Steve's 1/32 Revell Terracruzer with MACE missile

[Gern]

See, it's builds like this that have caused me to have a stash of about 400 kits! I too love things that are a bit quirky and when I see them built this beautifully, I'm ALWAYS tempted to get one for me to try one day.

In order for my stash to stop growing, I'm gonna write out 1000 times:

I must resist
I must resist
I must resist
....

But not here!

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Why resist it Gern. LIfes too short, buy and enjoy that's what I say.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

So things are not going well with the build. It seems that the plastic is very brittle and I am getting breakages that shouldn't be happening.
The first thing that went wrong is the king pin holding the front axle in position snapped and the whole assembly fell onto the floor shattering the outer walking beams near to where they join the wheel hub.
This is the king pin that broke.

And these are the outer walking beams. arrow points to area where they broke through.


So I painstakingly re assembled the whole assembly. See below.

Whilst doing this I also noticed that two more Outer Walking Boards on the other axles had also cracked in exactly the same place and needed repairing. So whist working on the model and trying to remove the remains of the broken king pin the whole tractive unit chassis cracked directly behind the cab area.

I am normally quite careful during construction and dont think I was applying too much pressure but non the less the chassis broke. So that has now been repaired. So if you are planning on building one of these please handle with extreme care because if the plastic is anything like mine it will be very brittle.

On a positive note I have applied a black wash to the model and given it a coat of satin varnish. After my experience with the matt varnish earlier in the build I don't want to risk the matt varnish stealing the colour of the olive drab so have opted for a safer Satin finish. All the glass has now been glued in place and I hope to complete the cab shortly. Wish me luck because my patience is running out and I need to wrap this one up.

[Steven000]

Goodluck! What a pain when things start to break in the final stage, looks like you fixed it well though, cheers

[minitnkr]

Age is a killer on styrene. I run into this all the time with 50+ year old ROCO items when updating or repairing.

[Waspie]

Caught up with this one Steve. Nice buddy. Looking really good.

A tip I was taught years back when cutting perspex or clear plastic. Use a strong nylon thread or strong cotton. Use a candle and work the candle wax into the thread. Then with the ends wrapped around index fingers use a sawing motion to cut the perspex. Cuts it very cleanly and you don’t get any ‘grab’ that you get from a metal blade.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

I will try that one Doug, good tip.

[Airborne01]

Dental floss also works!
Steve

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Some more progress on the Terracruzer. After reinforcing the tractive unit chassis with some small metal brackets and JB Weld I was able to work on it without it falling apart. The glazing was installed and the cab roof and doors fitted.Doors were not a good fit and needed some tweaking.





I then had my next breakage. I was initially going to display the model with the hydraulic jacks on the trailer in the retracted position but then changed my mind as I thought that the silver piston rods would bring some colour to an otherwise fairly drab model. So while I was cleaning up the piston rods ready for painting silver they cracked off. So with that in mind I have cut them all off and drilled out the feet to accept a small metal replacement tube. I am hoping I can polish them up so they will probably look better than the originals


I think that is me almost done now. Next pictures will be of the finished model gents.

[scottie3158]

Great idea with the metal tubes and it will be a lot stronger as well.

[Jim R]

Your doing a great job Steve. It looks good and for every issue you've found a solution.

[Steven000]

Yes great fix Steve, will add to the look and support of the model ?

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Thanks a lot guys for your kind comments. I must admit I cannot wait to get this build finished and move on now. Never expected these problems having never encountered this brittle plastic issue ever in the past. If you can remember when I first posted about this model I told you how when it arrived the postman shook it as he handed it to me and it sounded like a box of broken glass because so many pieces had broken off the sprues. Well this probably explains why that had happened. Anyway its nearly done. I will just make sure I get it mounted on a base to help stabilise it further.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

So thats it guys. Going to close this thread down now. Thanks to Lee for organising the GB, it's been fun. Completed pictures have been posted in the Military Completed Group Build section. Thanks for following.

[Airborne01]

Super job Steve, even after all the grief you had!
Steve

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Thanks Steve, glad you like it.

[scottie3158]

Steve that's a great job and a very interesting subject.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Thanks Paul.