrylic spray bomb and then CAREFULLY score the the decal edges but don't cut through the backing paper so I can sep. the blue background from the actual design. Of course the usual clear high gloss coat on the vehicle for the application, soak decal in water, slide onto vehicle, blot dry, although in this case I may hit it with a hair dryer to help "shrink" it into the zim a bit more. I will have to see your stencils. If you want to experiment what I do for the stencils (but didn't do on my KT duh!) is use the Humbrol liquid masking to stick the stencil to the vehicle with. This will hold the stencil still while you airbrush.

Wish me luck I am going to try it all this weekend!

[Dietrich]

Hi dgsselkirk ,
A brilliant looking King Tiger ! The old skills are very clearly returning to you quickly....
.
Just as a couple of suggestions...
The tow rope cable can also be made by getting strands of wire of the correct thickness. Putting one end in a vice or a clamp and then putting the other end in the chuck jaws of an electric drill. Just operate the drill and let it twist the wires until they match the twist pattern on the actual tank. Remember that as you twist the wire it will 'shorten' so be sure to make the start length too long.

To add to the use of the Neodynium magnets to hold the two halves of the hull together, personally I like to use the ones with the counter-sunk hole in the middle. This way you can actually put a screw through its centre to secure the magnet to the posts.

Over rough terrain I have found that on my Tiger 1 the magnets can 'slip' a bit sideways. To prevent that I always add two central metal rods to the lower hull, that are usually made of 3mm threaded bar. These then go up into the hull upper screw posts that I drill out with a 3mm drill bit. This way the hull always slides down the locating rods into the correct position and it cannot then come loose if it gets jolted or I drive into anything.

I am looking forward to the next installment on this build....
Alb

[macnjam]

Ok, this is not just a tank but a work of art. Amazing. Consider this for electronics: http://www.clark-model.com/eng/index_e.html

[dgsselkirk]

Hi Macnjam,

Thank you for the kind words!
Clark, Clark, Clark. I am really starting to hear this name come up. I am hoping to get to a local club on the 20th where the North American Distributor Curtis from Immortal Hobbies hopefully will be there. ( Curtis, you are welcome! LOL!) I will shoot some video and take pics and let you know what I think from a laymans perspective.

What the hell, spend more money!