M578 armoured recovery vehicle (Italeri/Verlinden)

[minitnkr]

Will these help any? For discussion purposes only.

[Guest]

The slope on the hull due to the missing wheel looks spot on. I'm sure you'll sort the crane fit.

Thanks. The slope on the other side is far more severe than I had expected, but given that there’s only one way to get all wheels on the ground, it must be correct

Think that it'd find the wall at this stage with me - even after all the work!

This model has hardly been any work at all yet

Will these help any? For discussion purposes only.

Thanks, they might come in handy. I’ve found a (short) walk around but because your photos have the boom raised they show some details that doesn’t.

After writing my previous post, attempts to try and bend the boom so it would fit didn’t really work, and popped some of the soldered joints. These appear to have not been soldered too well, as there turns out to not be any solder on the inside or even between the parts. As I see it, I have two options: heat the crane so it falls apart and rebuild it myself (either soldered or glued, though I don’t really feel like either), or scratchbuild a copy of the crane in plastic card so that I can ensure it fits (but that has the problem of how to make those holes in the side plates).

[Guest]

The stabiliser blade that goes at the rear was not quite straight:

[ATTACH]420079[/ATTACH]

This wasn’t too surprising, given that it’s a long, thin piece of resin. I used a hair dryer to heat it up for most of its length, then straightened it out on a kitchen countertop and stuck it under cold running water. This took a few tries, because it kept curving back to its original shape. I realised after a few attempts that I probably wasn’t heating it thoroughly enough, so the inside remained too cool. This proved correct, as heating it for longer did work.

[ATTACH]420080[/ATTACH]

On the underside of the blade was a big scar from where I had removed the big casting block (because Verlinden) using a Trumpeter panel-line scriber, which pulls slivers of resin out and so doesn’t produce dust like sawing would. I filled the scar with car body putty and after letting it set for about a day, filed it down to the blade. Because the body putty doesn’t adhere all that well to the resin, I then smeared superglue all over it with my finger, hoping to bond it to the resin along the sides.

[ATTACH]420081[/ATTACH]

After that I went back to trying to figure out how the other bits for the spade mechanism go together. So far I’ve made a number of abortive attempts, because the instructions are very poor in this regard. They want you to bend certain etched parts but don’t explain how, or where they are to fit, exactly. I think I figured it out tonight, so I’ll see whether it actually works as I now think it does tomorrow …

[Guest]

Right, this one is on indefinite hold. I just can’t figure out how some of the bits for the spade go together, especially the ones that don’t seem to fit correctly, others are clearly wrong, and I can’t find good enough references to put it all together the right way round. In addition, I’m still dreading rebuilding the crane. My enjoyment of this model had drained away these past few days, so I’vd put everything back into the box and put it back on the shelf. It will get finished someday, but not in the next couple of weeks or months

[GerryW]

Right, this one is on indefinite hold. I just can’t figure out how some of the bits for the spade go together, especially the ones that don’t seem to fit correctly, others are clearly wrong, and I can’t find good enough references to put it all together the right way round. In addition, I’m still dreading rebuilding the crane. My enjoyment of this model had drained away these past few days, so I’vd put everything back into the box and put it back on the shelf. It will get finished someday, but not in the next couple of weeks or months :sad:

Jakko, if you can't find the references, then they aren't there - shame that it's ground to a halt.

[Airborne01]

I'll follow as any recovery vehicle is interesting to an Ex REME recy mech .

John,
Like you just love ARVs; don't know if you have a favourite era - mine is mostly WW2 German. I have two Bergpanther WIPs (One Takom, one Meng) that have stalled due to frustration with the tracks), a Tamiya 18t SdKfz with spade conversion (WIP but 90% complete); and awaiting a surge of courage, a Tasco M32 B1 and a AFV Club Bussing-NAG 4500A. Both these two latter kits have incredibly fine detail and I wonder if anybody has built them - I'd be more than interested in their observations and perhaps photos. Have you had sight of the two Panzerwreck publications 'Recovering the Panzers' ? Excellent works!

[Airborne01]

Thanks. The slope on the other side is far more severe than I had expected, but given that there’s only one way to get all wheels on the ground, it must be correct :smiling3:


This model has hardly been any work at all yet :smiling3:


Thanks, they might come in handy. I’ve found a (short) walk around but because your photos have the boom raised they show some details that doesn’t.

After writing my previous post, attempts to try and bend the boom so it would fit didn’t really work, and popped some of the soldered joints. These appear to have not been soldered too well, as there turns out to not be any solder on the inside or even between the parts. As I see it, I have two options: heat the crane so it falls apart and rebuild it myself (either soldered or glued, though I don’t really feel like either), or scratchbuild a copy of the crane in plastic card so that I can ensure it fits (but that has the problem of how to make those holes in the side plates).

Waldren punch and die set will do it mate!

[Guest]

shame that it's ground to a halt.

Oh, it will get finished someday — maybe next year, maybe ten years from now

Waldren punch and die set will do it mate!

That has punches of about 5–7 mm or so, at a guess? Because that’s the size hole we’re talking about. The largest I have in my old Historex Agents punch and die set is 3.9 mm, and my RP Toolz set only goes up to 2 mm.

[Jim R]

Shame its on hold but as has been said - if you can't find adequate reference photos then they must be very, very thin on the ground.
jim

[minitnkr]

HTH when you return toit. Photos for discussion only. Best I could find. PaulE

[Airborne01]

Oh, it will get finished someday — maybe next year, maybe ten years from now


That has punches of about 5–7 mm or so, at a guess? Because that’s the size hole we’re talking about. The largest I have in my old Historex Agents punch and die set is 3.9 mm, and my RP Toolz set only goes up to 2 mm.

Use the largest you have as a starting point; prior to that scribe a centre line with co-ordinates, line up carefully then , once punched use a rat-tail file to bring to the ultimate size, failing that - buy a bottle of Bacardi and start again!

[Guest]

Shame its on hold but as has been said - if you can't find adequate reference photos then they must be very, very thin on the ground.

You all have much too high an opinion of my abilities

HTH when you return toit. Photos for discussion only. Best I could find.

I hadn’t found that 3D model, and though it helps, I don’t want to trust someone else’s interpretation. Everything else I found was along the lines of the real photo you posted, in which you can’t see where the thing actually fits, or how.

Use the largest you have as a starting point; prior to that scribe a centre line with co-ordinates, line up carefully then , once punched use a rat-tail file to bring to the ultimate size

Heh, yeah, and do that ten times, twice. I could manage one neatly, probably, and maybe two. But twenty, not a chance I considered drilling them, given that I could use my father’s table drill (which would mean drilling ten times, as I’d do two at once) but getting everything lined up exactly right is again not something that’s likely to be within my abilities.

In any case, the reason I’m not trying any of the above is, as I said, because for the moment I’m fed up with this model and its pitfalls.

[minitnkr]

Here's a possibility. M578 Tech Manual TM9-2350-238-20-1 or Operator Manual TM9-2350-238-10. PaulE

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
Count me in looks like an interesting conversion and your off to a great start.

[Guest]

Here's a possibility. M578 Tech Manual TM9-2350-238-20-1 or Operator Manual TM9-2350-238-10. PaulE

Thanks, I had found those, and the operator manual (-10) unfortunately doesn’t provide any useful information, while the service manual (the -20) does have drawings that show Verlinden’s instructions and parts to be wrong, they’re not clear enough to let me work out how things should fit.

your off to a great start.

I have this feeling you didn’t read the whole thread yet when you posted that