Okay, I’m in the process of building the Italeri 1/35 M4A1 Sherman and ran into a problem. The supplied figure, a crew member, needs a platform to be able to stick out of the turret. What is the easiest way to do this? I haven’t closed up the top and bottom pieces yet (good thing), so I still have some options. Any advice?
I remember having a similar problem. I drilled a hole in the waist of the figure and inserted a piece of piano wire, then drilled a hole in the turret and glued the wired figure in place with some CA glue. Painting the wire black will help hide it. You can tweak the wire as necessary to adjust the figure’s position.
You could fabricate a mounting platform out of sprue. Depending on where the easiest and most structurally sound location is, you may have to trim the commander’s legs to get him at the proper height. Obviously, it would not be an accurate representation of the inside of a Sherman turret, but if you paint it flat black, it would not be noticeable.
[:D]what i did on my m-113a2 was to cut a piece of plactic card and glue it to the hatch,and put my figuere on the card.[:D]
A couple or three options: 1) if your figure consists only of the upper body (as is sometimes the case in armoured kit figures) dig into your spare parts container and attach a ‘mix and match’ lower torso…nobody will be able to see if the upper and lower ‘body parts’ line up in an anatomically correct fashion. 2) If that is not a viable option…if your figure has their arm/hand/upper body resting on a part of the tank exterior, such as the machinegun or hatch ring…glue them together. That will do the trick. 3) cut a piece of sheet sytrene that marries up with the interior turret walls. glue it in place and paint it the interior colour. Then glue your figure onto it. The lines & shadows of the turret interior will make it difficult for anyone to notice your ‘prop’
OKay, the figure has legs molded to the torso, and the arm is not holding the turret ring, so I guess a platform it is. Are there any other materials that would work better than styrene? Thanks for your help.
One final question, how far should he be sticking out? As in relation to his body. Waist, chest, etc.
First of all. As a general rule of thumb, (IMHO) is that the upper portion of the figure, roughly from around the belt-line up should be visible(hence the reason for armour kits often providing only the upper torso). As for fixing the figure in place. I don’t have a better suggestion than styrene. Finally (just an idea): You might consider cutting of the legs…turning the figure into an ‘upper torso only’ and then using one of the previously mentioned solutions.