155mm M12 motor gun carriage (UM1/72)

[JR]

Hells bells Dave rather you than me. You make those tracks look somewhat easy . Regardless of which glue I use mine fall apart as soon as I attempt to fit. I've left them as instructed for the glue to make a hold , either way I end up becoming frustrated.

[David Lovell]

Hells bells Dave rather you than me. You make those tracks look somewhat easy . Regardless of which glue I use mine fall apart as soon as I attempt to fit. I've left them as instructed for the glue to make a hold , either way I end up becoming frustrated.

Morning buddy with the l+l and indy links I must admit I only ever use tet (tamiya) and I'm not stingy with it my habit of building over a sheet(s) of printer paper helps there's no fear of them sticking to the work surface ,I do think that the tamiya stuff is more aggressive and will weld the parts just that little bit better than say my usual go to Mr hobby extra thin though I find the mr hobby stuff vapes off quicker than tamiya. Dave

[Guest]

I dont think they messed up with the resin part personally I recon they got the upper hull dimensions wrong

That’s the impression I have as well, because the final drive housing looks wrong now — the angle is completely off from how it should be, which is to say, you had it correctly at first but you clearly needed to put it on incorrectly to make it fit the upper hull.

[ATTACH]515023[/ATTACH]

Comparing your model to the photo above, it looks like the front and rear of the superstructure are in the right places (above the middle of the front bogie and just in front of the idler wheel hub), which must mean that the sloping front deck is too long, but it’s hard to tell from this photo. However, here’s a Cargo Carrier M30, which is basically an M12 without the gun but more ammo racks:

[ATTACH]515024[/ATTACH]

And from that it looks like the kit’s front slope is definitely much longer than it should be. I would cut off the slope and rebuild it so it does fit, myself.

[Jim R]

You're winning, Dave. I reckon Jakko is right, it's a fault with the kit. You have too much experience to cock up the lower hull and it looks correct anyway.
This is making me rather worried about my choice of kit for the upcoming rocket GB :flushed:
That SBS about the tracks is useful. Noted for future reference :thumb2:

[David Lovell]

That’s the impression I have as well, because the final drive housing looks wrong now — the angle is completely off from how it should be, which is to say, you had it correctly at first but you clearly needed to put it on incorrectly to make it fit the upper hull.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

Comparing your model to the photo above, it looks like the front and rear of the superstructure are in the right places (above the middle of the front bogie and just in front of the idler wheel hub), which must mean that the sloping front deck is too long, but it’s hard to tell from this photo. However, here’s a Cargo Carrier M30, which is basically an M12 without the gun but more ammo racks:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

And from that it looks like the kit’s front slope is definitely much longer than it should be. I would cut off the slope and rebuild it so it does fit, myself.

You're winning, Dave. I reckon Jakko is right, it's a fault with the kit. You have too much experience to cock up the lower hull and it looks correct anyway.
This is making me rather worried about my choice of kit for the upcoming rocket GB :flushed:
That SBS about the tracks is useful. Noted for future reference :thumb2:

Thanks to Jakko and Jim for their thoughts and support with this one so its kinda come to make it or break it literally, come on Jakko cut it off and rebuild you should know me better than that I dont even own any plastic card ,tell a lie ive a few quater inch wide strips I bought about fifteen or so years ago even then they brought me a chair to sit on after I nearly passed out at having to pay some extortionate price.
So went through the whole thing again as you can see from the next couple of pictures the mud guardy bits for want of a better description line up with the upper hull bang on


So sod it in for a penny I glued the upper hull in place

So the next hour or so was spent pushing and pulling the resin piece about in the end deciding to take some drastic measure and took a razor saw to the part

Sorry forgot to take a pic pulled this out of one of the other pictures ,now I know the upper hull has come a little bit too far forward BUT the resin piece will now fit and follow the downward slope of the front of the hull tub meaning the angle is correct as long as the hull tub was correct in the first place and the round bits fitted perfectly around the circular bits on the hull tub ,struth hope some of this makes sense


Even the towing chat thing is in a better position

As you can see I have since been plodding on fitting a few more parts ,I know its not 100% but when it comes to correctness you know what I'm going to tell you strangely end product right or incorrect I have had a enjoyable time sorting the problem at the end of the day not worth losing it over a few bits of plastic worse things happen like the oop: government robbing me of the winter fuel allowance (bastards).
Still this will make you smile or not as the case may be ,I dry fitted the cut off piece of resin half a dozen times yep all good put some CA on it put it in place and it fell through the hole the CA grabbed and that was that its stuck on the inside somewhere

Even used some of my valuable stock of plastic card to stop this from happening so yep you've guessed it it can bloody stay like it. Dave

[Guest]

With rebuilding the front slope, what I had in mind was sawing it off the upper hull, then adding the nose and the rest of the upper hull, and tweaking the sawed-off part until it fits between them But your method works as well, and it certainly looks a lot better now than before, so not wasted effort, if you ask me.

[Jim R]

Well problem solved. Quite a clever solution too. It looks right so it is right :thumb2:

[Allen Dewire]

Just caught up with little puppy, Dave. Looking really good, even with all the extra work and it seems like you're having fun too! Too small for my eyes, but the tracks came out well, being so tiny. Top work Buddy!!!

Oh, and if possible, please refrain from using Cig lighters to support your build. You know how Dude 2 (JR) gets when he sees anything to do with fire. Thanks...

Prost
Allen

[scottie3158]

Dave, that is certainly a patience tester. It did occur to me given how much you had to remove from the front at the top and the gap you had at the bottom. you didn't have it upside down :tongue-out3: . Will follow this along

[David Lovell]

Just caught up with little puppy, Dave. Looking really good, even with all the extra work and it seems like you're having fun too! Too small for my eyes, but the tracks came out well, being so tiny. Top work Buddy!!!

Oh, and if possible, please refrain from using Cig lighters to support your build. You know how Dude 2 (JR) gets when he sees anything to do with fire. Thanks...

Prost
Allen

My dear old mum always taught me to fight fire with fire :tongue-out3:

[David Lovell]

Struth this little box of plastic went the full fifteen rounds right to the final bell it was still punching below the belt ,the main weapon went ok ,split barrel so will have to check the seam once I've got some primer down ,the up and down stairs at the rear(for want of a better description) were one of the last assemblies to be fitted yeh right ,can you remember me saying I try to keep a eye a bit in front to hopefully catch problems before they happen ,hard lesson learnt and all that ,well one of the first parts built and fitted were the rear mud guards these had the fittings/brackets /holes moulded on for the rear stairs never really took much notice as stairs were one of the last assemblies fitted assumed they knew what they were doing had in mind easier to paint as a broken down assembly always intending to build it with them in the raised position but I would have a little dry run just to make sure ,that went out of the window ,getting quite good at removing them now so no problem pulling one of them off ,letting me put the pin in one side with it leaning out enough to fit other mud guard and swing the piece into position ,na the holes weren't big enough sorted that completed tricky manover again nope now whole thing to big carved away some of the inside of the mud guard to let it move over just that fraction against the track na out with the snips hack some of the track off not visible behind the mud guard fits like a bloody glove stairs fully movable fitted the bar retainer thingies glued em one end when dry it was possible to un clip and drop down stairs to make painting easier. Of course all this physical abuse led to parts falling off so after a round of repairs all that was left were the brush guards for the front lamps now for all the wrongs the kit has thrown my way they give you a little former to help bend them to shape great if you've got tiny girl like hands but I could hardly hold the piece let alone wrap a piddley little bit of etch around it ,still did my best there a bit shabby but hey ho so were up to primer



For all the tribulations the thing has thrown my way ive throughly enjoyed getting this far in fact feel quite smug if any thing its taught me patience is the best weapon. As I always say on here there's no such thing as a bad kit just some are better than others and this isn't one of them.
I'm going to build a little M3A1 russian lend lease thing deal so ive two olive drabbers to work on at the same time I'll put box and sprues up ASAP, thanks all for your help encouragement and input the M3A1 is by mirage hobbies hopefully a bit less problematic. Dave

[scottie3158]

That's a beauty mate.

[David Lovell]

Thanks Paul quite a trip but got there looking forward to a more relaxing time with the wet stuff.

[Jim R]

Well Dave, despite the kit doing it's best to spoil the party, it looks very good. I hope the primer doesn't reveal too many issues.

[vizenz]

Great work! I've read so many bad things about UM kits that I've never dared to try them. My main fear is the wheels and tracks (respect for going through with that!). I think if you replace the chassis you get a pretty good model that's not too difficult to build. Maybe I'll dare to try it at some point...