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Modeller Build Logs
Converting a Trumpeter Challenger 2 |
| By Leo Lee | | Started: | Oct 6, 2003 | | Updated: | May 7, 2004 |
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I have been taking a "break" from building models for some years. This March, during the SARS outbreak, I stayed at home most of the time. One day I came across some Trumpeter kits in a model shop. They are around $8-9 each. It was the first time I heard about Trumpeter. I saw that the moulding quality was not bad, much better than I would have expected from a Chinese manufacturer.
I bought 3 of them, namely the S-tank, the AS-90 and the Challenger 2. Among them, the S-tank went quite good. But the 2 others are bitches to build. Parts just couldn't get together, and some of the parts just didn't make any sense to me. Remember, I was grown up in a plastic factory literally, I don't understand why some parts of the models were to be divided like that, and some of the parts were quite good, while some others were so bad.
Later I know the reason, after talking to some dealers.
Among them, the Challenger 2 gave me most problems. It took me a few days to get the turret done.
Then I finished the whole thing, and spray it with sand colour. I thought it would be good to turn it into a Op Telic versions I saw on the news.
Then I worked on some other projects. Last month I learn that AA has launched an Op Telic upgrade for this kit. I have done a review on this set. Then I started to work on it.
At first I was thinking about getting a new Challenger 2 kit, as it only cost US$9 here.
But I remember how many days I have spent on the turret along, and I don't want to go through that again. So I decided to take the finished one apart, and do the upgrade on this finished one. |
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| Chapter 8 - Hull and Suspension Step 3 | Mar 27, 2004 |
The drive sprockets are 5mm too far back because Trumpeter got the size and shape of the rear hull wrong, the lower corner is something like 3mm away from where it should be. Look at the Fig. A to see the original position of the sprocket housing base plate, this is the faint line in the centre of the red box. Trumpeter, seeing that they had the bottom of the hull too far out, retooled and made a smaller base plate and housing. The outcome is a sprocket that is 5mm too far back and a rear hull that is too steep. This is why in their instructions Accurate Armour state that it is almost impossible to correct. If you move the whole thing forward, so that they measure correctly from the last road wheel, without modifying the rear hull, you will end up with the sprockets too far from the rear hull.
I fixed the sprockets before correcting the rear hull. In Fig. A the sprocket housing is removed. Then I rebuilt that base according to the "residual mould" line. Usually styrene sheets can do the trick but I wanted to use something stronger. I bent brass wire following the residual mould line as a guide, and glued the brass frame to the hull with a tiny drop of CA glue. I then applied epoxy putty within this frame and sanded it flat after curing. (Fig. B). I will remove the brass wire when the epoxy is totally cured.
For the housing I rolled epoxy putty around an old ballpoint pen. After the putty cured I cut it into two along the red line in Fig. C. I then sanded them to 16mm diameter, sculpted groves on the edges, the finally glued some nuts in these groves. I didn't bother doing these in a very detailed way as not much will be seen after the sprockets are attached. |
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