M29C Water Weasel

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Certainly inventive. Looks like it has worked and hopefully you'll end up with front shield that fits.
Jim

[Guest]

I certainly hope so A handy thing about tracing it on a computer and printing it, is that if I still make it wrong, I can easily print out a new one for a second attempt without needing to make a whole new template from the beginning.

[Guest]

Almost two years on, let’s continue redo this from the start!

[ATTACH]493793[/ATTACH]

That’s a Takom Weasel kit as well as another example of the LZ kit that started this thread — here’s proof, in case anyone needs it:

[ATTACH]493795[/ATTACH]

The upper box is the one from the previous photo, the lower one is from the part-built model standing next to them, which is of course the one from previously in this thread. Nothing has been done to that since the last message showing it, above.

The plan here is to build the Takom plastic model but convert it to an M29C with the necessary resin and etched parts from the LZ kit. Since the kit I had was too far built to do it with that one, I decided to buy another (cheaply: normally, this kit would cost something like €60+, but this one cost me €29.50, all of €2 more than the Takom one — probably because the shop knew it won’t shift it at all anymore now there’s a plastic kit). Also, I am aware that Takom announced a plastic M29C the other week, but I hatched this plan before they did, so I’m proceeding with it

I know, I must be crazy building another Takom Weasel right after the last one that went together so well … but I want to apply the lessons learned from that one before I half-forget them again. If you read that other thread, you’ll get a very good idea of the kit’s pitfalls.

So in that vein, I deviated from the instructions right from the start:

[ATTACH]493794[/ATTACH]

That’s the lower hull with idlers and drive sprockets as well as the bump stops attached, but nothing else, and the bogies built without their wheels. This now all needs to thoroughly dry before I can proceed, though.

[Guest]

You may recall the wheels from my other Weasel:

[ATTACH]493854[/ATTACH]

To try and avoid “wobbly wheel syndrome” this time round, I’ve decided to approach them a bit differently. The kit instructions tell you to glue the wheels to the axles, as you’d expect. The problem, though, is that this means you’ve got two shallow discs on an axle, and neither of the two is a tight fit, so if one of them ends up at an angle, it will push the other one along with it.

My attempt to prevent that involved making a simple jig:

[ATTACH]493855[/ATTACH]

Just a small block of wood that I drilled a hole of about 4 mm (exact diameter unimportant) all the way through, and then drilled that out to 5.9 mm for a short length, maybe half a centimetre or so. The reason for the 5.9 mm is because the kit wheels are 5.7 mm, give or take, and they need to fit fairly tightly into the hole — that, and 5.9 mm was the largest drill in the set I had at hand TBH, slightly larger might have been better, but they fit.

What I did is push one wheel into the jig, put a drop of cement into the middle of it and add the other wheel on top, firmly pressing down with a tool that doesn’t damage the hub (in my case, round-nosed tweezers, as that lets me push on both sides; a bit of tube might be better, though). I then used the cocktail stick to push the wheel out again, which is why the smaller hole goes all the way through. Be sure to hold a finger over the hole, though, to avoid the wheel going places

I made one wheel as a test, and once it had dried, fit it to an axle. As I hoped, it went on straight much more easily, because now it’s a deeper hole for the axle than the single wheels provide, and it’s impossible for one wheel to skew the other. So I then proceeded to do fifteen more, but I’m not sure yet if I want to do both sides or if I’ll leave off the outer row of wheels until after painting.

[Andy T]

A great solution!

[Guest]

Thanks, I came up with the basic idea while still working on the other one, but was debating how best to make the jig — can’t use plastic tube, as you’ll stick the wheels to it if the glue goes where you don’t want it. Then it dawned on me that wood plus drills is much easier than trying to find metal tube the right diameter

[Jim R]

That's a very clever and successful solution to the problem Jakko.

[Guest]

Thanks Simple solutions are often the best, I find.

The alternative way to building the track I had in mind, seems to work … I first glued the three links to the drive sprocket, because they’re the only ones with positive locations (due to the teeth):

[ATTACH]494069[/ATTACH]

Once the glue had dried, I put the top run on without glue so I could also correctly position the three links around the idler:

[ATTACH]494070[/ATTACH]

Again, when that had dried, I removed the top run. iIt will get in the way for building the rest of the suspension, and I don’t need it in any case, because there will be a plate completely covering it in the M29C.

I also fitted the springs to four of the bogies. These are supposed to click in place, but most don’t want to — and worse, some give the impression that they have, but in fact you may have stripped the locating pins from the bogies What I did was cut a small channel into the spring, to the hole for the pin, so it slipped on more easily. I may make a little drawing and post that to illustrate what I mean That done, I also glued the inner wheel of the outer pair to these bogies, taking care to get it straight and not wonky.

By the way, the bogies may look symmetrical once assembled, but they have an inside and an outside. The inside is the side that the small part that traps the suspension arms.

The next step was to glue the remaining track parts together (paying attention to get them in the right order) and leave the glue to dry for a short while — about as long as it took to glue the front and rear bogies on, on one side of the vehicle. Then I could glue the still-flexible track to the links on the idler and drive sprocket, lower the bogies down to their correct positions, and then finally glue them to the track:

[ATTACH]494071[/ATTACH]

This is fiddly and tricky, but everything together, it’s easier to line up the wheels with the track than the other way around, because this way, at least the track will fit properly. No chance of having it too long, for example.

The other side remains to be done, but I’m waiting for the glue to dry on this side first, as I don’t want to risk bumping it and throwing everything out of line after all.

[Guest]

After completing the suspension (minus the bits that will be out of sight on the finished model), I added most of the upper hull parts:

[ATTACH]494372[/ATTACH]

A lesson I learned from the previous Weasel is that by leaving the left side off, it’s much easier to fit the handles etc. in the driver’s area. I also painted bits that will be hard to reach with the airbrush later, though the driver’s area still needs to be done here.

Then I also put the left side and the decks on:

[ATTACH]494373[/ATTACH]

I closed the little hatch over the radiator, which is why the radiator itself isn’t installed in the previous photo. I did replace its etched brass handles by some plastic strip, as that’s simply easier.

[Guest]

Now we’re finally getting to the conversion:

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This is just dryfitting the LZ parts to the Takom hull (see the blobs of Blu-Tack ) to see what work will be needed. The front pontoon fits quite well:

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In fact, better than on the LZ hull, as here, the little plates will overlap the hull on the corners as they should, whereas on the original attempt I had to cut them off and add a new piece of plastic card to each side so they would overlap the hull corners, as you can see if you read back through this thread.

The rear pontoon, though:

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This is about 2 mm too wide and also doesn’t overlap the corners as it should. To be fair, it also doesn’t overlap if you stick it to an LZ hull, of course I’m still debating how best to narrow it, though. It won’t be easy sawing 1 mm off each side, but I don’t see another way to realistically take that little off.

[Jim R]

A good, and successful, idea to fit bogies to track rather than the other way round.
As for the rear pontoon. Would a couple of saw cuts take out the required 2mm? Sanding the sawn edges if needed to get to the 2mm.

[Guest]

Sawing is what I’ve been leaning to as well, but it’s very tricky to do that neat and straight. That’s to say, I don’t really trust myself to do it right … I’ve got a mitre box, but the slot in it is far wider than my saw, so it’s bound to wobble.

Given that this is resin, I don’t want to sand a millimetre off on each side (with a belt sander, for example). The dust isn’t as dangerous as we were meant to believe 25 or so years ago, but it’s still a fine dust with the normal hazards of that, not to mention it’ll get everywhere.

[Jim R]

Maybe use a scriber to scribe a straight guide line which might help keep the saw straight. I can't see how you would get a perfect join so a little filling is inevitable.
This is a real exercise in problem solving. Still most of your builds fall into that category:smiling:

[minitnkr]

Use a smaller kerf saw to make another slot.

[Guest]

Elsewhere, someone suggested to use an electric chop saw, as those apparently have a 2 mm thick blade, so one cut down the middle and join the halves again. But I don’t have one of thosr, and don’t know who I know who might have one.