Someone had posted a topic about Metal Earth PE kits a while back, but for the life of me I can’t remember who or when. But I had a chance to build one over a period of two evenings, the results of which you see here.
For something that appears to be aimed at the general public, I must say that it was rather challenging to build. If you hate adding PE details, avoid these kits! Some rather critical parts, like the actuator pistons on the arm, do not fit properly and require tweaking (and judicious “Z” bends). I had fits (pun intended!) getting the rear panel of the engine deck to conform. Curling teeny tubes was not fun either. Mangifyers were essential for me, and the highly reflective surface made it hard to tell where the teeny tiny tabs had to go. Okay, at least the tab and slot construction worked well.
Nope, not a drop of glue anywhere! For joints that must be tight, you twist the tab 90 degrees after passing it through the slot. The system works well, one of the few things that was easy to do.
I have a Metal Earth bicycle kit. It was extremely difficult to keep the parts from bending where they shouldn’t bend. Some of the slots don’t quite line up where they should be. I have not finished it, but shelved it for now.
Your model looks very good. How did you keep fingerprints off of it?
Thanks for posting that excavator. To me, that and the bulldozer looked like the two kits that could best be built to look truly scale (no compound curves). I bought both kits. Will start one of the two soon.
Personally , I like that type of stuff . I will have to get these . I have built about twenty so far . I won’t build the Mustang because to me , it looks hokey .
I have wondered about the ships . Now I built the Twin rotor helo . It looked hokey till I started using the shaping methods I learned doing the P.E. on the North Carolina build .
Like much of Eduards P.E. it can be rounded more and such , you just have to be patient with it . I still do them , to keep these old arthritic hands from tightening up .
Kensar - I initially wore gloves, but noticed the PE sheets had some kind of lacquer coating on them, so after the cab was finished I just used bare hands. Plus the gloves were getting punctured by the teeny little “sprue” attachments.
Don - Watch that rear engine deck panel. I think the upper edge must stick up over the deck in order for it to line up with the side panels. That was the most frustrating part for me. The main hydraulic “pistons” were too long, so I “z” bent their bases, more or less out of sight. The pinion connector on the arm that accepts the upper part of the pistons has tabs that don’t align with the pistons’. I had to twist the connector and bend the tabs sideways a little to get things joined up. The tracks looked like a can or worms, but were thankfully trouble free, if not a bit tight getting the tabs over and into their slots. Good luck on your build!
Hunter - Yes, these things are pretty cheap for what you get. But the total cost must include asprin and trips to an anger management therapist!
Very nice! I tried the Spitfire, didn’t make it past the first step. One wrong bend and thats it, the metal becomes work hardened and can’t be corrected. At least that’s what happened with my project. I’d like to try it again, it seems like it would be good practice for PE.
Yep, I intend to replace that deck area with a carved wood insert. Also probably will replace the rolled tubes with brass or aluminum tubing just to make build easier.
The excavator looks great. I think you did a great job. I totally agree with your thoughts on the models on offer from that brand.
I built the stand up bass for my daughter who was in orchestra. It was a fun build, but it was tedious. I have the dragonfly to do next because that’s my wife’s favorite thing. I must admit it is a bit intimidating, but if I mess it up I’ll just get another one. I got mine from ebay because the ones I want weren’t at the LHS. Bonus was they were half the price.
Don, change the hydraulic pistons while you are at it. Their lengths and set angles seem off. Just make some out of tubing, paint Alclad chrome, and you will be much better off! Maybe change the flat hydraulic cables to some silver wire as well.
Yep, intended to do pistons and hydraulic lines scratch. Figured the hydraulic lines should be flat black or something like that (I intend to paint model).
I got a couple metal earth kits for Christmas, a Star Destroyer and Keaton’s Batwing. I haven’t had an opportunity to build them. They look interesting. Yours looks really good.
[/url]Excavator-07 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr
[/url]Excavator-02 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr
[/url]Excavator-03 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr
[/url]Excavator-04 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr
[/url]Excavator-05 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr