Emperor's Fist Tank Company Cont.
This is continuing on from my post on Monday of me actually getting stuff done on my EFTC. And it's been a fairly productive couple of days. There are quite a few pics of this WIP so I'll try to put a bit of explanation with each one.
Ok so I started off by gluing the underside of the hull onto one side section. I did try gluing the top and bottom sections of the hull together and then attaching the side sections but this went outstandingly wrong so I went back to the way I normally build Russ'. I then started adding the extra details to the top section of the hull. I added the engine cover and front viewing port glue from the inside of the tank so as to not get mess on the outside. I also added the engine vent to the side but this is not shown in these pics. I used superglue for this just to make sure no glue splodged out the side.
Next I moved onto the front sponson housing. I started off by removing the 4 necessary pieces from the sprues and cleaning them up. Then I glued the sides of the housing onto the top plate, one side at a time and waited for them to dry. This time I did want the glue to seep out of the edge. This was so that once the glue had dried I could scrape it off and get a near seamless finish on the piece. This kind of worked, for once I wish I had used more glue. For the top hatch I put it in position first and then glued it from the inside making sure not to use too much glue so that the lascannon sponson can still rotate freely.
With the battlecannon I used the same process as the sponson housing, adding more glue than usual so that it would overflow. Again I waited for the glue to dry and then scraped it away to get rid of the seam down the centre of the barrel. Its fun to be messy some times. :)
I next moved on to the turret. I only removed the turret top, storage bin and storage bin lid to start off with. Agian the pieces were cleaned up as best I could manage. I glued the storage bin to the back of the turret making sure not to get any glue overflow, especially on the sides. I then added the lid for the storage bin, making sure that the far edges where it met the turret didn't have any gap between them and the actual storage bin.
And now the fiddly bit. I have never liked putting the grab handles onto any of my tanks. They normally end up at funny angles or just completely messed up. So I decided to be extremely patient and careful when doing these ones. The middle handle required the most work. First of all I had to remove the little bumps on the lid as these were just completely stopping me from adding the handle. I then used my modelling knife to very carefully cut of one side on each of the mounting plates on the handle. I had to do this so that the thing would fit between the hinges and the eagle. I used a pair of tweezers to hold onto the handle and place it in position - this really made things easier. The side handles were fairly easy to add, I just lined them up with the bumps on the lid. I used superglue on the handles to avoid mess and so they look more like they've been welded to the lid.
I only managed to get around to gluing two hull top pieces the side sections. The picture on the left shows my ingenious way of holding the pieces together tightly using elastic bands - simple but effective. And I only managed to get one tank done with both sides in place. Once again an elastic band was used.
And to finish off here are a couple of pics of my workspace getting somewhat overcrowded. These were taken before I started putting the top part of the hulls on so I've got a bit more space for the moment. And so the work continues on at a steady pace. I'm hoping to get more done to the turrets today but I'm starting to run out of glue so that may delay things. Comments and suggestions are, as always, welcomed. Cheers.
3 comments:
The assembly lines is running very smooth, I see.
Like you, I hate the fragile little handles. They are hard to place without smearing glue around, and a bit too big for many places I'd like to put them.
Yep, rubber bands are an essential tool on my table as well.
I'm surprised at how smoothly it is running. Just waiting for something to go wrong now. I don't remember having this much trouble with the handles when I first started collecting, but I'm glad I'm not the only one that has trouble with them. Thanks for the comment Kevin.
- Courtney @ Cadian 127th
Hey, you won the Ottaw Gamer give away brushes, see http://ottawagamer.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-lucky-winner-is.html
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