lancfans' 8th Army Grant Command Tank *** Finished ***

[lancfan]

I had planned to build four models starting with a couple of 1/76 AFVs- Montgomerys' Grant command tank from El Alamein and a Soviet Churchill, following those up with a pair of 1/72 aircraft, a P-51K in RAF service and a Soviet Hurricane. in order to meet other obligations I will have to limit this to one model, the Grant Command Tank.



David.
Text edited 26/12/2012

[lancfan]

With saturday zooming up on us here is the box shot for my first brace, two venerable 1/76 Airfix AFV kits, neither of which will be built completely OOB.


David.

[lancfan]

With a day and a half to go here are both sprues.


David.

[JohnRatzenberger]

dozens of tiny little suspension parts .....

[lancfan]

My first kit will be started today alongside my continuing Sea Fury build, the first pictures will be posted later this afternoon.

David.

[lancfan]

Construction on Montgomery's M3 Grant Command Tank has now begun, the basic hull has been assembled out of sequence to the kit instructions and the main gun has been assembled to be ready when the upper hull is added.


David.

[lancfan]

The Grant Tank is taking shape nicely with the hull building up quite well and the main bogies assembled and placed to the left of the tank. The green Churchill bogies are here half assembled on the sprues and when the glue has dried the wheels will be separated from the sprues and the wheels for the other side will be fixed down to complete the main suspension for the second tank.


David.

[JohnRatzenberger]

The green Churchill bogies are here half assembled on the sprues and when the glue has dried the wheels will be separated from the sprues and the wheels for the other side will be fixed down to complete the main suspension for the second tank.

I've been modeling (or something) for over 50 years and I still learn something here, quite frequently ....

[AndrewR]

The green Churchill bogies are here half assembled on the sprues and when the glue has dried the wheels will be separated from the sprues and the wheels for the other side will be fixed down to complete the main suspension for the second tank.

I've been modeling (or something) for over 50 years and I still learn something here, quite frequently ....

Was this included in the old "Locate and Cement" style written instructions? I've only seen this method mentioned once before, and it does make the construction simpler, or maybe even possible!

How has the tooling for the Lee/Grant held up David? Any flash or major cleanup needed?

Cheers

Andrew

[lancfan]

John, Andrew, Of the Churchill, I read of this online, it makes the construction a breeze and I cannot imagine it was an accident- this must have been the method of assembly intended by the designer of the Churchill tool but for some reason it has never been written into the instructions.

As for the Lee/Grant kit there is still no flash to speak of and it is also an easy build, the tracks have also fared rather well- this was the one area I was worried over but they are cleanly moulded and are made of slightly stiffer material than other current Airfix AFV kits so they may be easier to join up, will know soon.

David.

[Motley]

Looking good soo far, your way of doing the Churchill running gear looks a lot less difficult than how the instructions say, wll have to try that method if I ever get round to building my 2 Churchill Bridgelayers.

[lancfan]

I have been waiting for this kit to reappear for some time and made this replacement turret some time ago. This is the master turret with the mould made from it.


Here is the tank hull with the master pattern and a moulding taken from the mould, for this model I want to include some interior detail and in order to do that I will need to hollow out the turret and scratch build a basket for it, to make hollowing out easier I have encapsulated the undersized kit Grant turret inside the resin casting.


David.

[lancfan]

Here is the hull as it is in the above image but now with the resin turret hollowed out, nothing remains of the kit turret which was encased within and the hull top has been cut away to clear a scratchbuilt turret basket. The next task is to include what detail will be visible through the side doors and turret hatch.


David.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Interesting.
How did you get the kit turret out from inside ? Techniques & tools to avoid undue stress/damage to the resin shell, or did it somehow magically just slide right out ....

[lancfan]

The kit turret came out as part of the waste when I machined out the interior with my hobby drill, the only reason for encasing it as I did was to make the job of hollowing out the resin turret easier- the kit part did not of course survive the operation.

David.