And another slow build - Antar Mk.3 + Trailer....

[Ian M]

Just had a look in Mike Starmer's British Camouflage notes, Soft skins interiors where normally painted with the same paint as the main external body colour as given at the factory.

I must admit that the price AA take for their models, I would expect them to be pristine A1 mouldings! I Have seen three 'much needed' kits from them, the 4.7 Heavy AA gun. the 4.5 and 7inch guns. But from what I have seen of other kits, I think I will pass.

[Scratchbuilder]

Jakko & Tim,
Now I remember!!!! Yes it was absolute cr4p to apply, you would start off with a flat brush and after ten minutes it would look like a tiolet brush, and we used to remove any excess with petrol soaked cotton waste which made it even worse, and after six months the stuff was still tacky.... So 'silver' it will be. Thanks for reminding me.
Mike

[Scratchbuilder]

Just had a look in Mike Starmer's British Camouflage notes, Soft skins interiors where normally painted with the same paint as the main external body colour as given at the factory.

I must admit that the price AA take for their models, I would expect them to be pristine A1 mouldings! I Have seen three 'much needed' kits from them, the 4.7 Heavy AA gun. the 4.5 and 7inch guns. But from what I have seen of other kits, I think I will pass.

Ian,
Many thanks for the reminder about Mike Starmers booklets, I have them on the shelf and totally forgot.
As for the AA kits, I fully agree, if you paid out for a plastic kit of the same price it would be an all singing all dancing kit. But needs must and being flush with cash at the time..... well the rest is a long story....
Mike

[Scratchbuilder]

Wibble nice to see this and sorry I'm late .
I have the Dinky model of this complete with the Cent , unfortunately the later has a broken barrel :crying:

Wobble . Look out for men with pointed shoes, they are about !

Hello Wobble, no need to panic, this will be long and slow, so plenty of time to catch up... I have people on here that arrived, fell asleep and are now covered in cobwebs with their families advertising in the lost and found columns.....
Shame about the Dinky Centurion, if it had been 1/35 scale I could have sent you a replacement metal barrel....
The pointy shoe brigade are in hibernation or deceased as I have not heard him late at night having his normal clear out....
Bet you laughed about the chair, Yvonne did, was laughing as she was about halfway up the stairs.....
Wibble.

[Mini Me]

So sorry to hear about Mavis. :disappointed2:

More great work on the Antar. My favourite Dinky when I was a nipper was the Mighty Antar, with, of course, a Centuion on the back.
Pete

Just for you Pete!........my Antar was played with but the Centurion is still Mint in the Box. :thumb2:

[Mini Me]

Just had a Ketchup on this Mr. Wibble The dreaded resin kits are a last resort for me........just a matter of how bad I want the model that it represents. I would rather spend hours cutting up a plastic model and adding untold amounts of scratched details even though the model is available in resin with nicely done detail on it already.........just hate gluing me pinkies together I guess. You on the other hand are doing a great job on this so far hope to see more on it soon.
Sorry to hear about Mavis.....When I lost my last Springer Spaniel I had to take a week off.

[Scratchbuilder]

Just had a Ketchup on this Mr. Wibble The dreaded resin kits are a last resort for me........just a matter of how bad I want the model that it represents. I would rather spend hours cutting up a plastic model and adding untold amounts of scratched details even though the model is available in resin with nicely done detail on it already.........just hate gluing me pinkies together I guess. You on the other hand are doing a great job on this so far hope to see more on it soon.
Sorry to hear about Mavis.....When I lost my last Springer Spaniel I had to take a week off.

Hello Rick,
Thankfully I now have very few resin kits in my stash, and I agree with what you say about scratbuilding. But when the cash is available this seemed at the time to be the easy answer. Yes i have come close to glueing parts of myself to the model...
Many thanks for your input.
Mike.

[Scratchbuilder]

Update,
So the fun continues.... I got out the prayer mat and recieved devine instructions, at least the parts of the instructions you will need when doing the major assembly, such as where do the fuel tanks fit???? By looking and looking at the vague instruction photos I spotted the brackets for the fule tanks, they have now been cleaned up and dry fitted, but I need to add the strapping to the tanks from scratch as the resin - well it is resin.....
I then cleaned up the radiator cover and it fitted as it should - but then came the radiator, and as I want to fit it after the chassis is painted did a dry run - it does not fit!

This is what it should do....

And this is what happens when you try to fit it between the front wings - notice the gap of about 2mm. I had already removed a filter fitting from the right side of the radiator and it now looks like I will have to cut away the sloped lower sides to get a fit - more later....
I then looked at the rear fenders and as I plan to paint the chassis and all attached parts at the same time decided to investigate these... So from earlier in the build and in the first two pages you are informed to fit the springs and axles, done that! At no point does it tell you or show you that in fact you cannot fit the reat fender after.....

Above you can see the right side fender attached - but if you look closely you can see that the front support is no actually touching as it should. Because if you do it the way it comes then the fender will take on a distinctly downward slope from the chassis outwards.

Here again is the left fender showing the same problem. Also note that the rear of the two supports is actually missing, because you cannot get this support to fit behind the springs without cutting away the part of it that glues to the chassis.

So the solution is to ignore the instructions and to fit the fenders first, and most importantly make sure they are square and flat across the chassis, then you can fit the springs and axles, and to do this I set up a flat surface of wood block, laid on a good lashing of c/a where the join is on both sides, then carefully attached the fenders and waited untill the c/a was just at the stage where it starts to harden, then turn the whole upside down and lay it on the block and make sure it is square and flat. And as I have said then you can attach the springs etc. Not hard to do if the instructions had pointed out this, but a pain to try to sort it out after. Still they are now on and I can get back to the next problem - assembling the new office chair....
Cheers
Mike.

[Jim R]

Making good progress Mike. It's only your skill and patience that is keeping this off the shelf of doom. A lot to do to overcome the shortcomings of the kit. I have no doubt, however, that it will be a really fine result. I hope the trailer is less problematic.

[scottie3158]

Mike, this looks like a less than enjoyable build mate. I have to admire your perseverance.

[banjer]

Going off at a complete tangent, please indulge me.
When on exercise in Germany in the early 70's a team of 8 of us changed an Antar engine overnight, in a wood in the dark with minimal use of torches. It came in at 8pm and was driven away at 7am next day. The brigadier was most impressed but we didn't even get a beer out of it.

Bill

[Scratchbuilder]

Jim R & scottie,
Thanks for the comments - the kit is a bit of a pain but I am determined to finish it, the main problem is as always the instructions only tell you half the story. But will keep going and can change back to the Centurion avlb if I need a change.

[Scratchbuilder]

Going off at a complete tangent, please indulge me.
When on exercise in Germany in the early 70's a team of 8 of us changed an Antar engine overnight, in a wood in the dark with minimal use of torches. It came in at 8pm and was driven away at 7am next day. The brigadier was most impressed but we didn't even get a beer out of it.

Bill

Bill,
I know the feeling, decided to stay behind when the rest of the battalion went on leave from Germany (Munster). Company Sgt Major came into the room and said I have just the job for you.... I ended up replacing all the platoons 432's tracks and then fitting the new SCAT mounts into each vehicle for the WOMBAT anti-tank guns - but it was great fun tearing around the barracks in the 432's with no one to stop you.
Mike.

[Scratchbuilder]

Update,
So the fuel tanks have had new securing straps added, the resin ones were a joke... and added the air tanks on either side as well. I was going to add the air pipes but as the whole lot would be later hidden I decided the extra work was not worth it. Going back to the cab inside colour, I found a photo of an Antar undergoing restoration and the inside colour was in fact a light green shade - so that is now the colour.


And a couple of pics to show the work so far - Herman is there to add scale to the vehicle and the wheels are on as a dry run. The cab has been primed along with the seats and it will be spray time after lunch...
Cheers
Mike.

[Lee Drennen]

Looks very smart Mike. Nicely done I’ll try to keep up.