Andy's 1/72 Revell Topol

[scottie3158]

Andy,
I will follow along.

[Ernie]

You are off to a good start. I like your parts organization solution, I can see where that would be beneficial when there are a lot of multi-part assemblies to build.

[Andy T]

Thanks all, and great to have you along for the ride Paul.

[Andy T]

My wife was away for the weekend at a friend's 50th bash, so I've been cracking on with this.

I jumped ahead and started on the missile as I knew there was a very noticeable joint down it. Treating it similar to a fuselage I used copious amounts of glue and held it together tightly, which squeezed out a little bead of plastic that I could later sand smooth


A quick coat of paint verified it had worked well enough.


There's no interior to the tiny cabs but I painted them white as instructed. The funny rod assemblies are to line the various parts up and they do the job very well:



I've also been adding lots of parts to the chassis. I'm not certain I've got all 14 wheels lined up perfectly. With 4 parts to each assembly there's a lot of margin for error, even if the tolerances are very tight.

Lots of boxes and brackets have been added too. I've pre-painted everything in 4B0 as access later will be tricky.



And with the iconic split cab dry fitted



A shot showing the amount of detail at 1/72. I'll have to be careful not to bury it with paint, hence me not using primer on this model, just basecoating everything in the main camo colour

[Richard48]

Wow thats pretty impressive.Excellent job.
Richard

[Stefee]

I'm not certain I've got all 14 wheels lined up perfectly. With 4 parts to each assembly there's a lot of margin for error, even if the tolerances are very tight.

I have enough problems getting 4 wheels on the deck facing in approximately the right direction so admire your attempts. This will be an interesting build that is going well thus far.

[Andy T]

Thank you both.

Luckily I'm building it in launch position so the wheels won't actually be on the ground, but they'll still look odd if wonky

I thought I'd include a scale shot to give you an idea of size:

[Ernie]

Great progress, it is really starting to take shape.

[Steven000]

Very nice details indeed for 1/72 Andy, comming together nicely ? cheers

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Like me Andy it looks like you have had some serious bench time this weekend. Make hay while the sun shines as they say. Some great progress on the model. The detail is stunning and it is coming together really well. As regards the wheels and alignment etc. I have the same problem on the model I am building. Very difficult when dealing with bendy plastic but I am confident you will do a great job.

[colin m]

My wife was away for the weekend

Don't you love it when they do that. As long as the grass is cut and the dishwasher empty, they're generally happy up on their return.
Anyway, the build. An interesting subject which looks very well detailed. Great work Andy.

[Andy T]

Haha, yes, I got exactly those jobs out of the way Saturday morning, as well as 3 loads of washing since it was a nice day. No way was I tackling the ironing though, I'd rather be creased ?

[Andy T]

Thanks all. More progress later hopefully.

[scottie3158]

Andy,
that's really looking the part. The detail for such a small scale is very impressive.

[Andy T]

Thanks again Paul.

I'm carrying on with painting as much as I can before assembly, just to make sure all of the nooks & crannies have some colour. It's surprising how many bits there are for such a small model

There are several of these "cabins" down either side. They all look quite similar, but I don't think there are two exactly the same, so I'm keeping them on the sprue where possible or marking them on the insides:



This is the third batch through the booth:



The rearranged booth is working really well. I've got room for plenty of parts, all the paints & ancillaries I need, and my cleaning stuff. I've rigged a temporary light up for now and the white floor was giving me too much glare so I've sprayed some A2 paper black as a background:

[Jim R]

I think we all appreciate the benefits of keeping similar parts well labled. It's just too easy to take them off the spue, put them in a pot, spray them and then glue them on "the wrong side" ?

[Andy T]

Ha, yes, I've done similar myself ?

Now that I've fitted a couple it does seem like the differing pin layouts would make it hard to go wrong, but better safe than sorry.