Hi all

Have not posted here in a while. Been building airplanes But I have been lurking

Here's what I am working on.

It the Dragon Init'l Prod. kit and it will have a total of 7 AM sets. The barrel and fenders are not listed on the Voyager box and I am adding Friuls too. Yup... going a bit nuts. Last airplane was a commission build so just put the money right back into the hobby. Just wanna see if I can pull it off and try out the new resistance solder rig. Hey, maybe this will be scale weight!



And how far I've gotten so far.

That looks amazing so far.
Please keep taking tons of pictures and posting them

Which resistance soldering rig do you have?
How is the learning curve? Do you have to unlearn many of your old heat soldering habits?

I see them listed in the Micromark catalog, but have never chatted with anyone who owns/uses one.
For a PE addicted modeler, it sure seems like a godsend.

Mike

Looks like the tin knocker is at work.....nice.....glad to have you back from the prop blast.

Rounds Complete!!

Thanks Mike and Mike.

Mike I got the Triton set. The other were a bit to pricey. As far as unlearning I would say no. It is more of a re-application of the stuff you know. I was never very good at soldering PE some there wasn't much of a conflict.

The hard part is not keeping thew juice flowing for too long. The parts get red hot extremely fast and you don't need temps that high. If fact it can boil the solder and keep if from flowing into the joint sometimes.

I can see where the expensive models with a foot pedal have the advantage. Holding the part in place 1st then zapping help keep it all where you want it. I got a set of the needle points and bent them a bit so they hold the part then a little more of a squeeze and it gets zapped. Another thing it use paste solder. Melts even faster and is already "under" the joint so heating time is less, nearly instantaneous, than waiting for regular solder to melt and flow. Since the PE we use is so thin, for regular solder I stick the piece in place with a little flux and cut a tiny chip of solder and place it at one side of the joint and heat from the other. Just like sweating a pipe joint, the solder flows to the heat. If you apply the heat then go through the motion of applying heat then touching the solder to the joint, you will have a a good possibility of melting the PE. Don't ask me how I know And talk about tedious?

A buddy swears by his single probe. a clip on the base piece then just tap the piece being attached with the probe. Done. If I buy one of those i will be near the price of one of the units with a foot pedal and transformer with a dial control. But I won't have the pedal and control. Something to consider. Saving up front money may not be the best idea.

But I get better with mine all the time and I think I iwll get to a point that it will suit my need fine.

Getting into the interior. New floor installed... more to cover up some holes made from fixing something I screwed on the suspension than anything else. The tranny is painted steel and has hair spray the engine will get the same, then some green and chipped a bit. I reposition the shifters on the tranny so they weren't all so straight.

Great project... braver than me! Great brass-work so far. Good luck.

Thanks Noel. yeah, I am starting out brave. Let's see how I end up.

Interior details are finished. Engine and tranny with added details, painted and weathered. Since these pics taken the interior has gotten a couple of coats of elfenbein. While it may not be 100% accurate, I want to be able to see the interior details.

A buddy told me something to the effect of PE being a time eater. Well holy crap he wasn't kidding. The ammo storage took up 2 whole sessions. The 3 ammo storage assemblies are 145 parts. The gun is a kit by itself too. I couldn't get the top for the front armor to solder neatly to the curved lower section. The flange was to flimsy so I modified the top of the kit part and zip zip done.

For the one side of upper armor...about 200 parts. 190 of them are bolt heads .8mm across. The webbing inside was one piece. I tried several different methods, soldering and gluing, of getting things all lined up at the same time. The best way ended up being getting the bolts inserted into a straight run then putting a strip of tape on them to keep them in place so it could be flipped over. Then I cut the inside webbing into individual pieces that were lined up over the bolt shaft and glued on place.
There was a sense of accomplishment when it was finished no doubt about that. And it does look pretty cool next tot he kit part. But talk about wanting to go off screaming into the night...







Holiday activities has slowed me down too. But I am making some progress. I figured the fighting compartment would be easier to paint before completed to get the base coat down at least. The floor will have one panel open and the tailgate will be down. Eventually there will be figures loading ammo. Dragon very conveniently makes a set of guy doing exactly that in winter garb. It's like they knew. The 3rd pic is a mock up of some of the sub-assemblies. I have a bed feeling that get the sides of the fighting compartment lined up and attached is going to a nerve racking.
Since the Friul track came with new sprockets I made this little gizmo with the extra parts. For when I make the base it is a roller to make the tracks marks in the mud.

"The Blizzard of 2010"

No work for anyone in the house... state of emergency... and a full day at the bench WHOOHOO!

Past the mock up stage and actually getting some stuff attached. Lining up way better than I thought.

Superb work, Marc. A sure winner for next year's MosquitoCon.

Marc I'm amazed by the work you did on the Marder !!

I'm no PE expert, just worked with some small sets so far, but this worked is amazing !! I didn't know the Voyager sets were so complex and with that level of detailing.

The engine is with the Dragon set or you tried to tackle some of those resin or PE sets ?
The bolt heads come with the Voyager sets ? I would gone mad with that work..

Bill, John... thanks very much for the stopping by and for the comments.

John, the engine comes with the Dragon kit. One of these days I am going to do a bolt head count on this thing. I nearly did go mad

Except for just a few more little fiddly bits it is ready for the paint shop. Here are all the sub-assemblies in place. It will end up on a base with the figures from the set at the bottom.

Amazing work. I have tackled some PE but nothing like this. Those bolt heads would have driven me nuts. How did you get them so even? Can't wait to see it completed, kind of a shame to cover up that PE with paint though.

Ralph

Thanks Ralph. All the parts were pre-drilled for the bolt heads. And even with tat t still just about pushed me over the edge.