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Hi John
1)Estimate of hours spent to date, and estimate to completion?
2)Treat me gently as I’m no mechanic, is r/c feasible? I’m doubting it (unless I missed the answer in your text) but it would look so great tooling around.
1. The RC question is one that I get a lot, and this model is in no way designed for RC or is capable of being converted to RC
2. As for hours, I couldn't tell you as I never keep track... I can say that it's been almost 4 years now working on this one... but about a year and a half I took a break on this build to concentrate on commission build work, and to finish off some other cluttering builds
With more stuff now out of the way the model is another step closer to completion!
Once the front tin work was wrapped I turned my attention to the rear fender work, just like with the front fenders the rear fenders are all scratch built out of Sheet metal
All the fender details are all held on with fasteners and solder joints. Some of the details include the fender mounts / supports, reinforcement braces, rear boxes, brush guards, and step braces.
For the front foot rests / running boards the left and right hand side are different. The left hand fender has mounts mounted in a straight line, while the right hand fender has one of the supports mounted in an angle. This is done because of the spare tire the right hand fender has a smaller foot rest and angling the mount cuts on space.
The foot rests themselves are fabricated out of styrene and plastic diamond plate. The plastic plated were riveted in place as on the real units
Also on the front portions of the rear fenders of are several tool mounts. On the right hand side there are mounts for a tow cable, while on the left hand side there are mounts for the Jack and jack block. On some versions of the 222 there is a small box in this location, which then moves the jack details to the left hand fender top. However since this model will not be getting the extra storage box the jack remains in this location.
On the rear of the fenders there are small storage boxes, licence plate locations, convoy / tail lights, hinged reflector, and brush guards. The boxes were made to be functional, as was the hinged reflector.
For the Notek light I used the resin set from Panzerwerk, the only mod needed to be made was to alter the angle of the notek's mounting plate as the 222's rear fender angle was more steeper then the 90 degree angle on the panzewrwerk. This was done by heating the resin part until it became flexible, once cooled it set to the new angle.
Once mounted a distinctive brush guard was fabricated out of brass and a length of diamond plate.
For the right hand fender the convoy light is found on the rear box. For the light I modded one of my US AFV tail lights. The light was fabricated out of two scrap cat eye lenses that were on hand in order to replicate the german double oval lens light.
Like with the Notek light the convoy light has a distinctive brush guard protecting the light. The component was also made from brass and solder construction
Like I wrote above the reflector plate was made to be functional, and the reflector lens will be added after the model is painted.
Before the fenders were mounted they were primed / painted with the base coat. Once added they were mounted to the model.
For the mounting fasteners and brass straps were again utilized like with and for the same reasons as the front fenders. After these pics were taken weld beads were added to the plates that attach to the model's hull.
Once the fenders were done I then turned my attention to the side storage box.
This was one of the more difficult components to fabricate. For the fabrication I went with an all sheet metal construction like the rest of the tin work.
The box is made of two compartments. Both were made to be functional, there is a second set of boxes mounted on the bottom portion of the box, however on this model they are for detail only and are not functional.
All of the latches that are present are for detail only, however the center latch was modded to be functional. And was done in order to make the top door work
Like the other parts before the box could be mounted it was primed / painted, then mounted
After the box was taken care of I then turned my attention to the spare tire. For the spare I will be using the Panzerwerk resin 222 wheels. To mount on the wheel I fabricated out of brass a tire mount rack.
The rack is designed to have the wheel mount to it via fasteners. To make the setup work I deleted the molded in lug nuts and drilled out the holes, now the tire simply bolts on as per the real vehicle.
While on the wheels the model was now at the point to have the wheel hubs / drums mounted. The last time I worked on the suspension I designed the panzerwerk wheel drums to mount to my axle. Because the panzerwerk wheel hubs are a nice separate casting from the drum I needed to mod the mounting between the two as glues alone will not be a sufficient way to keep the wheels on the drums esp. as the model ages years from now.
The way I modded the setup was similar to what was done on the spare tire, first all the molded in lug nuts on the wheel hubs were deleted, and holes were drilled.
The corresponding were marked and drilled into the solid resin wheel drums
These holes will be for the threaded rods to emerge from the drum, however just having the threaded rods emerge from the resin in still not strong enough, as in my experience when you have a threaded rod glued or epoxied on a hub like this they will have the tendency to work themselves loose when threading on the new lug nuts. The design I came up with utilizes hidden cap screws. Holes were bored out on the reverse side of the drum
The holes are all at a set depth that will allow the cap screw to be bolted into the resin, have it's threads protrude from the opposite end at the same level, and the cap will be flush with the surface. Since this portion of the drum will be underneath the circular cover on my suspension they will not be visible
After the fasteners were added these parts went through the prime / paint steps. For the install they were epoxied onto the corresponding rolling surface on the axle
With this system the wheels all spin freely, and when bolting the wheels to the drums there is no chance of the fastener working itself loose, and the wheels are on nice and secure.
It's also very very very nice to see the model sitting on it's own feet for the first time esp. after all the years it's been since I designed the suspension and have been working on this build :S
After the wheels were installed I did notice that there was some small damage to the turning clevises. This was due to the way the model was propped up on it's chassis during construction. The model was flipped over and the repairs were made. Once repaired the model was put back on it's feet. However it was interesting to see the lower chassis now fully complete with the road wheels.
Once the wheels were done, I turned my attention to the last of the hull details. This would include the various fastener details, and tarpaulin hook mounts.
On the reverse side I added the same detailing, and the Shovel detailing. For the shovel I used a Sixth Scale Icons set I had on hand, It was a simple install and is excellent. The only part that was made that was not part of the set was the shovel head mount, as the SSI version was for a tank and are different on the 222
The last bit of detailing that was added was the side door box. I'm not sure what is the intent of this box, but both doors have this distinctive box present.
The box Will be a new addition to the ECA catalog... once my webmaster / editing computer is repaired :S.
Once the parts were completed they were mounted to the hull, which completes the hull detail wise and the hull is now ready for painting!!
More pics were posted on the facebook page, because of all the images I've taken over the duration of the build I maxed out my last album, so a part 2 was made and will follow the build to completion,
http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmoryI also have a video in the works, but with my editing computer down it will be a about a week until I get that up on youtube.
With this update the model is now 90% complete! All that remains now is to fabricate up the turret grenade grill covers and this bad boy can head into paint / completion!! More to come!!
