SimonT - 1/35 SU-122

[SimonT]

Last night I added all the tank strap mounting brackets to the tank brackets

two L shaped brackets with a hole drilled in one leg of the L that the strap mounts through


the tank straps comprise a flat metal strip with threaded rod welded on each end - the threaded rod passes through the hole in bracket

[SimonT]

Morning all - more work done on the fuel tanks yesterday


retaining straps - sliced a 1.5mm wide strip of plastic card then cut that into 28mm lengths

added 4mm lengths of 0.5mm rod for the retaining bolts



the straps were then installed by pushing the bolt ends through the holes in the brackets

I then punched a load of hex bolt heads and drilled through them so that they could be pushed over the strap bolts and glued in place

would have put a thread on the bolt ends but I have misplaced my jewellers tap and die set

[Mini Me]

Thought you would never get round to the part about the scale threads on this......I guess we'll have to settle for the old slip joint method:tongue-out3::rolling::thinking: Rick H.

[SimonT]

Hi Rick - I searched all over but couldn't locate the tap and die plate. No doubt now it is too late it will magically appear again

[scottie3158]

Simon beautiful details as always mate.

[Lee Drennen]

Simon. Beautiful scratch as always

[minitnkr]

Grant Line used to provide 1/87 nut/bolt assys. Still have some I think. Like Simon says, some plastic glues/cements will melt them. PaulE

[Mini Me]

Grant line is good but sometimes too large for my purposes.......makes small assemblies look clunky......working on a solution though. Rick H.

[SimonT]

Cheers Scottie

Thanks Lee

Paul - I did get a large assorted box of Grandt Line nuts, bolts, hinges, lifting eyes, and the most useful wing nuts back around 1990. Pretty much only have the odd sized stuff left that will probably never be useful for anything! Tried to find their wing nuts recently but nothing doing - think they have gone bust from what I read

Rick - much more suited to 1/35


I think my body clock has a broken mainspring - been exhausted tired all weekend for no good reason and as a result spent most of it asleep. What a waste of a weekend.

Only really woke up around 6pm Sunday so not much done on the modelling

Did make a rather nice looking loaf though - finished baking just after midnight. All I can smell now is bread - yum


brass handrail added to rear of superstructure - kit one was broken any way

supports are from brass wire flattened with smooth nose pliers, wrapped around the rod and nipped up with the pliers


headlight added

horn hollowed out and added to the headlight bracket


the solid plastic kit tree saw holder replaced with a copper one - a 3mm strip was cut then folded up in an etch folder to make the U shape channel that it should be

No tree saw provided so may have a look at making one


filler caps added to the fuel tanks


track pin bashers added just in front of the final drive housing - loose track pins hit the steel block and get pushed back in to the track link

Presumably this only works for so long until the pins wear so loose they fall out before the track gets back around to the block

[Lee Drennen]

Simon. Details look very nice and don’t beat yourself up I’ve had lots of those weekends

[Steve Jones]

For someone who has been asleep all weekend you still manage to pack a creative punch Mr T. Some lovely additions. It's coming along a treat

[BigGreg]

Splendid work

[SimonT]

Thanks Lee - really annoying, wait all week for the weekend then sleep through it :rolling:

Cheers Steve - getting there gradually. There was a lot more left to do than I originally thought

Thanks Greg


knocked together a tree saw and started cutting in some teeny tiny teeth until I remembered that once in the rack only a few teeth in the centre are visible

looks rubbish at this size but the teeth are only about quarter of a millimetre in reality so it doesn't look quite so bad on the vehicle


this is it in the rack


broke the kit shovel so added an Armour Accessories one instead

managed to get the fuel tank straps a bit straighter

when I made the racks I was struggling to find pictures of these earlier style racks - I have tons of T34/85 pictures but the racks on them are a totally different design

Typically I found some pictures of early racks last night on an SU-100 so have modified the racks slightly to allow the straps to move sideways - not perfect but I am much happier with them now

[Jim R]

Hi Simon
As always amazing scratch building. Really looking good. I reckon if you're sleeping through the weekend then you're working too hard during the week :tongue-out3:
Jim

[SimonT]

Could be Jim - I need to sleep more at work :thumb2:


Only progress has been to add a radio aerial, a vision port on the rear of the superstructure and fill two small holes - not worth a photo