12.8 cm Waffentrager--FINISHED PICS

Modeling Subjects Armor
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YEEE-HAWWWW! [:P][:P][:P]

Back in the saddle again, boys, and eager to bump this one out! I’ve been thrilled at the release of the Waffetrager series lately–I’ve got four of 'em so far, I believe; the Alan one included, and the new one just released on the way as we speak. I’ve always thought these were kinda cool looking!

This one is the 12.8 cm Trumpeter version:

This is one sharp kit! The pieces almost snap together. One nice thing is this–look at how the delicate seat frames come pre-wrapped in protective foam? How COOL is that?

Here’s some of the goodies that come too–check out the sheer numbers of shells that accompany this kit! And what’s funny is that they’re NOT the 12.8 cm shells!? I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be–perhaps the shells for another version soon to be released? In any case, in case you get skeered at the mention on some merchants’ sites and the Armorama review saying that the kit has “1080 parts”, I guarantee you that they’re counting these possibly-useless shells!

You also get some copper tubes for the recoil absorbers, and some photo etch, as well as an optional metal barrel! KEWL!

Just a heads up here–this little tool from MicroMark is the ultimate cutter for small, delicate pieces. It’s a MicroMark # 82393 Fine Tip Cutter, and it’s great for delicate pieces.

Not too much to show yet; I’ve got the hull somewhat started:

I used a Dremel tool to thin out behind two of the wheels and poked a #11 blade through them to simulate bullet damage.

I used that same Dremel to make the seats a little “saggy”. Some putty here will help as well. I’ll sand those out a bit when they harden.

That’s it for now. I love the smell of Tenax 7 in the evenin’! Stay tuned for more! [:D]

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Off to a good start Karl…but I’m confused by what you are referring to as the “sheer number of shells” that are provided. Are you referring to the dark brown sprues that are provided separate from the track links? If so, those aren’ t shells…they are the track pins needed to create workable tracks for your Waffentrager, two per indy link in the bag at the top. The pins are on the end of handles (what look like shells) and are designed that way on purpose to make it easier to assemble the tracks. It’s the same way that Model Kasten does theirs.

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Bill we send them to school and buy their books and what do they do???

Eat the covers off the books. KIDS[;)]

Tony lee

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Ha ha ha ha!! Big laugh, Bill–boy do I feel stupid! [clwn]

Just goes to show how much experience I’ve had with Model Kasten tracks! I remember using them on that Patton, but I swear, I though they were like, 10mm shells or something!

OK…deep breath, reload. ha ha. Thanks for pointing that out! [:$][Y]

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[:$]…[:D]

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Gotta say i got a chuckle out of that Fubar Karl.

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DOH! Shells?—are you kidding me? Tell me that you were just yankin’ our chains, Karl…

Anyhow–this mutha is gonna be cool…I will be following this thread like a Russian sniper follows a Field Marshal’s head in his crosshairs…

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lol…spoken like a true MO-JO…[;)]

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No worries Karl…I can see how such a mistake could happen. Trumpeter has started to provide workable tracks as a regular feature in their latest releases so it’s a fairly recent phenomenon. [;)]

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!http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQd_UdDGauiqZBI-3ZNHsKGlQHjFTkUR9cLC_jaGpap_9YrHPB54w

!http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/forum/smileyvault-giggle.gif

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Update time! A couple of warnings and call-outs here to be posted;

The first thing NOT to do is to confuse the parts called out in Part 8. These copper ducts are called out as “0.5” and “05.5”.

Now, I don’t have any background in engineering, so I mistook that as meaning something about their length…

Well of course, THAT was stupid–it’s all about their DIAMETER! So after ruining parts B14 and B15 by getting 'em stuck fast in the wrong sized tubes, I had to wind up scratchbuilding two parts. Luckily there was enough of each left to copy them fairly exactly.

Here’s the finished piece–the two copper tubes fit inside each other. I have already primed them with some Tamiya gray primer. The piece I had to scratchbuild is on the near end.

PE parts A6 and A7 are glued back-to-back in the slot in piece B28 in part 9. You can see some knockout marks to be filled in the gun truncheon side.

Speaking of the PE parts, check this out–this is cool. Trumpeter encloses the PE frames in an adhesive sleeve! So you can cut the piece out and not have it spring out into space. VERY cool idea!

So here’s the hull so far, finished. I decided to cover up the seats–darn, on second thought, I should’ve taken them out to use as spares before sealing up the hull! You just couldn’t really see them and there wasn’t much detail in the driver’s compartment to be seen.

Well, here’s my pathetic attempt to form the gun muzzle – it’s a really thick piece of PE, and I even tried annealing it in flame for a minute and then tried forming it around a wooden dowel, but the problem is that the numerous holes in the piece make that section of the piece much more flexible than the non-holed pieces that lays at 6:00 on the part. ( It looks just as uneven on the opposite side…[blkeye]) So it was impossible (for me) to bend it evenly, though I gave it hell…I’ll just have to use the plastic part and drill out each hole…

Anyone have any ideas on how I could have accomplished this in some presentable fashion?

That’s it for now, boys! I’ll be working on the gun through the weekend, and should have it ready for paint by…Sunday? Have a great Friday night, guys, and I"ll catch you soon!

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I ain’t worried.

I know you’ll work that muzzle out to look just great……!http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRylZuOoyaOHU52-G_8W6Zw4Kp3-OFZQXWTBig0OTbODAgJmF3SktJizA

!http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b232/gluetank/Animated/th_1-Animated-Disastermaster.gif?t=1296616998

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Looking good…but that really bums me about the muzzle brake–especially since in my eye it is a major focal point. Wonder if Aber offers a brass replacement option???

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Manny, no worries here–you just know that I"ll make that beautiful styrene piece look like it weighs 500lbs!

Have faith, M0J0-L0RD; the Master of Disaster believeth! [:D[ And that’s enough for me!

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I guess this will look awesome…

As long as you make them tracks awesome. Which you do. Always.

Ø5.5, eh? That’s not 05.5! [bgr]

-Huxy

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I have faith…I just don’t want that muzzle to put a brake on things…

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Karl,

Check out www.jbmodels.eu I believe they offer the 12.8cm barrel complete with brass brake that will do this baby justice for a decent price. He ships fast and cheap even being based out of Austria and takes Paypal. [;)]

Yep…the RB version: http://www.jbmodel.eu/product_info.php/cPath/22/products_id/2657 at 8 euros, that’s a great deal IMHO.

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Bill,

Thanks so much for the line on that barrel, but I have managed to “rise above”! I"m proud to say that I’ve managed to improve upon my own deficient skills and learned something new!

See the following post!

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Hallelujah!

Well, I have actually managed to learn something new, and saved my PE muzzle brake!

So, in the last post, I had had a hell of a time bending that cylindrical muzzle brake, and had rather deformed it. I thought I would have been able to drill out the plastic substitute, but to my disappointment, the dimples which populated the surface in place of the actual hole were too shallow to allow my microdrill to track them accurately, and after drilling a few dozen of them I was less-than-satisfied with the results. Hmmm. NOW what to do? Both the PE and the plastic parts looked like crap, I"m here to testify!

Well, I put on my Big-boy pants and took another look at that PE piece. Hmmm, it wasn’t TOO badly out-of-round? The problem had been that the perforated surface in 80% of the piece had a lower tensile strength that the un-perforated ribs that sat opposite each other, and these “ribs” were hard to bend to the same degree as the perforations, leading to an out-of-round abomination. Well, I got back at it, and got the idea to use the plastic insert piece to help form to cylinder.

I used a flat pliers that I picked up at AC Moore’s to help me. I finally got it round, and then had to face up to how to join the ends? Hmm…it didn’t look like super-glue would hold it? So I trudged down to the hardware store and picked up some soldering tools, and took a crack at it. Holy styrene! I actually got it to take! I even managed to solder the end cap on! WAHOOOO!! I was thrilled!

I then used the pliers again to refine the shape and used a file to further correct and perfect the piece…

After some Tamiya Gray Primer, I think it looks killer!

That’s it for tonight–I"l have more updates by Sunday! [:D]

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WOW…what a save, bro!!! The truth is in the primed piece…oustanding bit 'o fine-scale modeling here…