And first a very HAPPY new year to all those who read this -and the other ones too!!

hey Martyn thanks, yep it all begins to take shape..

Claude, this was 1mm thick plasticard, i needed a bit of thickness so that i could cut properly and sand the cones of the air intakes. Of course once done, I realized that the thickness was indeed varying throughout all the inner surface but well..
A big flat NO for the hairdryer, you need something stronger, but then i found a first price for paint remover/heater at 10€ in a Brico-Dépo.

Jon, take a lot of care with the kind of styrene you use. And especially the transparent one! I will go back to this when I start the turret but I threw away some 5 sheets of transparent styrene in order to make the thing ( For starters, the Evergreen transparent plastic doesn't let itself vacuform -while the plain one does. i got the best results with some transparent sheet of .4mm thickness from Bayer (don't know if they are the same that pollute what we eat?) that i found in a RC shop.
Well, if it's just to make some light bulb, a simple candle should be enough

I will Libor thanks

Well Soeren, I certainly learned the hard way with vacuform, simple shapes like my air intakes you succeed in a matter of minutes, but more complex shapes .. well.. it reminded me of my first tries with homemade photoetch!

Anyway here's the box I use, all the stuff is covered with some plastic sticking paper for packets as I needed the whole to be really "airproof" the whole surface is covered with holes actually, but as I only needed a small surface for the vacuforming, I covered most of the surface as well.
Yep, MS for doing groundwork, i know a fig sculptor over there at HF that uses it, but I tend to think that those material are not very good for this as you get too much control with MS, while basically you should not control that much
I'd be curious to see your tries for a desert diorama though!
Ein fröhlig Neu Jahr zu dir!

So first here are my air intakes completed, with some brass tubing and MS to make the joint



so eh.. let's try to do the same for the turret!


hmm.. well, no, not that good. As you can see the turret is pretty high and the plastic has got some trouble to "'fold" neatly around that shape


So, why not trying to make 2 halves and then afterwards trying to bind them?

looks better..
a bit of saw job..

Thanks for the tips Jean-Bernard. I have some product from Plus Model for making transparent aircraft canopies. They call it Transparent foil, so actually I was expecting a much softer and easier product to shape, like tin foil for example. Actually though I was surprised to see it was just clear styrene sheet. For what I want though it should be fine as I just want small easy to form shapes. Not as grand as your turret canopy I'm afraid!

Great work with that by the way, tackling it in two halves was a great idea!

Yo Jba,

Learning a lot here!!

Nice SBS, looking goog you're new machine...Iooking forward how you will put the to pieces of the turrent togheter.

Greetz Nico

JBA - great posts, and great work. Can't wait for a bit more assembly.

One question - what do you use for a heat source while vacuforming? I've tried using a heat gun used to dry paint and it's too hot and I go from 0 to melted in 2 seconds.

hmm Jon, the day you find some transparent stuff that acts like lead foil please mail me.. yep, looks like a good idea -the halves I mean- but actually getting something done out of those is just another matter!

Thanks as usual for popping in Nico!

Thanks too Scott, ÄÄH Heat gun is the word I was trying to get since 2 days ago, my vocabulary has always got some holes, that must be age..
No it's the right thing to use, a heat gun. the wood pierced bit i use is actually with some handle i pinned on it so that i don't burn my fingers, then you just make some circular movements with the heat gun at maybe 30cms from the thing so that it doesn't burn or carve holes -but *beware* like I told some plastics simply melt and don't deform with the heat guns -apparently the Evergreen brand is NO GOOD for vacuform -at least the transparent one. I got some great results with some no name plastic bought in a RC shop though. I filmed the whole thing anyway, so when i have the courage to build a complete video feature of Spaceman 3, you'll get it.

Anyway, when i am in a bad mood I tend to think that I can't learn anything from those forums etc, when it's the case, I should always remember that it's there that i first heard about Future or even Tenax, wow, that aforementioned glue is simply amazing!

So here I am trying to do all the bits of steel for the turret using tenax (well, a Tenax like available in France) and my turret form, so here we go...

First the real thing..

And then *sigh*..




let's try inserting the vacuform plastic,


what do you think guys?

I think that even with the bit of glass, it doesn't look like the real thing, and it's indeed looking a bit crap...

I'll need to practice more with my heat gun then. Thanks for the lesson.

I have to say, the turret is a good first try but not up to your standards. What about trying foil strips or brass strips? They may conform and bend more naturally.

Just a thought, have you considered using a car light-bulb for the dome? You could carefully cut the bottom off and remove the filament. Maybe pop down to your local car accessory shop and see if there's anything suitable, and then like Scott suggested perhaps some foil or metal strip instead of plastic for the frame.

I'm thinking the dome should be in two bits so no overhang on the mould and less pressure on the plastic.
Do the top bit as a half sphere. and the bottom as a cylinder or slight conical shape (upside down again so there is no overhang).

Athbhlian faoi mhaise! Bonne Année!
JP

hey Scott thanks -your suggestion of foil strips is a pretty good one, but most of the troubles I have comes with the fact I get 2 sides of round plastic that i have to sort of glue with a 5 mm opening on one of the sides to let the gun out, and yet all this stuff must end up looking circular viewed from the top, and with all my attempts I end up getting something oval. then there is the fact that gluing the strips above the canopy is almost out of the question because it will somewhat fog it , no matter what's the material I use *sigh*

hey Ken, using a car bulb would be a brillant idea indeed! providing I could find one of the right size. But the problem would still be cutting this 5 mm width opening on all the height for the gun to pass through the canopy. But thanks for the suggestion, i store it in a corner of my head for future use

John-Paul , great suggestion doing this the other way out.. that sure could get me the bulb shape. hmm, I shall think of this indeed
Merci et Bonne année à toi aussi

Okay so here my attempts:
the first one simply not good enough, oval, some glue on the windows, let's consider that one as being an "experience"


Second attempt, better done, but the thickness of the plastic used for framing was a pain to work with, and then it had a slight "accident". oh well.

You know what? instead of spending again hours to that, why not doing SOMETHING ELSE?

The small aerial for instance
A nice soldering job that took me no time. I use some old Magic Sculp hardener to keep the stuff in place while i solder it, it's very convenient!


here it is fixed on the hull -notice the Moronic Mickey Mouse like air intakes

Hello JB, it's begin to get an outstanding look!
The second turret is right for me, seen through a screen...
The air intakes are just so
Let the other things come then,

Hi JBA!
I agree with Alex that the second look's much better. You really have a lot of determination; other people would stop building the model after the first try at the turret/dome.

Primož

Practice makes perfect Looking much better.
The roof is looking good.

There is also a nice split vertically you could use to simply smash mould left and right halves.

For the frames you could try painted clear decal film cut into strips. you would be able to frame the inside of both halves. then the outside.

Or the old trick of paint the interior color then the exterior color on the decal and apply to the outside. the interior colour shows throu the backside. neat

The framing done with plastic strips does look well tho. Done in 2 halves you could keep the turret in on the mold as you apply the framing making a more solid base for working.

Great great work. Can wait to see how you hurdle this challenge. Bon chance

Hey JBA !
Looking good there, my friend; as has been mentioned before, your determination is highly commendable !!!! The second turret really looks much better, so just replicate that and you're ready to go ! Looking forward to the next installment in the saga . Cheers !
Kenneth .

Jo Jba,

Yes the second attempt is not bad...not bad at all.

The mickey mouse hull is coming out real good. Nice scratchwork.

Keep up!

Greetz Nico

Impressive work JBA! Brilliant!

Thanks Alex, happy to see you back! The hull is almost finished now..

hey Primož you know what it is, I think the first rule to do dioramas that are a bit better than the average is to start with a "thou shallt not be in a hurry to end it" gospel. Then, if the idea is worth it, you work and work on it until you are satisfied. The only thing that could let me stop a diorama at mid work would be if it was basically destroyed beyond hope.

Thanks Scott, yes now i think i have quite a lot of practise with framing turrets! One day i may do a Lancaster rear turret too, I think they really look extremely aggressive

John-Paul you sure are a mine of great tricks. honestly i did another one which is okay since yesterday, but I used some CA glue coated paper -but your decal trick would probably have been even better! Thanks for all the suggestions, those are really appreciated!

Thanks for your usual enthusiasm Kenneth! Always much appreciated -even if my dioramas are rather gloomy I always try to see the bright side of life when i fail and fail again aha!!

Yep Nico, still that second turret is not in the dustbin but almost! Thanks for the encouragements

Martyn -honestly I think the work i am doing just right now is riddled with incompetence and a bit lousy, but thanks anyhow!

The big trouble that worries me is this

It's just too cold to paint, to work with resin etc, and the weather will stay like this for at least one week

hmm. for the moment let's do the metal circling around the turret, it's certainly more difficult to do that then yesterdays' aerial!
First bend the wire with a brush and fingers


then sort of fix the wire with MS hardener


then solder. looks good but it's still very fragile

Yo Jba,

You always modelling in you're garden house? You must have a very fine wife

Solder works looks good...just a bit sanding en you're done with metal circling.

Greetz Nico

Salut Jean-Bernard,

Thank you for these lessons. I'm always on this side

Francisco

And i always thought that Lyon is the gate to the mediterrean climate! At least it is very romantique.

Superbe scratchworking job here, again i might say!
I can imagine that you are not yet satisfied with the turrets, but it looks at this is one of those works where scale modeling hits his limits.
I thought of this glazing material some firm advertises for doing window panes, but i never used that and certainly do not know if it wil be any better then yours.

Salut
Claude

JBA ,
Again, I salute you, my friend; it's freezing out and you are still modelling in your garden shed ? Now that is real dedication, indeed ! On a brighter note, your turret seems to be progressing along nicely, snow or no snow ! Cheers, my friend !
Kenneth.

P.S. I just completed another fun-piece scratch-build vignette and will try to post it here on Armorama soon .

Wow.. beutifull scratchbuilding there! I´m really impressed! The cold weather could be worse. Here in Sweden were i live it was -32 C degrees when I woke up today.

Thank you Nico -actually I used my Dremel to "sand" the excesses, but apply it too rough and the solder point gets off! oh dear!
You see if I was "only" a fig painter or sculptor I would be "allowed" to model at home, but my resins and paints are downright harmful for babies, so i model outside, as simple as that

Thanks for looking Francisco

Well Claude, Lyon is the door to the east actually, the Russians send us their cold
otherwise that's junta big NO!! The only things you can't model are the fire, the spray, the smoke and the smell, those are the only limits and I WILL definitely be able top model that friggin' turret even if it costs me my eyesight or my fingers
Your glazing material idea seems interesting, but I don't really see what material you mean..

Kenneth friend thanks and I can't wait seeing your latest work! Honestly the snow will jhave to stop me working though..

Aha thanks Ole, -32°C of course.. 1°C at best here yesterday but you know what's the problem, I can't get my hands warm and I tend to *drop* the stuff quite a lot, I guess your hobby room must be at least conveniently heated

So indeed here is my last update before the meteorological conditions improve, indeed I can't get my fingers warm enough and like I said above, I drop things which is very bad for good model making!

So thanks to internet, I found that page on British turrets and found some blueprints for the interior of my turret, with a bit of plastic sheet it looks like that:


Thanks-o-thanks Mr Forsyth, thanks to you I have something to put in my turret! I owe you here


That being said I didn't try to pierce the gun because this gun is quite fragile! I almost broke it when i put it out the sprue (in fact I am sure I wouldn't be able to build a real model anymore)
I really like this futuristic look, I looks like a Dragunov (okay from afar!)


So this is goodbye for now, here are the completed model pictures!

Hi Jean Bernard

This is the material i had in mind

http://www.micromark.com/MICRO-GLAZE-15-OZ,7585.html

But the individual panes may then look to straight instead of rounded.

Take out the sled this weekend! But watch the old bones! LOL

Claude

Seeing these parts all laid out together JB really brings the project to life and shows how well its coming along.

I think that Vickers MG is a great piece also!