Churchill Mk. IV AVRE with Small Box Girder Assault Bridge Mk. II

[Guest]

All too much for me, going for a lie down !

The difficult bits are done now (or so I hope … ). With the suspension done, for example, the rest of the hull can be built pretty quickly:

[ATTACH]477700[/ATTACH]

There are some oddities to be aware of here too, though. One is that the horizontal front plate, B20, is too wide. I had put the roof in (without glue) to ensure the width of the top of the hull was right. However, with B20 in place, it pushed the sides out far enough that I suddenly had a wide gap around the edges of the roof in front of the turret ring. Filing down both sides of B20 solved that.

Another minor thing is that the instructions say to put part T3 inside the drive sprocket, so it seems to be a poly cap. However, there is no sprue T, no loose poly caps, nothing. Because there will be a plate over the sprockets, you don’t need a poly cap to hold them to the axles, but it’s odd you’re told to add a part that isn’t included. (I did search my wheels-and-tracks spares box for suitable poly caps, but only found ones that either fit inside the sprocket but not over the axle, or fit over the axle but not inside the sprocket …)

That plate that goes over the left sprocket is C11, but the instructions don’t indicate the one for the right-hand side at all — not really a problem, as it’s self-evident, but it is sloppy. They also tell you to trim two lugs off of the plate (these hold the mudscraper that sits behind the drive sprocket), but on sprue S there are two identical plates that don’t have those lugs in the first place … However, my model uses the parts with the lugs, because the tank I’m building a model of did have them.

[JR]

The difficult bits are done now (or so I hope … :smiling3: ). With the suspension done, for example, the rest of the hull can be built pretty quickly:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

There are some oddities to be aware of here too, though. One is that the horizontal front plate, B20, is too wide. I had put the roof in (without glue) to ensure the width of the top of the hull was right. However, with B20 in place, it pushed the sides out far enough that I suddenly had a wide gap around the edges of the roof in front of the turret ring. Filing down both sides of B20 solved that.

Another minor thing is that the instructions say to put part T3 inside the drive sprocket, so it seems to be a poly cap. However, there is no sprue T, no loose poly caps, nothing. Because there will be a plate over the sprockets, you don’t need a poly cap to hold them to the axles, but it’s odd you’re told to add a part that isn’t included. (I did search my wheels-and-tracks spares box for suitable poly caps, but only found ones that either fit inside the sprocket but not over the axle, or fit over the axle but not inside the sprocket …)

That plate that goes over the left sprocket is C11, but the instructions don’t indicate the one for the right-hand side at all — not really a problem, as it’s self-evident, but it is sloppy. They also tell you to trim two lugs off of the plate (these hold the mudscraper that sits behind the drive sprocket), but on sprue S there are two identical plates that don’t have those lugs in the first place … However, my model uses the parts with the lugs, because the tank I’m building a model of did have them.

Having read this , can you see why I need to lie down ?
Doesn't any one check these instructions by building a kit , quite evident they don't .It's not like these kits are cheap, think we as modellers except crap , and these manufacturers knows it .

[Guest]

I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re crap, but I do think AFV Club didn’t pay enough attention to the instructions for this particular kit. Too many mislabelled parts, bits that are the same on the other side left out without even telling you that, etc. Nothing that should trouble a semi-experienced modeller, but I can easily see it tripping up a novice builder. However, IMHO a novice builder should not be buying AFV Club kits in the first place, given how intricate they tend to be.

[JR]

I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re crap, but I do think AFV Club didn’t pay enough attention to the instructions for this particular kit. Too many mislabelled parts, bits that are the same on the other side left out without even telling you that, etc. Nothing that should trouble a semi-experienced modeller, but I can easily see it tripping up a novice builder. However, IMHO a novice builder should not be buying AFV Club kits in the first place, given how intricate they tend to be.

Fair enough on the experience of the modeller, but my point being they should be check first to ensure both the kit and instructions are correct. The fun from building a kit is soon lost when mistakes are allowed by the manufacture. We seem to except mistakes, can you imagine if you bought a self assembly item from a major shop and half of it was missing or the instructions were wrong, would you just carry on with the assembly and not go back to the shop and complain ?

This was a common occurrence with a certain brand of kitchens, always parts missing and an excess of parts you didn't need. Where are they now............gone .Why? Because customers complained.

[scottie3158]

Jakko, that is a very neat and logical solution to get the nose down attitude of the hull.

[Guest]

Fair enough on the experience of the modeller, but my point being they should be check first to ensure both the kit and instructions are correct.

I must now make a correction of my earlier statement:

That plate that goes over the left sprocket is C11, but the instructions don’t indicate the one for the right-hand side at all

… because I discovered they do show that, on the next page from the one that shows the left-hand side. I’m not quite sure how I overlooked it, but I think it’s because the drawings on those couple of pages all look very similar.

Still, the misnumbered parts and indicating a part that isn’t even in the kit remains odd.

can you imagine if you bought a self assembly item from a major shop and half of it was missing or the instructions were wrong, would you just carry on with the assembly and not go back to the shop and complain ?

I would continue assembling it, sure — as long as all the parts are there, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which goes where. It’s not like you’re building a plastic kit with a hundred different bits, after all

that is a very neat and logical solution to get the nose down attitude of the hull.

Thanks, but it just seems the logical way to do it to me

[stillp]

I've often thought that when a manufacturer plans a new kit, one person has to make the moulds, another has to write the instructions, but they're forbidden to talk to each other.
Pete

[tr1ckey66]

With the suspension arm frames built, I could add them to the sponsons, as described above:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

As I mentioned above, these are not that easy to fit, not only because the arms get in the way but also because the springs push the frames out of line. Best is to start at one end and glue the frame to the sponson there, then slowly work your way to the other end, though you will frequently have to go back and forth a bit to get everything lined out correctly.

Notice I left out the springs for wheels 7 and 8. This is because, as the photo of a real tank in an earlier post already appears to show, those actually extend down instead of being sprung in. From that photo, I worked out the distance between the frame and the top of the wheel for wheels No. 2 and 8, the frontmost and rearmost ones actually on the ground when carrying the bridge. This was not too hard to do by measuring the wheel diameter and the distance to the frame, because the kit’s wheel diameter is a given so it’s just a matter of dividing the gap by the wheel diameter in the photo and multiplying by the kit wheel diameter to find the size of the gap there should be on the model. And since the model will be on level ground, all the wheels between 2 and 8 just need to line up straight with them.

There is a big stroke of luck in all of this. I worked out that wheel 2 needs an 0.75 mm gap while wheel 8 needs a 4 mm gap; springing in the front wheel by 2 mm achieves just that, while the rear one needs to be extended downward as far as the wheel arm (not the spring rod) will let it. That is a downward travel of 1 mm, meaning the total difference between the two wheels is 3 mm — and with seven arms, that means steps of exactly 0.5 mm, which is really easy to do with standard sizes of plastic card :smiling3:

I modified the rods for wheels 7 and 8 by cutting off their heads:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

Unmodified on the left, cut-down on the right, Note that I didn’t cut through the rod, but trimmed off the flanges to approximately the rod’s diameter, effectively making it longer and allowing it to sit further down than normal.

Then, it was a matter of installing scraps of plastic card of the correct thicknesses as spacers between the sponson bottoms and the heads of the spring rods:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

Begin by adding a wheel to the arm/rod, else they will go out of alignment. After that you can easily enough stick a bit of plastic card under the front and rear of the rod’s head using tweezers and/or something you can push the spacer around with. As soon as I had one of them correct, I glued the whole thing together: blocks to the sponson and the rod head, wheel to arm and rod, arm pivots, etc.

2	2 mm
3	1.5 mm
4	1 mm
5	0.5 mm
6	none

With those in place, I put in wheel 8 (skipping 7 for now), pushing it down as far as it would go and also glueing it in place. Wheel 7 can then be lined up easily by putting a ruler over all the arms and pushing 7 down so it hits the ruler, then glueing it in place as well.

That done, the model sits like this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

Also notice I installed sprue struts inside the sponsons. These serve to transfer the model’s weight directly onto the spring arms, instead of trusting in the glue to hold. I wouldn’t do this for other Churchills, but with the bridge and the counterweight that will eventually rest on these wheels, I don’t want the model to perhaps eventually break through its suspension.

Excellent weighted suspension Jakko! Looks just right.
Cheers, Paul

[JR]

I've often thought that when a manufacturer plans a new kit, one person has to make the moulds, another has to write the instructions, but they're forbidden to talk to each other.
Pete

Certainly that way with many companies Pete.

[Scratchbuilder]

Good to see you sorted out the suspension. Another method for constructing the suspension if you do not have seven fingers on one hand, is to add one of the frames to the sponson first and then add the parts (plates) and arms after.
Shame about the front plate making the hull too wide for the top. This must be a flaw with this 'new tooled' kit as I cannot remember it happening to me with the two AFV Club Churchills I made.
Mike.

[Guest]

The front plate had a fair amount of flash around it, so I’m guessing the mould may be wearing out a little there. It was nothing a bit of repeated filing and test-fitting didn’t solve, of course, but I don’t remember if the other AVRE I built suffered from this too.

[Guest]

After I also attached the bridge-carrying bracket to the hull front yesterday, I could work out the counterweight needed in the hull to balance the bridge. I first tied that to the tank with some copper wire and then put in enough weight so it didn’t tip forward anymore:

[ATTACH]477776[/ATTACH]

This turned out to be:

[ATTACH]477777[/ATTACH]

One Captain Carrot, one Sergeant Angua, one Susan Sto Helit, and one Luggage. And though I was sceptical about AFV Club’s recommendation of 100 grammes, I was wrong:

[ATTACH]477778[/ATTACH]

Now to find some material to replace this temporary crew with.

[Jim R]

Getting to this stage with the stance just right was a labour of love and skill. Fascinating to see how you did it.

[Guest]

Really? That was the easy part, if you ask me — attaching the assemblies with the suspension arms was difficult, adjusting the arms is far easier here than on most kits I’ve had to do similar things to Of course, if it hadn’t been a simple multiple of 0.5 mm for every step, it would probably have turned into a lot more work.

The hundred grammes was also easy enough:

[ATTACH]477802[/ATTACH]

This is roofing lead, cut and folded (using a big hammer ) to fit, and held in place with some plastic H-profile and bits from the kit’s sprue. That let me add the rest of the basic hull shape:

[ATTACH]477801[/ATTACH]

[Waspie]

After I also attached the bridge-carrying bracket to the hull front yesterday, I could work out the counterweight needed in the hull to balance the bridge. I first tied that to the tank with some copper wire and then put in enough weight so it didn’t tip forward anymore:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

This turned out to be:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

One Captain Carrot, one Sergeant Angua, one Susan Sto Helit, and one Luggage. And though I was sceptical about AFV Club’s recommendation of 100 grammes, I was wrong:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

Now to find some material to replace this temporary crew with.

WOT!!! No Commander Vimes?