discussion Steve's 1/32 Revell Terracruzer with MACE missile

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Matt coat of varnish now applied together with the wheels attached. Unfortunately the matt varnish has stolen some of the colour as appears to be the norm when using matt. So consequently the vehicle and tyres are a touch lighter than when the paint was applied. All the decals have been put on the MACE missile and a coat of satin varnish applied so that's now pretty much completed. On with the glazing of the cab today then all that's left is the instrument panel and steering wheel to fit then roof and aerials. Wont be weathering the model as being American military it would have been kept clean and tidy so jobs almost done.




Thanks for looking.

 

[Steven000]

Looking good Steve, have fun with the glass

 

[Andy T]

That's coming along great.

I have a thing for unusual vehicles, and it's certainly that!

 

[scottie3158]

Looking great.

 

[flyjoe180]

Looks great Steve

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Looking good Steve, have fun with the glass

I have a thing for unusual vehicles, and it's certainly that!

Thanks gents for your kind comments. It certainly is an unusual beast Andy and I have enjoyed putting it together although I have no idea what I will do with it when completed.

As regards the build. The photos dont show the areas of paint work where I over applied the varnish not realising the extent the paint would fade under the varnish so I may have some areas of paint work to repair and re apply some colour too. The front of the cab suffered the worst. I am also having a dilema in my mind with the glazing. Do I cut thicker perspex and try and get it to fit inside the oval windscreen slots or go for the easy fix of sticking some thin perspex/clear plastic sheet to the inside of the cab. I have already tried this and it doesn't look too bad but obviously perspex cut and fitted into the recesses would be better. The problem is that when I get so close to the finish of a build I can tend to get frustrated and start to take short cuts just to get it past the finished line. So I have decided to follow my own advice that I have given out several times to others on the forum. I have downed tools for a couple of days, I am putting the kettle on and going to take a short break from building, couple of days should do it, to let the go fever pass and re assess where I am at on Thursday. Hopefully these issues wont look so bad through a less frustrated pair of eyes.

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

So after my 2 days off I came back to this refreshed and patience restored. I picked up some 1mm perspex sheeting from the local model shop and decided to have a go at cutting and shaping the glass to fit within the windscreen frame rather than sticking some thin clear plastic to the inside. I started off by using a special saw to cut the perspex but actually found that a strong pair of scissors can also be used without cracking the perspex. Anyway several hours down the line I now have the windows cut and ready to be fitted. I also mentioned that I had over done the matt varnish in places and taken too much colour out of the model so I have done a respray in the damaged areas. just waiting for that to dry so I can apply a thin matt varnish to blend it all together and then these windows can be fitted. I will be using Micro Krystal Klear to glue them in place





Thats it for now. Thanks for looking.

 

[papa 695]

Great work so far Steve, and I think you’ve done a great job on the missile.

 

[papa 695]

Just caught up Steve, great work so far.

 

[scottie3158]

Steve, great work on the windows.

 

[Steven000]

Bold move Steve, looks like you did a great job cutting the plastic to shape

 

[Jim R]

Well done with the windows. Not an easy task.

 

[Gern]

See, it's builds like this that have caused me to have a stash of about 400 kits! I too love things that are a bit quirky and when I see them built this beautifully, I'm ALWAYS tempted to get one for me to try one day.

In order for my stash to stop growing, I'm gonna write out 1000 times:

I must resist
I must resist
I must resist
....

But not here!

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Why resist it Gern. LIfes too short, buy and enjoy that's what I say.

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

So things are not going well with the build. It seems that the plastic is very brittle and I am getting breakages that shouldn't be happening.
The first thing that went wrong is the king pin holding the front axle in position snapped and the whole assembly fell onto the floor shattering the outer walking beams near to where they join the wheel hub.
This is the king pin that broke.

And these are the outer walking beams. arrow points to area where they broke through.


So I painstakingly re assembled the whole assembly. See below.

Whilst doing this I also noticed that two more Outer Walking Boards on the other axles had also cracked in exactly the same place and needed repairing. So whist working on the model and trying to remove the remains of the broken king pin the whole tractive unit chassis cracked directly behind the cab area.

I am normally quite careful during construction and dont think I was applying too much pressure but non the less the chassis broke. So that has now been repaired. So if you are planning on building one of these please handle with extreme care because if the plastic is anything like mine it will be very brittle.

On a positive note I have applied a black wash to the model and given it a coat of satin varnish. After my experience with the matt varnish earlier in the build I don't want to risk the matt varnish stealing the colour of the olive drab so have opted for a safer Satin finish. All the glass has now been glued in place and I hope to complete the cab shortly. Wish me luck because my patience is running out and I need to wrap this one up.

 

[Steven000]

Goodluck! What a pain when things start to break in the final stage, looks like you fixed it well though, cheers

 

[minitnkr]

Age is a killer on styrene. I run into this all the time with 50+ year old ROCO items when updating or repairing.

 

[Waspie]

Caught up with this one Steve. Nice buddy. Looking really good.

A tip I was taught years back when cutting perspex or clear plastic. Use a strong nylon thread or strong cotton. Use a candle and work the candle wax into the thread. Then with the ends wrapped around index fingers use a sawing motion to cut the perspex. Cuts it very cleanly and you don’t get any ‘grab’ that you get from a metal blade.

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

I will try that one Doug, good tip.

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Some more progress on the Terracruzer. After reinforcing the tractive unit chassis with some small metal brackets and JB Weld I was able to work on it without it falling apart. The glazing was installed and the cab roof and doors fitted.Doors were not a good fit and needed some tweaking.





I then had my next breakage. I was initially going to display the model with the hydraulic jacks on the trailer in the retracted position but then changed my mind as I thought that the silver piston rods would bring some colour to an otherwise fairly drab model. So while I was cleaning up the piston rods ready for painting silver they cracked off. So with that in mind I have cut them all off and drilled out the feet to accept a small metal replacement tube. I am hoping I can polish them up so they will probably look better than the originals


I think that is me almost done now. Next pictures will be of the finished model gents.