Well, I decided that after my first build I should try something easy that will allow me to practice some weathering techniques. I thought an IDF M151A2 would be a nice project, so I bought the Tamiya kit and the legend conversion kit. This is the first Legend kit I have bought and maybe I was expecting to much, but it is a waste of money for the most part. The resin parts were poorly cast, lacked detail and some parts were missing altogether.The PE and decals seem to be o.k. In any case, looks like I will be doing a lot of scratch building.




The question I have is how to simulate the thin padding on the top of the roll bar, as seen on the model in this link:

https://archive.kitmaker.net/forums/72452&page=1


TIA

I've got a pic of one, somewhere, taken about 14 years ago. It had the rollbar covered in rope, very nicely wrapped.

That is surprising. All my experiences w/Legend products has been great; nicely molded, no issueas at all.

Looks like a great start. For the roll bar padding, I suggest masking tape. Simply roll it on until it is the thicknesss you want, then seal the edge with superglue.

Thanks Guys. I like the ideas and will think about how to incorporate them.

It looks like the project might turn out to be more involved then I thought. Digging through some of my old photos last night I came up with some really nice pictures of a variant of the M151A2 we used in the late 90's. It was heavily modified and I now have to rethink how to incorporate these modifications. More to follow.

O.K. so I made some progress this weekend. I was able to put the main body together and paint the base layer. I even did a little weathering, which I prefer to usually leave to the end.



I am now waiting for some material I need to scratch build the rest of the roll frame.

I am still having a problem with the padding of the roll bar. I tried using various type of tape. The problem is the padding extends down the sides of the roll bar (See below the picture of the M151 I am trying to model) and with all the tapes I tried this was a problem at the angle. Still trying to come up with a good solution

Hi Joe,
In the past I've used an A&B type putty(Milliput comes to mind).Mixed it up and rolled with an Xacto handle as thin as needed,cut to size,rolled it around the rollbar and let it dry.Worked real well. Good luck!
Jake

Color looks good, weathering too.
Like John said, milliput would be the way to go for the padding.

So I had limited time to work on the project, but did try some of the suggestions. I could not really get these to work, probably due to my lack of experience. What I ended up doing was using rubber tubing and fitting it over the roll bar. I tapered the ends with milliput, primed it with Mr. Surfacer 500 and painted. Unfortunately, only after all this did I realize the roll bar is too high on the vehicle. As I mentioned at the beginning, the Legend conversion kit I got was a POC. The only part I ended up using was the roll bar.Well, I probably should have trashed that too.. Looks like I am going to have to go through building the whole roll cage over again.

Well, aside form it being too high, it looks good. At least your method for doing the padding worked nicely......

The problem about height will probably depend how you view the model. Looks fine to me anyway. The padding certainly worked out well, looks very realistic. Still wouldn't want to go over a sand dune and whack my head off it though!