Jim's 1/35 Trumpeter Sd.Kfz 7/1

[Jim R]

A fair bit of progress, well at least it's good for me as I'm not the most speedy of modellers :thinking:

Winch, air tanks and fuel tanks. The winch attaches to two PE cross members and as Los pointed out their positioning is critical. I got it slightly wrong so had to cut of one attachment point and move it, hence the long replacement rod ready to be cut to length.




Rear plate


Springs. Loads of clean up, typical with this kit




Coat of Stynylrez black.




A bit more added


Steering assembly was fiddly


And some wheels




As I said earlier I have made up the drive wheel sprockets/rollers as per the instructions.

So that's where I'm at. Next job really is to figure out the best approach for fitting the upper parts as the instructions look to have a few issues with their suggested order.

Thanks again guys.
Jim

[Panzerwrecker]

A fair bit of progress, well at least it's good for me as I'm not the most speedy of modellers :thinking:

Winch, air tanks and fuel tanks. The winch attaches to two PE cross members and as Los pointed out their positioning is critical. I got it slightly wrong so had to cut of one attachment point and move it, hence the long replacement rod ready to be cut to length.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185321[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185325[/ATTACH]

Rear plate
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185322[/ATTACH]

Springs. Loads of clean up, typical with this kit
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185323[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185324[/ATTACH]

Coat of Stynylrez black.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185326[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185327[/ATTACH]

A bit more added
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185329[/ATTACH]

Steering assembly was fiddly
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185328[/ATTACH]

And some wheels
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185330[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1185331[/ATTACH]

As I said earlier I have made up the drive wheel sprockets/rollers as per the instructions.

So that's where I'm at. Next job really is to figure out the best approach for fitting the upper parts as the instructions look to have a few issues with their suggested order.

Thanks again guys.
Jim

Hi Jim, looking good

Apart from building the sprockets I am almost at the same stage. Your build steps are identical to the kit I am building until step 15 where our rear bodyworks differ. As on mine the steering shaft gets 'trapped' between the cab floor assembly and engine bulkhead. Unless you keep it loose, the front fender moulding C38, and all your rear body parts assembled must be fixed together ON the chassis.


The step sequence is good, just build up your cab floor assembly (step 22) and engine panel assembly (step 26) at the same time as you build the bulkhead in step 21 and test fit both to ensure a good fit. That bulkhead part not only determines the spacing for your cab floor and their side panels but also the spacing of all engine panels to the radiator housing so test fitting all these sub-assemblies will get the best fit at both ends.

Not sure if you are aware but the engine will NOT fit in the bay if both bulkhead AND radiator housing are attached.

[The Smythe Meister]

That's looking excellent Jim.
Lovely,detailed,and clean build.... The photos are quality too Sir, what do you take them with?!
Andy

[Jim R]

So a bit more progress. I made two very simple jigs to build up lengths of track.








Worked OK and not a lot of clean up needed - just tedious.

I made up the rear deck. I cut lengths of wood to act as spacers for positioning the fenders




Test fitting on the chassis showed I was very slightly out so had to make a brace to pull in the supports to fit neatly on the chassis rails. Only about 0.5mm and the brace can be removed after the deck is fitted and the glue has set.


One thing I did notice was that the seat colour call out was different depending on what part of the instructions you looked at :thinking:




All sorted now thanks to Andy and his excellent book :thumb2:

Thanks guys
Jim

[Guest]

Nice work with the jigs. Those separate rubber pad on the tracks just seem like a way to up the parts count to me — why couldn’t they just mould them together with the small piece that goes on top of the track link?

[JR]

Great work Jim, those track parts would have caused me much stress, that's a very neat jig.

[Panzerwrecker]

There is too much room for error on many of their major parts connections. Compounded by multiple parts assemblies when a single moulding would have been far better. The location points for attaching the bodywork legs to the chassis rails is a case in point. It is a similar problem on my build too. When it comes to adding the wooden cargo bed on mine the shackle pins already fitted to the chassis are completely in the way of one attachment point and another attachment point is a multi-piece leg bracket affair, which is easily offset if each individual part is not judiciously cleaned up. Pretty sure the same chassis leg mouldings are used in all their 7 kits.

From all the witness location marks below my kit only uses the front and rear ones. The rear ones fit perfectly but the front ones don't align with the cut outs on the cargo bed legs and sit flush on the chassis legs unless you remove two thirds of the tabs. My middle connection points sit right on where the shackle pins are shown to locate in the very first steps:angry:

Nowhere in the instructions does it mention removing the two middle ones.

It's all a bit sloppy

[Guest]

Reading all the troubles you two are having with your Trumpeter Sd.Kfz. 7s, I think that if when if I get round to building the other one or two that were used in my neck of the woods,¹ I’ll almost certainly go the hybrid route and use Dragon parts where possible and Trumpeter where it’s better, or Dragon doesn’t have the required variant.

¹ Certainly the earlier type of artillery tractor with metal body and rear bench seats, and quite probably also the V2 fire control vehicle.

[Steve Jones]

Had a nice catch up Jim. It certainly has been a delicate operation. Great work with the jig. Going to be well worth all the hard effort my friend. Happy modelling!

[JR]

This is supposed to be a fun hobby !!!!:smiling3:

[Guest]

Tell that to the kit manufacturers

[Jim R]

Thanks once again for your continued support, it means a lot :thumb2:

All the main body parts were cleaned up, built up and given a quick blast of Stynylrez primer and then grey (Tamiya XF-22)


To fit the body I wanted the wheels on to create a stable chassis to work on. However I didn't want to fit the wheels at this stage so I used scraps of wood to make a sort of cradle/jig to hold everything secure with the wheels just dry fitted.


Then a fair bit of fettling and a dry fit - seemed to be pretty good. I had to remove the steering wheel and the gear levers. The pale blobs on the seat area and the floor are where the parts were Blu-taced to coffee stirrers and I sprayed the wrong side :rolling:


Rear bed and front mud guards glued in place.


Next up the awkward bits :thinking:

Onwards and upwards.

[Allen Dewire]

That is looking very nice Jigs!!! A nice and smooth coat overall Sir...The awkward bits will really bring this to life.

BTW, we had to change your name from Jim to Jigs, as you seem to be addicted to the little helpers....

Prost
Allen

[spanner570]

Nice, neat and tidy work Jigs!

[Panzerwrecker]

Nice progress and great idea with the jig. Buggers to handle these kind of kits. The gear levers are just waiting to be snapped off!