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Modeller Build Logs
Sherman III Early in North Africa |
| By James Wechsler | | Started: | Aug 13, 2005 | | Updated: | Sep 25, 2005 |
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A couple of weeks ago I wrote up a review here on Track-Link of the Legend Sherman III conversion set (LF 1096). I really liked the set and couldn’t wait to start on it. So I thought, why not do a blog to show how the build-up comes together? So here it is.
Up Next: What items am I going to use? |
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| Chapter 5 - The Sand Skirts | Aug 19, 2005 |
I figured that mounting the rest of the sand skirts was going to be a pretty simple process. I cut the parts off the resin blocks, fixed some warping and drilled out the little air vent on the middle skirt.
My thought was that I’d start with the rear of the three side skirts and then locate the middle skirt from it. I checked and found that I could slip the idler on the stub axle after the skirt was mounted so I could paint it separately. First, I glued the rear sand skirt flap to the rear side skirt and while the Krazy Glue Gel was drying, I test mounted it to the hull so the parts would dry in the correct position. After they dried, I mounted them to the hull. The fit was excellent.
I then set about mounting the inner piece of the rear sand skirt (the part that goes on the inside of the rear flap). I must have spent an hour trying to figure out how the Legend part was supposed to fit. No matter what way I mounted it, it didn’t look even close to the photos I have. In the end run I simply cut a piece of plastic sheet to the shape. I think Legend needs to have a detail photo or something in the instructions.
After I got all of this done, I attached the middle pieces of the side skirt. Big mistake. They fit perfectly well the rear skirt and to the hull. Unfortunately, when I test fit the front fenders/skirts, I found out that the middle skirt is about 1 mm too long! At first I thought this was the result of my using the one piece cast transmission cover and fenders but when I compared them to the Legend pieces, the dimensions all matched up. The skirt is just too long.
The bummer is that the only way to fix this is to trim the middle skirt since the rear and front skirts meet the middle skirt on an angle and trimming them would leave a step in the height where they meet. But I’d already mounted the middle skirt! I decided I was going to have to use my sprue cutters and clip the skirt while already mounted.
First, at midnight, I sacrificed a goat in my backyard. Then, draped in rabbit’s feet, wearing only a loin cloth, with incense burning and me chanting in a long dead ancient language, I made the snips. Apparently my offerings to the model gods worked since the cuts were clean and my problem was solved. OK. Maybe I said a few swear words and made the cuts in about 30 seconds.
Up Next: Painting the Lower Hull |
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