Greetings from Raleigh, NC!

Never did a build log before, and recently got a great deal on the Griffon Humongo P/E set. The feature theme of the AMPS show this year is Ack-Ack, not sure if I will attend (or be able to finish this by April!) but what the heck. I also picked up a pair of Tank Workshop wheels to replace the much maligned "flattened" tires that Dragon provided. So, away we go!

OK, just wanted to test that one and make sure the image showed up correctly! Before I start the build proper, wanted to show off my new workbench. I picked up these cubicles, counters, drawers, upper bins, bulletin boards and light fixtures for FREE on Craigslist and picked up two task chairs for $20 each from the local office furniture reclaimation warehouse. Total cost for this setup: $40 and fill up my buddy's pickup with gas in exchange for letting me borrow it!



Next item of business, open up the P/E set, unreal, 12 frets plus barrels, plastic rod and wire:



I now have 4 different sets of instructions totalling over 20 pages! To make sure I don't screw anyting up too bad I went through and notated all the P/E on the main Dragon instructions, and tacked them all up around my work area. I will also mark off each piece and assembly as they are completed.

I built the engine first. Not sure yet whether the hood will be open or closed, so I added the ignition wires and a distributor:



The frame was a little disappointing, with a large seam running the entire piece, inside and out. Cleaned it up with a coarse file and filled a couple sink holes with Mr Surfacer 500:



Then hit it with some 400 wet dry and textured the whole thing with Testor's liquid cement and a beat up brush:




More later, thanks for looking!

Terry
Raleigh, NC

Alright, time to start the cab and some serious brass! I prepped the dragon cab with the required surgery per the Griffon instructions and tediously removed the tread plate texture. I also removed the grab handles and marks for the headlight guards.



Then added all the P/E treadplate and details. I am a big fan of the Griffon sets. I previously built the Academy M-3 Lee with full interior and enjoyed it alot.

Here is the P/E installed including control/gear levers etc. There are four seperate pieces for the driver's seat frame alone, and it won't even show! At least I'll know they are there.




Then, the two drive axles:



Next I'll be doing the frame, suspension and running gear.

Terry

WOW Terry ! That is really taking the bull by the horns with all the extra PE sets. This looks to be a great build to follow ! Thanks for sharing with all of us your abitious project ! BTW nice "Man Cave"

Terry,

That's one heck of a build setup. And the M16 is sure to be a cool build. I think our local AMPS club may end up building one as a club project next year, but we'll see.

If I could ask one thing.... the frame wasn't cast, so unless they put some sort of undercoat/rust inhibitor on it, I don't understand why it would have texture. Maybe the Hunnicut book mentioned something along those lines?

Hey Jesse!

Thanks for the post. Point taken about the cast on the frame. I usually end up hitting most of the undercarriage with some texture. I find that it gives subsequent mud/rust washes a place to settle and drybrushings a place for the paint to "catch." Also, I just love the smell of that Testor's liquid cement!

Terry

Nice start already Terry. Nice modelling room as well.

Whoa! That's some serious PE... Impressive! Looking forward to the rest of your build!

Cheers!
Stefan

Good advances Terry. The place for work looks really good.

I follow yours steps

Omar

Hi Jesse: your guess is correct. The frames were smooth in reality. I can understand Terry wanting to get some grip for later weathering however.

Terry: I reviewed and built up the Griffon Royal set for the M55 Gun set.

http://www.amps-armor.org/ampssite/reviews/showReview.aspx?ID=1533&Type=FB

I've also built up the DML M16 kit twice. If you need any pointers or tweak tips, please feel free to ask.

http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7628

Hi Roy!

thanks for the post If you have an already prepared list of Tweaks for this kit I'd love to take a look

I've almost finished the frame and running gear hopefully have pics up soon!

Terry

Ok, a little progress over the past few days. Before we get to the pics a little about the kit. I've been just back into building (took the obligatory hiatus in 1981 for college, beer, job, marriage, kids, etc) This is the second Dragon kit I've built (the older Sherman M4A3E8 was the first) and I have to say the detail and the engineering are superb. The instructions do leave a little to be desired, but if you take your time and thoroughly test fit, you should avoid any major screw ups. The other thing about this kit is the cleanup of each part is very time-consuming. I appreciate that all the little nubs help avoid the dreaded ejector pin marks, but.....



Four attachment points on a part this small??

Enough of that! I started with the road wheels. They are small and I was dreading removing the seam, on a whim I tried to put one directly in the chuck on my Dremel, and Voila'!



made cleanup very easy with a fingernail emery board to take the seam out and some wet 400 paper wrapped around a popsicle stick to smooth it out.

The bogie assemblies went together without a hitch, but the parts are very delicate and must be handled very gently. The drive sprockets and idlers are truly a wonder to behold, especially when you're used to the old Tamiya kits! They did require some careful cleanup, six of the eight wheels have a 4 pronged sprue molded in the inside hole. Removing it without damaging the wheels was a tedious operation.



After that, I used a rolled up piece of wet 400 to remove the nubs that were left



So after all that, and a bunch of tiny Griffon P/E parts....Here is the nearly completed chassis





Please note that the drive and idler wheels are not glued yet and cannot be glued before you assemble the tracks or else you will not be able to get the tracks on!

That's it for now, any constructive criticism or comments appreciated. After a few more chassis pieces, on to the cab doors and hood (12 working brass hinges in the Griffon set, yikes!)

Thanks for looking!

Terry

Looking good. Keep it up.

Here's a small update, working with the Griffon minutia...



and this assembly is crazy. Eight tiny pieces



to make this




More later, hopefully a little more substantial. Filling the ejector pin marks on the inside of the cab before some more surgery!

Had a hectic week, but getting back to work on this. Still amazed by the sheer volume of P/E in this Griffon set. Last night completed the small gasoline engine that goes on the gun platform:



A close up of the mount fror the engine. Eighteen seperate P/E parts in this assembly alone. I am going to have to speed things up if this thing will be finished by April!

Terry that is amazing PE work. I'd go nuts! Or maybe I'm just getting too old to work withoug magnifier...

Looking forward to the next update!

Cheers!
Stefan

I have just found this build and wow, I love the PE work and the ultra fine detailing

I will begin to follow this

S

Thanks for the comments! Last night I got some work done on the gun platform, so next update should have a major sub-assembly!

PS Stefan I have to use a magnifier to read the instructions half the time!

Some more updates. Working a few different items now.

First, I cut the hood pieces from the door sections as the hood will be entirely brass. Also had to cut off the "block" jerrycan holders as they will be replaced aith P/E.

To me, the worst thing about P/E is when you have to remove molded-on surface details. I use a small chisel blade on my x-acto. In this case, the rectangular hole left by removal of the jerrycan holders was filled with a sheet of 30 thou sheet plastic. I then filled the gap on the inside with Mr Surfacer 500 and sanded smooth. The exterior was trickier because I couldn't sand smooth without eradicating a lot of rivets. I decided to add a sheet of 10 thou plastic to cover the surgery, as the original molded detail indicated a thin plate there:



I measured the width of the plate using a compass, then marked the 10 thou sheet top and bottom and cut a strip of the proper width using a metal straightedge



Then I cut the sections a little long. I aligned them with the door jamb and held them in place with some cross-action tweezers and sparingly applied a drop of Ambroid ProWeld (which I prefer for fast joining, good ol Testors liquid if I need to adjust the piece at all)



Then I cut off the excess and wet sanded flush



You'll notice in the above pic the molded on handles are still present. I shaved them off and then cleaned up the excess with a little sander I use, made from a stiff coffee stirrer with punched out discs of sandpaper super glued on the ends. I find it works great for cleaning up the remnants of the molded on detail without disturbing surrounding rivets etc




Then, to make the TINY handles, I used the "Bug" etch tool to make sure the dimensions are even. I centered the handle upside down under the thinnest "finger" and clamped it down



Then bent up the sides with a razor blade



Then put a strip of 20 thou sheet up against the handle and bent the attachment points down with the blade



I use a piece of doubled over masking tape to hold the tiny pieces til I'm ready for them



I then put a drop of super glue on an old razor blade. Picked up the handles with the thinnest pair of tweezers imaginable, dipped each attachment point in the glue and carefully attached them. Very nerve wracking... you get one shot and if its not straight you have to break it loose and try again. The finished handles:



Next up is the partially assembled gun platform. The seat was actually just a suspended piece of canvas, so I thinned down the over-thick kit part. Once it was in place I laid a piece of tissue soaked in water and elmers over the seat.



Once it is dry I will trim the edges.

That's it for now, hopefully more tomorrow, I think I have a couple free hours tonight!

Thanks for looking!
Terry

Latest update, after more miniscule P/E work, some choice expletives, (after the kids were in bed of course) some tiny pieces of brass zinging into oblivion from a too tight tweezer squeeze, (thanks for the extras of the smallest parts Mr Griffon, I've used most of 'em!) the gun platform is taking shape:



Another example of the ridiculous amount of detail in the Griffon set is this cross bracing on the bottom of the platform. Eight seperate bent support beams that will never be seen unless you lift the platform out of the model and flip it over!


Finally, four nasty sink marks on the inside of the gunner's shield. I "erased" them using a curved #10 xacto blade, and thinned all the visible edges to scale


More to come, thanks for looking!

Terry

Ok, after being distracted by your workbench I finally noticed the excellent work on your M16 I'll be following your build log for sure.

Whoa, you say it's your second kit after a long hiatus? I'm hopeless . Great build, I'm glad I found it!

Hey Laszlo!

LOL, second Dragon kit after a long hiatus, I've built six or seven others since I rediscovered the hobby. Slowly catching up on all the new technology since 1981!

Here's my last one, Academy M-36 with Verlinden engine and Eduard interior and exterior sets





And a kitbash Italeri/Tamiya Sherman (took first place overall Armor at the IPMS show in Fayetteville, NC!)



Thanks for the comments everyone, Have a great weekend!

A few more updates. I built the rack for the .50 cal ammo cannisters:




Then the cannisters themselves. First off, kudos to Dragon for the design of these. No mold seam, no seam to speak of where the parts are joined and only ONE attachment pont, at the bottom to boot!


So there are seven photo etch parts for each of 12 cannisters (you can do the math...) the small latches have to be bent twice each and there are 24, so that would be 48 seperate bends. While looking at the frets, I figured I could cut away all but one row of attachment points and bend them 12 at a time, then cut them free of the fret:




Seperated all the parts in a paint mixing tray


Here is the before and after shot



Hope everyone has a great weekend, more updates soon!

Terry

Wow! Great work! Amazingly clean!
I bought one of the big Griffon sets but am afraid to start it.
How do you glue the smallest parts?
And what glue are you using? Normal CA or some gel?
Keep up the great work!