I haven’t assembled stage 11 yet as I have just started to weather the parts so far that will be difficult to get at when finally assembled.
To paint the wheels khaki and the masked them off for the Tyre Black using a mask cut out using the very useful circle cutter produced by Thinnerline. The mask does not have to cover totally the khaki as weathering will hide any spill. However it did actually result in a good definition between the colours.
The track.
There are 167 links per side – a total of 334 to be cut out and filed clean. In some cases the holes into which the pins are inserted have to be cleaned out with a very small drill bit. A very long job !!!!
Then plans show a “do not Glue” image. It presumably means the pins into the tracks (fiddly enough in the first place) but this presumes that they will stay in place by pushing them in under pressure. But that doesn’t happen! Tip the track on it’s side and out they slip!!
As a solution – I half inserted them and applied a very small amount of glue to the “pin head”. Then push it in. This allows the track to flex around the spin shaft and therefore it is flexible.
As illustrated I am using masking tape to hold the links in place whilst inserting the pins
I haven’t got halfway yet !
Next stage
Plenty to prepare there whilst taking a break from the tracks.
Christopher Woolford says
Following closely Julian, having been inspired to fetch home from Telford a 1:16 ‘Achilles’, or rather a ’17 pounder M10′ as I believe the weapon was known to its crews.
Track assembly on your Universal Carrier model looks tedious. Are spare track pins provided?
Julian Seddon says
Hello Chris!
It is a very good model with a few tricky bits to come!!
The tracks, oh my gawd ! They are the most tedious I have ever encountered. I have been assembling them for the last two weeks. Even assembled they are very delicate.
In answer to you question there are a few spares, not many but so far enough!! I can get on with the construction now!