Weather was bad today, forcing me to stay indoors for most of the day…and that can only mean one thing! A chance to put in some serious time on my current project, Tamiya’s 1/35 20mm Flakvierling Wirbelwind. Got the gun mount all together and started the weathering process for it before mounting it inside the turret. Had to drill out the solid barrel tips with the Dremel since I didn’t want to pay $40 for cast barrels (I was shocked that you could get them, but apparently there’s a market for virtually anything at the right price [;)] ) but other than that, it went together pretty smoothly. It has a neat but strange mechanism that moves the gunsight when the mounts are elevated that depends solely on gravity/angled tension to stay in place and had to fight the carpet monster for it several times in the building process.
Thanks for the comments so far…been debating what paint scheme to apply to the hull and turret. I’m torn between doing a random splotchy pattern or more of the rippled alternating stripe effect…will have to decide soon as the hull won’t take very much to complete since most of it’s pieces are detail add-ons after the painting is done.
tigerman, I did the drilling with a $20 cordless Mighty Mite from Dremel first with their 1/32" bit for a starter hole followed by their 1/16" for the barrels themselves. That was regular price at Wal-Mart, so a nice cheap solution to my solid barrel problem. [:D]
well looks like Im going to have a tough choice in what to build I got a 1/35th scale MobelWagen armed with a 20mm from Tamiya and the Academy WirbelWind but as for drilling out the barrels I use a Pin Vise instead of my Dremel Mini Mite.
Looking good so far. ARMO of Poland make a set of beautiful turned aluminium barrels for the Quad 20 mm. Their product code is 35709. Cost around AUD $17 (about $12.50 USD). For the lazy ones that don’t drill or remove seam lines[:P][:D]
I practiced a bit before trying the barrels. Still think I need to get a pin vise or something similar to hold it steady though. The starter holes helped correct the tendency to be off-center, but was still a challenge.
Spent some more time on the project today, perfect weather for painting outside, 105 and 5% humidity! Here’s some pics of the gun mount weathered and in the turret…hard to believe they could squeeze a crew of three into this thing!
Still a ways to go…it’s up on blocks and will need a lot of detail treatment for the extras and weathering. Been a very productive weekend!
