Track-Link - Forums

Home Articles Reviews Gallery Contests Forums

Search

Login

Forums

Introduction

Posting guidelines

Forum key

New Messages

Forum List

News Forums
General	Dec 2
Industry	Dec 2
Shows & Clubs	Nov 18

Site Forums
Articles	May 16
Build Logs	Dec 1
Reviews	Nov 29
Gallery	Dec 2
Contests	Dec 1

Modelling Forums
Kits	Dec 2
Construction	Dec 2
Painting	Dec 1
Figures	Dec 2
Dioramas	Nov 11
1-48th Scale	Nov 26
Small Scale	Nov 25

Research Forums
WW2	Dec 1
Post WW2	Nov 29
Pre WW2	Sep 6

Classifieds Ads
Buy & Sell	Dec 1
Commercial	Nov 26

Forums - Site / Build Logs

Messages in this Build Logs forum are automatically posted when new Build Logs or Chapters are added. Other modellers can then comment on them. Refer to the Build Logs section for more information.

Topics	86
Messages	3272

Subject:

[Chapter 8] The Fenders - Part 1

Date:

Feb 3, 2006

From:

James Wechsler

The Fenders – Part 1

I knew that getting the fenders on this kit was going to be a little tough. The cast hull is not completely straight on the side and therefore I was going to have to be careful to get everything lined up.

I like to put the front fenders on first and then work backwards. That way, the front fenders act as a reference point. The Aber fender set I’m using has a very nice front fender. Unfortunately, when I checked it ended up 1 mm too narrow. This meant that when I mounted the side fenders, they would stick out past the front fender. The photos I have show the two matching. Try as I might, I couldn’t think of a way to fix this.

Instead I decided to use an old set of Dragon HVSS front fenders. They too measured 1 mm too narrow. Now I was really stuck. Finally I decided to cut away the inner part of the Dragon fender, leaving the top part and then mount a 0.03 inch replacement piece of sheet styrene. This effectively added 1 mm and my problem was solved. I then thinned down the fenders so they wouldn’t look so thick. Phew, I thought I’d hit a big stumbling block.

One nice result of this is that I could now glue the plastic fender to the plastic triangular sheet I’d added to the front of the hull (see the photos) using plastic cement which made it very strong.

The Aber fenders are quite a nice set. I don’t use a hold and fold device for photo-etch (call me ‘Old School’) but I decided to borrow a friend’s Etchmate (www.missionmodels.com) for the long fenders. I’ve made the fenders before without an Etchmate and it’s no problem but it is slow. Giving credit where credit is due, the Etchmate worked as advertised. I folded up the fenders in no time.

I started adding the fenders from front to back. There are three sets and you’ve got to cut down the last one to match the hull length since it’s designed for a long hull M4A4. I tried to get the pieces to match reasonably close but I didn’t worry about making them perfect since photos from the field often show these fenders to be banged up and out of alignment.

Finally, I added the small mounting flanges to the front fenders using strip styrene. Aber gives you these in photoetch but it seemed easier to just cut them from sheet plastic. I also added the rear fender attachment bracket as well which is not included in the Aber set. I ran into another small problem when I did this. The rear of the hull is curved so the mating of the side fender to rear bracket left a small triangle of open space. I should have cut a piece of styrene for that but I forgot. I ended up sticking a tiny bit of putty in the opening and then shaved it to be flat. Dodged another bullet on that little goof.

Up Next: The Fenders – Part 2