might i presume the gray on the edges is the squadron putty? i have found using white glue wiped down with a damp Q-tip works well for filling hard to sand edges too (like caulking a bath tub and blending it with your fingers). i too will be watching this.
Hi guys,
Well, I’ve finally got some significant progress to report. Man, I’ve been puttering away, but honestly, the PE is just taking a lot of time. Anyhoo----
—Wayne, that was a great tip! White glue–I wish I’d thought of that before I started with the putty!
OK, I’ve been experimenting with this PE zimmerit–I don’t care for the uniformity of this zimm (1): I wanted to add some damage and variety, so I cut the zimm with a fine pair of scissors. (2) Unfortunately, this tends to deform the brass (3), so I just tamped it down with the flat handle of my bigger Exacto (4) and that seems to flatten it just fine with no other degradation of the pattern. (5).
I made a nice little jack block out of balsa wood and the supplied PE.
I also added some blank panels under the hull area where it’s open before I mounted the hull halves.
The front hull, so far…note the damaged zimm panels…I still have to put in the zimm on the sides of the fenders after I fashion some fender springs.
In the rear, I made springs out of wire wrapped around another wire–I have yet to put these on the front ones too…Annoyingly, I had to build “fender insides”, as the PE part doesn’t provide for that. I chose to use the kit parts on the air intake flaps that rest on the fenders because the PE parts were simply too big. I’ve actually veto’ed some of the other PE parts in favor of the more “to scale” kit parts. Sometimes, all that glitters is not in scale. [:$]
The Academy tracks I was using for this build (the kit has Tamiya one-piece that you can’t really sag) all had to have their double knock-out marks filled in… OY!
But with these little sanding sticks that my local LHS up in Syracuse had when I lived there, it proved pretty easy to sand them down.
Next, the spare barrel boxes on the rear need to be completely sanded down to put the PE parts on them–this leaves you with nothing but square styrene rectangles! I had to find some way to add a straight line to represent the two halves that would open up.
I would up gluing a piece of .080 angled styrene to a piece of glass that I have here, and used that as a template for a scriber that I got from MicroMark.
After filling in the void on the bottom with a piece of styrene, they’re good to get the PE…
The PE attached.
Here they are attached: note that the hinges are on the OUTSIDE of the boxes! A lot of modelers make the mistake of putting the latches on toward the outside, but they are designed to open to the back deck of the vehicle. Weird, I know----I put 'em on backwards the FIRST time too! [proplr][00ps]
That’s where I am now…motoring on, getting there…thanks for looking in and giving a shout out! [:)]
Lots of great progress with the PE details here Karl, keep at it, you’re dressing this one up nicely! [Y]
Looking great Karl!
It’s nice to click in and see some significant progress here. I just don’t know where you get the time.
Needless to say, !http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/funny/1/belly-dance.gifit’s certainly looking good.
Oh WOW, already having a lot of detail.
PE is a pain in the lower part of the back but hey, gives awesome reality.
G O Karl G O[Y]
Tony lee
good progress Doog. My only thought is this: on the left rear fender, the forces that would bend it so dramatically— wouldn’t that just shear off the fender from its hinges? I can understand a krinkle or slight bend but that huge an impact would seem to rip the fender off its hinges I’d think. Just my 2 cents
hi doog looking good. were the air filter lower “covers” on al PZ-IVs or just late models?? i don’t recall seeing them.
micromark sells those thin sanding strips in a 300 pack of various grades for about $25. i use them all the time but be careful with wet sanding; they will fall apart quickly when wet
indy tracks are bad enough. indy tracks with sink wells are evil. reminds me of my chinese treasue ship EVERY part has sink wells.
Wow Karl, you did a great job with the PE zim! I love how you damaged it and blended it back in! Plus all the detailing…NIIIIIIIIICE!
I’m enjoying this build Doog.
Great work with the PE and balsa - truly an inspiration to us novice builders.
Chris.
Thanks, Bill! I was going to use some of the new tracks after they arrived, but I figured that I already had the effort into these old dogs…now I"ve got to tackle the dreaded tool clamps! (collective groan!)
Thanks, Eric, Steve, and Hugo! I appreciate the support!
Tony, thanks for stepping away from the assembly line and giving me a [Y] ! !
Chris, glad you like it, an I"m always happy to show someone something new or helpful!
Thanks too, rocker286, and SprueOne! Sorry I missed you guys in the last post! [:$]
Roy, an excellent call on that—I shall correct that; it’s funny because that was actually a mistake! I was prying off a piece of PE zimm that had gone on slightly crooked, and accidentally crushed that fender against my chest when he PE let go suddenly, and figured I"d just leave it as it was, but you’re right—it’s probably too extreme to be plausible. Great catch on that, and thanks for the honest critique!!!
Wayne, I believe most, if not all, PZ IV’s had those flaps on the rear fenders. I know that, at least the hulls that these flaktanks were built on had them. Just so you know, we’re talking about those rectangular blocks on the rear fenders on the side of the rear deck. [;)]
Those $25 sanding sticks make me SO MAD!!! I can get the package in the photo there for like, $7 or 8 dollars at the LHS! They’re a “no name” company, and that’s a reasonable price—but twenty five bucks? Ridiculous! [bnghead]
man,those tracks are tedious !!! ,but this is really coming together,looking good
Hey Tojo, thanks for looking in and taking time to comment again! [:)]
Well, after much PE wrangling and much stress over this build, I’ve finally got the hull basically finished as far as all the detailing and PE. [:P] Man, what a PITA! I’ve realized that the PE set I have is actually for the OLD Wirbelwind kit–the original issue–and the PE is, in many instances, designed to fit the older tools which are different dimensions. The relatively NEWER kit which I have has that “New tools” sprue, which seem to be different, dimensionally.
The first pic I have to show is the new fender hinges I made; The Eduard set has a piece that is designed to fit over the zimmerit piece, but it rather gets lost in it. I used a piece of .009 guitar string–man, is that hard wire to shape!–and laid that over the correct spot. I made hinges out of metal foil, and cut bolts out of .040 sprue rod.
In the rear, I drilled out the cable stays and added some music wire to form new ones. I put a “chain” of twisted wires on the bottom circular crank cover. Since I lost the first rear light and reflector, I stole some from an extra Pz IV Aber set I had laying around.Ignore that idler–its just falling off.
And now the fenders and tools. Ugh–I spent days wrestling with the arrangements and PE details, replacing or modifying some, ditching others, and just deciding not to use some pieces that were just unusable–such as the front spare track holder PE piece–it was just way too long to fit in the space between the shackles.
You can see that, despite my best efforts, the light is a little bit too far forward on the fender. I’m hoping that it gets lost in the finish and is not too much of a distraction. What precipitated this was a too-large fire extinguisher piece that I even shortened, but was still too long. Also, I had to rebuild the stays for the opposing track wrenches below the jack block.
On the other fender, I couldn’t fit the axe; I had to leave it off, as it wouldn’t fit with the other parts. Even then, the arrangement of this fender is different than called for by the instructions, which are inaccurate. You can see in this photo that the axe is clearly on the fender in this position.
I won’t be adding the second track over the glacis. Here’s the overview; I added in the shovel as per reference photo placement.
Oh god, but it’s going to be good to move on from the hull! Onto the tracks and gun now. Kinda wish I had a detail set for the gun, but actually…glad I"m done with the majority of the PE! NOT my favorite aspect of modeling!
I’m curious what the German armor modelers think about the tools placement? Does it pass inspection guys? [whstl]
Man o Man Karl, that is some serious PE ZIM MADNESS you’ve got going there! I feel your pain when it comes to those tools, I had some of the same struggles with the Pz IV D I’m currently working on. Wish I knew more about Wirbelwinds, but everything looks great to me! I love all the detailing touches you’ve added, like the fender hinges and the wrench holders…GREAT STUFF! You’re a man after my own heart!
I am DYING to see some paint on this one!!
I see you took her by the body shop and had them beat out the dents Karl.
A few wrinkles wouldn’t hurt.
Tony lee[:)]
Thanks, Ernest and Tony!
Good to hear from you guys!
Ernest, I feel your pain too about the PE you’re into…it’s a “necessary evil” I guess wen you get to a certain level of commitment to detail? Or can we call it a “disease”? It’ IS contagious, it seems, lol! [:S]
Tony–if this were a body it would have more than “wrinkles”; it would have broken bones! [:D]
Solid work so far Karl. love all that metal.
Karl, great work on that, plenty of metal there.
In the regards to the axe, looking at the references I have, the holder for the head is the wrong way round. The blade should point out wards with the handle running under that bracket. The other item, no idea what that is, should then be on the outside edge of the fender.