Masterbox MkII Male - not getting off to a good start

[boston1832]

That's fantastic work Tony - what is the printer/resin combination you're using? Whatever it is, it seems to be extremely smooth compared to the sort of stuff I'm turning out!

Incidentally I think you've done well to get to grips with Fusion 360, although sometimes it's better to come to this sort of thing with a clean slate rather than bringing some baggage. I'd used TurboCAD for my 3D for years (slow, painful, buggy and poorly supported) and the transition was not an easy experience.

[TeeELL]

I am not smart enough to ‘play’ with the settings - honestly, I let Chitabox work it all out for me! Not sure why I chose Fusion360 now, it eorks for me though.

[boston1832]

Tony, I don't think the choice of software is all that important as long as the 3D model is OK. I know quite a few people who use Sketchup which isn't really intended for this sort of thing and still produce pretty exceptional results!

I'd be really interested to know which printer you're using, given the intricate results you're achieving.

[boston1832]

Having convinced myself to have another go, I now wonder about my source reference material. I have the Osprey book but there are a many secondhand copies around of the Haynes "Owner's Manual". Is this really just the gift shop novelty is appears to be, or can anyone tell me if it actually contains useful information? From some descriptions is appears that it's based around the MkIV which might make it less useful to me.

[TeeELL]

The Haynes Manual is mostly about the Mk IV. Helen’s work (Mk1 Nut) on the Landships forum is probably the best source of information on the Mk1 (unsurprisingly) Lol. After that, it is just research, research, research.

[boston1832]

Ok, it's not exactly progress on the MkII (I'm, err, working on it) but I have made an impulsive-but-entirely-justifiable purchase today in the form of the Roden Vauxhall D-type Staff Car, on the basis that it'll make an excellent - or at least vaguely plausible - companion for the MkII in a small diorama. I'll admit that I knew nothing about the kit when I bought it, but it does seem to be a rather decent kit. Googling said car turns up little except this page on the Western Front Association site, which I'm guessing contains most of what's available in terms of WWI photos. Does anyone here know of any better (or different) prototype material for the D-type in WWI service?

I'm determined to build the Vauxhall OOB without breaking anything, although reviews seem to suggest that the fit of the folded-down roof isn't great and I'd really prefer this to the hood-up appearance. A bit of work may be required here.

In other news, a copy of The British Tanks 1915-1919 has arrived and should hopefully fill in some gaps or at least entertain me for a bit. I don't usually frequent abebooks.co.uk but 93p plus postage did seem like a bit of a steal for an excellent copy.

[boston1832]

Well, my build staggers on at its usual glacial pace subject to motivation and the occasional absence of other distractions.

I took Tony’s advice on Blue Stuff, cast a new visor and I’m quite pleased with the result - even if it does look pretty awful under the pitiless eye of the macro lens. For some reason it consistently looks out of level in photos but OK in real life :-(



Having destroyed the rivets on the top angle of the cab I then ventured into my first encounter with Archer rivet decals. This seemed to go reasonably well apart from cursing the designers of the tank for adding two odd-spaced ones at either end. However my joy was fairly short-lived when I let the decal solution dry and found obvious bits of backing film all over the top edge of the cab. My solution was to set it up in the vice and carefully slice and scrape away the film remnants with a new scalpel blade, using the steel rule as a guide as shown below.



I’ve now got a repair that I suppose is complete, but it’s never going to be pretty. Maybe it’s just time to press on - the Roden Vauxhall staff car might be OK to pose with this for a “training on the Hampshire heathland” scene (after all the MkII was just intended as a training tank).



I recently came across the superb work of Paul Budzik (which, I have to say, has further reduced my modelling time by absorbing his beautifully produced video segments). Besides the fact that his work is sublimely good, one of his most useful and revealing comments was that he usually buys two or three of a kit to allow for mistakes, and just replaces a part if he damages it. Maybe that’s a more useful lesson than trying to rescue what’s now a slightly dishevelled bit of plastic. Incidentally he has some great video on the principles of model photography, so I’ll now probably go off down that rabbit hole for a month trying to get a decent photo of my woeful repair.