Hey Brian

no matter, what your built looks awesome and it's very unusual subject. atleast I never saw somebodyelse doing something like this.

could you tell me who's making that little cute looking "Tiger"?

Thanks

Very helpful on the PE soldering guys

Your Panzer 1A just keeps getting better each time I drop by for a look Steven

I was going to reply something , but still picking my theeth from the floor

what an ammount of detail!

would be a shame to hide all that work under a coat of paint!

brilliant stuff!

regarding soldering - I've had reasonably godd results with the following method

1) as mentioned - make sure the materials to be soldered are clean - I use a fibreglass pen to go over the areas where I want the solcer to go

2) paint your flux on the cleaned area

3) pop down a tiny sliver of solder (I use the low melt variety - around 60-70 degrees C) - cut it from the bar with a scalpel

4) touch the soldering iron to the join near where the solder is

you usually get a bit of bubbling/hissing as the flux burns off - but I've found the solder neatly follows the join where the metal is clean, and fluxed - much like superglue does.

I beleive the main issues with soldering are

1) keep it clean
2) not too much flux, or solder
3) the Iron has to be hot, and able to heat the entire area being soldered (and/or use low melt solder) - I've had issues with irons that are a low wattage, and the solder a high melt and the metal doesnt heat up enough so the flux doesn;t do it's thing, and the solder just balls on the iron

hope this helps
Jezza

Hi all,

great info on the soldering gentlemen. if i cant get it done after following the provided steps ill admit to beind a knucklehead. i definately need a better soldering iron but im gonna try finding the 60/40 tin/lead solder. what i have is lead free solder and gel type rosin flux. i soldered some pe sherman fenders
and they turned out great. but every thing ive tried since has been a total disaster. im sick of haveing to superglue everyting

thanks fellas
Gary

Perfect details, superb production. Impressive.
Thanks for sharing
Blackwater

A very impressive build so far, Steven. All the interior details and the PE are simply amazing. Thanks for sharing your in progress pics, I look forward to seeing it complete!

maybe this link is very usefull to you: http://www.modelarmour.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1332:soldering-how-to&catid=35:build-features&Itemid=59

By the way I've found a 'Creme Brulee' (desert) burner which uses butane for 7,99 euro in Xenos overhere in Holland. Works well and I'm sure in your country you can find an alternative!

Hi All,

Thanks once again for all the kind comments.

I have been having more fun with brass constructing ammunition containers, it seems that the Panzer 1a had alot of them.



These are the ammo and MG spare boxes from the right hand side of the superstructure.

I will post a longer update over the weekend, I just wanted to keep you updated on my progress.

Thanks for looking

S

Hi Steven,

once again great job man!

Hi Jan-Kees,

thanks for the link.

Gary

Hi Everyone,

Quick update, I have been continuing to build the upper hull and I am now just about finished. There are a few additions that I need to make but these are quite minor.



The first pic shows the engine fire wall skirt. This was very difficult to construct, every time I soldered components onto it I unsoldered another section. The first aid box was a real nightmare to build, the frame literally fell apart when I was soldering it, it was that fragile. There a few bits that I need to glue on and I will add them when the soldering is completed.



The next pic shows another ammo container.

Thanks for looking.

Steven

incredible work! I am on my way to buy everything for soldering!

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments Roman.

I have almost completed the the upper hull all that is left to add are the vision ports and a few metal handles that I could not solder on due to their location in the hull and the lifting mechanism for the radio antenna and that is going to be one complex build. It seems that when I think that this section is done I think of another thing to add.

Before I prime the model I have to milliput gaps in the superstructure





The first two images show the turret ring in place. The build was tough because I underestimated just how complex it was to fit together. It looked simple and it should have gone together easily but there were hours of frustration trying to get it to fit. The problem was that I had to fold a sheet of brass into a circle to fit into the turret ring, it was going well until the ends joined up or did not as the case may be. I managed to save it and it looks ok, but as the politicians say I have lessons to learn from this.



The next image shows the interior of the upper hull. I have added grab handles to the hull and a bracing beam both made out of spare brass. These were suprisingly not included in the otherwise comprehensive kit.



The final image shows the almost complete hull with the Dragon Kit turret. I am not planning on using it for this kit but I have added it for illustrative purposes.

Thanks for looking

Steven

Hi Steven,

Again a great update. I like your build very much.

It must be really annoying losing-en up parts when trying to fix others. You must be a very patient man.



Jelger

Hi Steven,

looking great man! your build is very inspireing to me. thx for the time you put into shareing it with us.

Gary

Hi Brian,

Sorry to discuss this in this post, but I think it could be useful for everybody.

You are right. The burner isn't that good, but a professional one is to costly for an experiment.So this week I came back to my soldering iron again. But there is an alternative, which I haven't used yet:

On a modeling show in Paris I saw some train modelers using welding (we call it 'point welding') in which case they were able to weld HO scale brass locomotives with the same tiny details as we use as modelers. The guy told me it had temperatures around 1500 degrees celsius, but because of the nature of this technic (very short time and accurate heating) they didn't burn the brass. Quite impressive I have to say. I saw some work and thought this would be the system to use for us in fact, but the welding machine costs 450 euro's... It can be found on http://www.qms-conseils.fr. The name of the welding machine is 'Superchief 250 welding system'.

The guy used fluid solder (brand: Castolin 1 'Pate a etamer contenant decapant et metal d'apport (excuses to our French friends for leaving out all the exact interpunction), which is sold in France). It's a mixture of zinc and lead.

Anyway, over here in Holland I haven't seen modelers using this method. What about elsewhere?

Lead/zinc solder is not being sold anymore in Holland because of the use of lead. With only zinc (tin) the soldering iron works pretty well with a temperature of 360 degrees celsius.

For me, the only problem still is the flux. Till now I'm only able to get nice results with a product called S-39 from Griffon. It's not fluid... and quite aggressive. I would love to use a more fluid one to be able to benefit from the capillary action of the fluid before I'm going to solder. Does anybody know what I can use and buy in Holland? It seems that the fluid flux is only sold in the USA, New Zealand, etc.

Hi,

Thanks for all the kind comments.

Could I please ask that this thread does not digress into a commentry about soldering methodology. I am happy for you all to ask questions about my soldering or comment on my technique but this is not the appropriate place to discuss the pros and cons of different soldering techniques as I feel that it takes all the momentum out of the build thread. While this topic is very important it does not belong here. Many Thanks

Ok onto the latest update.

The soldering to the upper hull is complete and I have begun to attach the plastic parts to the hull. I am not going to use the Dragon parts exclusively where I feel the Tristar Kit is superior.





The first pictures are general shots of the hull showing the additional armour panels and the radio antenna mount added to the tank.



This image is of the completed lifting mechanism for the radio antenna, made out of different thickness brass rod.





The last two images are where it gets really interesting, I have added the driver's vision port, I was originally planning to install the vision port so that it can be opened or closed but that proved impossible but that does not really matter. The armoured glass was made from clear plastic.

Thanks for looking

Steven

Hi Steven,

Man im running out of words to describe how great your Pz. is comeing along. your work on the interior blows my mind. keep it comeing man!

Gary

Hi Steven,

Just wondering how things were comeing along on the Pz.1. hope to see more soon.

Gary

Hi Gary,

Work on the Panzer 1 has come to a halt at the moment. I have a Contract Law exam next Wednesday which is just burning up all my free time between that and work

I have done a little more work to the vision ports and I will post pics when I have a free moment. Normal service will resume next Wednesday night.

Hey Steven,

Good luck on your exam! i hope you ace it dude.


Gary

Great post Steven. I have always hated work with photo etched part. You are being very patient. Thanks for your explanations.

Regards. Pedro

Hi All,

Its been some time since my last post, it was not because I became fed up with the project but I had to study for my Law exam and it consumed all of my free time for the last month.

The good news is that the exam is over and it went well so back to the project.

It has been difficult to get back into the Panzer 1 I have to admit, I am adding the support bars to the windows and it is very hard.

Since the last update I have added all the windows and the vision blocks and I am adding brass wire. The picture shows the wire in place but it needs to be carefully cut back. Not looking forward to that job.





Actually apart from a handful of remaining jobs I am close to completing the upper hull !!!!

I will post a more complete update next time just wanted so say that I am back.

Thanks for looking

Steven