M29C Water Weasel

[adt70hk]

Rather you than me Jakko. That looks like very hard work.

Keep up the great work.

Andrew

[scottie3158]

Nice work on the hull.

[The Smythe Meister]

Well,my experience of resin is just Figures,or the odd bit of stowage,so i`m in no position to comment!:rolling:,
HOWEVER,i CAN express my personal thoughts,which are........
Looks incredibly fiddly and nerve shredding:astonished: ......
Requires a certain amount of prior knowledge/research into the vehicle :nerd:,
AND,(most importantly in my mind),it`s looking great so far,and an interesting blog to boot:thumb2:,
Yours,
Uninitiated Numbskull,
From Devon!!

[Guest]

Rather you than me Jakko. That looks like very hard work.

I wouldn’t call it hard work, but certainly tricky and most definitely not the one to buy as your first ever non-plastic kit … (I can’t really call it a “resin kit” as it about half its weight and parts count is in etched brass ) The tiny size of just about everything doesn’t help either, of course. The largest part by far is the upper hull, and as you can see at the beginning of this thread, it’s about the size of a jeep minus its wheels, windscreen and canvas top …

Nice work on the hull.

Thanks

Requires a certain amount of prior knowledge/research into the vehicle :nerd:,

I must admit to not really having done much … one good point about kits like this is that they are so very detailed that you can be pretty much sure that what’s there, is correct. The instructions are unorthodox, being essentially a set of annotated photographs of a test build, but they are quite clear about how things go together and where parts go — though you may have to look quite hard at some of them to work out which bit is which. Cast-in part numbers on the sprues would have been welcome.

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Hope the wheel works out ok. Looks a good plan anyway. I suppose you might be able to use one of the good wheels to create a mould and cast a replacement.
With it being such a small intricate vehicle maybe pe is the best way to go.
I won't be buying one anytime soon :rolling:
Jim

[Guest]

I would probably do that if I had materials to make a mould and cast a wheel from Casting stuff is not something I ever got into, though. TBH, if I really need a replacement wheel I would probably instead make a 3D drawing of it (this wheel is simple enough that I could manage) and have a friend print me one

As for buying one … if you want to build a model of a Weasel in 1:35, you have three choices, as far as I’m aware: this kit, a 1990s resin one by ADV/Azimut and a 1960s plastic kit by Monogram. The latter is more like 1:32 and really crude on details, while the ADV/Azimut kit was probably good in its day but even some 15–20 years ago, Steve Zaloga wrote an article about it that asked for a modern kit of the M29. And that’s assuming you can find one nowadays, of course.

[Guest]

Though I haven’t done any work on this model for a few days, I had some unexpected good fortune today relating to it. I was at the Bevrijdingsmuseum Zeeland (“Liberation Museum Zeeland”), and turning a corner, I found myself face to face with:—

[ATTACH]433415[/ATTACH]

As I’m still tinkering with the suspension of the model, I wanted to take some photos of that, but it’s covered by the skirt plate as you can see, and it’s not exactly good form to just start opening up stuff like that anyway. Luckily, the museum’s founder happened to walk past, so I asked if it was OK to do that. Sure, he replied, and then took us to get a hammer and some pliers in the back so we could take out the split pins etc. that hold the skirt in place. Thanks, Kees!

Here’s some of the photos I took:

[ATTACH]433416[/ATTACH][ATTACH]433417[/ATTACH][ATTACH]433418[/ATTACH][ATTACH]433419[/ATTACH][ATTACH]433420[/ATTACH]

This is just a few, I took enough to cover most of the vehicle, of coursr.

However, it also made me realise that I probably won’t need to put quite as much effort into the suspension as I thought. I mean, look at how little of it is visible with the skirt down, as opposed to up. I can probably get away with fabricating some stronger supports for the bogies than the kit provides, because it will never be visible anyway.

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
What a piece of good fortune and all credit to the museum for being so helpful. And you now have a great set of reference photos and some work saved when back at the bench.
Jim

[adt70hk]

How very nice of them.

ATB.

Andrew

[JR]

Yes, great help from the museum, like minded people are always willing to oblige like that, but stripping the vehicle down like that is something else. Well done Kees .

[Guest]

What a piece of good fortune and all credit to the museum for being so helpful.

It probably helps that I actually know the president/founder The museum’s workshop is restoring the Sherman that serves a monument at Westkapelle (also see here) and I’ve been helping them with getting markings and other details right. The other day, he phoned me up because there was some confusion over the markings, so I went down to the workshop yesterday to clarify things.

From that, the next stop was the museum itself, which I had been to before but not since it was greatly expanded a few years ago. I didn’t know they had a Weasel, and it turns out they have two — this one doesn’t run, the other does. However, it’s apparently on loan to the Netherlands Military Museum.

And you now have a great set of reference photos and some work saved when back at the bench.

Yes, it definitely was a bit of luck I now also understand why Weasels have two sets of double wheels on each axle: the outer wheel has a rubber tyre, the inner wheel is entirely steel, as you can just see in the photo of the suspension I posted above.

stripping the vehicle down like that is something else.

Wel, it was really just taking out two of those hooked catches like in the photo plus a split pin at the front and rear, and the skirt flips up (and stays up by itself, I hadn’t expected that).

Of course, it was fun that one of museum guides came up to see what the knocking sound was, and WTF we were doing. When we explained who got us the tools we were using, all was OK

[Graeme C.]

Nice to have friends in high places Jakko! The build looks tricky, but you seem to be getting along with it.

[Guest]

Now I just need to actually continue building … I have about four weeks left before I want it done.

[Guest]

The fixed idler wheel compared to the best-cast one in the kit:

[ATTACH]434112[/ATTACH]

I drilled open the holes with a drill slightly smaller than the holes should be, then cut them to the size and shape needed with a sharp knife. This while the wheel was still on the whole bit of plastic card. Only then did I cut it out of that, by making seven or eight straight cuts along the wheel rather than trying to follow its rim. That way, you can then trim much of the excess off with more straight cuts and finally, file down the remaining plastic to be flush with the rim. This is far simpler than trying to cut it round in one go.

It’s not perfect, but then, none of the four halves were exactly free of casting defects, and in any case most will be hidden behind the side skirts anyway. I’ll just have to make sure the least-bad sides are on show

I also glued the bogies to the leaf springs, like this:

[ATTACH]434113[/ATTACH]

A glass plate, Blu-Tack (not visible) underneath the hull to get it to the right height and then slip all eight bogies into place without glue. This required a fair degree of care and two tools to line them out: a sculpting tool with a square handle behind the wheels (because there is only limited room between the wheels and the blob of Blu-Tack) and a ruler in front.

Once all eight were in place and lined out, I flowed thin superglue into the joints with a sharpened cocktail stick, ensured they were still lined up correctly, and left it well alone for the glue to dry

Before doing any of this, by the way, I removed the return roller brackets from the hull because they’ll be hardly visible at all, so I don’t see a need to have them on at all. They may come in handy for something else in future (I kind of doubt it, but hey, maybe someone will release a good, plastic Weasel at some point, for example ).

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Quite a few challenges being thrown up with this. That DIY jig for fitting the bogies is clever. Without that you would stand little chance of getting them in line.
Jim