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Armor/AFV: Braille Scale
1/72 and 1/76 Scale Armor and AFVs.
Hosted by Darren Baker
Vickers E Mk. A ("6 Ton")
tread_geek
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Posted: Friday, February 17, 2017 - 09:33 PM UTC
It's been a while since I've done anything due to a few health issues but I'm going to "dip my toe" back into the building waters and reaquaint myself with the nuances involved in the build process (and writing about it too?).

I'm going to try building this for the "Poland 1939" Campaign and here is a picture of the kit.



I finally started on the Vickers 6 Ton and the kit so far is living up to my lowest expectations. The Mirage kit "appeared" to be a bit over engineered much like IBG kits. LOTS of parts but are/were they all necessary?

Spent a good part of yesterday afternoon constructing the lower hull tub (usually a one piece affair with Dragon and a few other companies). Locating features for assisting in parts placement are minimal and each part needed some time to be cleaned up due to the numerous sprue gates (attachment points). Example: the lower side panels:



Anyway, the end result, finally, was getting the lower hull finally together. There was a bit of warping of a couple of the parts and it'll need a bit of clean-up but at least I finally have something to act as a base for all the other pieces.

Here's were it stands(sits?).







Cheers,
Jan
woltersk
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Posted: Sunday, February 19, 2017 - 07:52 AM UTC
@Jan,
Off to a good start!
I've had fewer pieces on 1/35th chassis 'tubs'.
Looking forward to seeing what else awaits.

Keith
tread_geek
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Posted: Sunday, February 19, 2017 - 08:23 AM UTC
wolterskKeith,

Nice to hear from you and thanks for dropping in and having a look! The hull tub is a rather "old school" affair to those of us spoiled by "slide-moulding". This kit will definitely rekindle some older skills from the past.

Cheers ,
Jan
spacewolfdad
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Posted: Friday, February 24, 2017 - 12:35 AM UTC
Hi Jan,

I have built the single turret version and apart from having to place rivets on the turret, as it had none, I found the model a satisfying build. The level of detail is very good for the age of the kit and it builds up nicely. I used the ACE photo-etch tracks for the T26, a very nice set that looks good on the model. Here is mine, it was finished three years ago...



I think you will be pleased with the final result, despite your misgivings, it 'scrubs up well' as they say

All the best,

Paul
tread_geek
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Posted: Friday, February 24, 2017 - 05:07 AM UTC
spacewolfdad Paul,

Thank you very much for your comments and particularly the picture of your build. the image somewhat clarifies some points in the instructions pertaining to the suspension. The instructions strongly 'imply' that the main bogie frames are meant to be positioned in a given order but from looking at a few images, including yours, it appears that they are universal with the exception of the orientation of certain prominent features. Again my thanks for you assistance in helping clarify this issue. I do wish the small road wheels had more positive locating features but I can persevere with that minor point.

Cheers,
Jan
Braille
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Posted: Saturday, March 04, 2017 - 01:00 PM UTC
@tread_geek – Jan,

I have a few Mirage kits in the pile but have never put one of their kits together, wondering how the plastic is . . . hard, soft. And how it reacts to liquid and tube cement? Are the parts hard to remove from the sprues?

Nice job on your single turret version Paul.

~ Eddy
tread_geek
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Posted: Saturday, March 04, 2017 - 09:05 PM UTC

Quoted Text


... how the plastic is . . . hard, soft. And how it reacts to liquid and tube cement? Are the parts hard to remove from the sprues?


@Braille - Eddy,

Long time no see or at least hear! I'll try to answer your questions but alas, it may be a slightly skewed opinion.

The Plastic is quite average for the most part, neither hard or soft but just a tad brittle, so use a new knife blade to cut it. Sprue gates are not too bad, perhaps fair in size but in a few cases of larger parts, numerous.

Glues - I've used Tamiya Extra Thin and the following Testors gel type.


Both appear to be working well with this plastic. The gel type is a must for this kit's suspension and a couple of other parts, so far.

Parts Removal - You be the judge, here's a typical sprue.

Some connection points for smaller parts are quite small but as in most kits it's a bit "hit or miss" what you get. Hope these answer your concerns but please feel free to ask any further questions.

Cheers,
Jan
Braille
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Posted: Sunday, March 05, 2017 - 03:35 AM UTC
@tread_geek – Jan,

Thanks for the reply it is very appreciated. It’s good to know how the plastic reacts to the cements used to construct a particular kit, some cements are a bit too harsh on the plastic and can easily ruin the surrounding detail, and at times causing cracks to form on the parts. I see that this is not the case with the Mirage kits.

Lots of small parts to deal with on the sprues, hence the question of removal from the sprues comes to mind and your pictures easily answer, my question – thanks. Of course the typical cutters can be use in most cases as well as a cutting saw blade or as you point out a cutting blade. I almost always use a hot knife for those parts that I feel sure to break in two, but with care as not to melt any surrounding detail or parts on the sprue – don’t ask about that!

I’ll keep following your progress on this one. For the kits size it appears to contain a wealth of detail, although Paul did mention about having to add the rivets to the turret on his rendition. Looking forward to seeing how you handle this on your build. Still curious to know what he used to create the rivets on his build?

~ Eddy
spacewolfdad
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Posted: Monday, March 06, 2017 - 04:56 AM UTC

Quoted Text

@tread_geek "Still curious to know what he used to create the rivets on his build?"

~ Eddy


Hi Eddy,

I used the rivets from the underside of a Dragon PzIV, now I use the rivets from the venerable Airfix WWI tank as they are in vast numbers on the mouldings. I use a Swan Morton No.11 blade to slice them off and a paintbrush moistened with saliva to place them, finally a small amount of liquid glue (Mek-Pak in my case) was added with the tip of a fine brush (not one of my best painting brushes though ). Hope this helps.

All the best,

Paul
Braille
#135
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Posted: Monday, March 06, 2017 - 09:36 AM UTC
@spacewolfdad – Paul,

I was thinking that you may have used a sheet of resin decal transfers to create the rivets, but instead I should have guessed you would use the next best thing and quite an obvious choice at that! It must have been very time consuming but well worth the effort and all to scale too. Thanks also for providing your process; I’ll be storing this tip for future use.

~ Eddy

P.S. Excellent camouflage.
tread_geek
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Posted: Saturday, March 11, 2017 - 01:00 AM UTC
Okay, I finally have a bit of progress to show. This kit is proving to be what appears to be cursed. From my first progress post it has been tortuously slow and full of drama. The body more or less progressed with a normal assembly process, punctuated by judicious sanding and a touch of trimming in a few places.

However, the return rollers proved to be a doubly cursed affair. The paired rollers were barely 3 mm wide and .7 mm thick.It was a labour of determination to try to glue these two tiny parts together and indeed proved a challenge to hold the parts for assembly. But isn’t that why we model? In the assembly process I lost a part at least two times and both times spent almost an afternoon (along with help from my SWMBO) on the floor with MAG lights searching for the errant parts. After the second time conquering the linoleum monster I developed a methodology to assemble these pairs while on the sprue.

A sane person might have chucked this kit by this time but I persevered! After I got the first four pairs of return rollers made I decided to attach them to the tank. I figured it would be safe to hold the rollers with a pair of tweezers while I sued them onto the body. WRONG! Tweezers have a way of causing small parts to catapult out of their jaws and find the nearest “carpet monster” in this case. Again, half a day of on and off searching until my SWMBO found the elusive pair.

The above was not the last time there arose a issue with a pair of these return rollers but I am beginning to suffer from a version of writers’ cramp from relating the occurrences of these wheels in this “tome”. Finally a few progress images (yes, I appreciate a bit of “clean-up will be required with this kit). Lets just hope that further progress is less stressful?







Cheers,
Jan
weathering_one
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Posted: Saturday, March 11, 2017 - 11:40 PM UTC
Jan,

Been quite a while, welcome back and hope your health issues are on the mend or at least under control.

This looks like an interesting subject but also quite a kit to tackle after an absence! Some of those parts look darn scary tiny and I know I'd be reluctant to tackle them. Thanks for your rather in depth analysis of this kit. I'd hazard that it seems your observation and writing skills are returning as I couldn't help but laugh at your "great return roller adventure". I believe I would have had the kit meet a premature end after experiencing them.

I'll follow this blog and glad to see you posting again!

Regards,
A.J.
Braille
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Posted: Monday, March 13, 2017 - 04:30 AM UTC
@tread_geek – Jan,

Sounds like you were having a bit of a scrimmage with the tweezers launching parts into space. I’ve been thinking of modifying a set of tweezers to accommodate holding such small parts that are usually prone to leave the area without permission. Of all of the modeling articles, features, books and videos available on the subject of modeling hunting down parts lost to tweezer catapulting is not covered as part of any modeling session that I’m aware of but it is something we find ourselves doing time and time again.

Over at UMM-USA.com they market a tacky pencil just for holding small parts, it sells for around US $2.41 each. I'm thinking after what you've just gone through it might be a good idea to get one of these pencils and give them a try!



Jan, I have a few sets of the holding clamps you set your vehicle on and from this I can see this model is quite small. I was wondering from one your pictures if there was any rivet detail removed during the sanding process from the rear part of the hull turret housing?

~ Eddy
DazzaD
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Posted: Monday, March 13, 2017 - 06:24 AM UTC
Great job on the model so far. Watching the thread as you go.

The sticky pencil is a interesting idea. I have spent many an hour searching floors for catapulted parts.

I tried some rubber covers on the needle nose tweezers for a while. Great a gripping small parts but not so great at staying clean and out of the way.
spacewolfdad
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Posted: Monday, March 13, 2017 - 04:33 PM UTC
I have used the 'sticky pencil' and for small parts, especially photo-etch, it is brilliant. It will pick up small stuff easily and then deposit it in the correct position without any dramas, if you intend to do Braille and handle small parts (my last use was placing tie downs on a Famo and they were minute!) they are a must...



As to the return rollers, my method was to mount one on a small piece of blu-tac and position the other using a cocktail stick with some blu-tac on the end, finally using extra thin glue to secure them. Mounting on the side of the tank can be done using the cocktail stick with blu-tac, worked for me .

All the best,

Paul
tread_geek
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Posted: Monday, March 13, 2017 - 08:38 PM UTC
@weathering_one – AJ,

Thanks for the welcome and best wishes. Yes, I have seen physical improvement but as far as I'm concerned its been a bit slow! To sum up about this kit, it's a bit old school and shows how spoiled I became with the offerings of other manufacturers. It has caused me to "reawaken" skills that have been dormant for quite some time.

@Braille – Eddy,

Quoted Text


Sounds like you were having a bit of a scrimmage with the tweezers launching parts into space. I’ve been thinking of modifying a set of tweezers to accommodate holding such small parts that are usually prone to leave the area without permission. ...


In this kit's case it just so happened that a certain size tweezers appeared to be the best solution for the size of the part for the operation that I was performing on it (filing in this case).


Quoted Text


Over at UMM-USA.com they market a tacky pencil just for holding small parts, it sells for around US $2.41 each. I'm thinking after what you've just gone through it might be a good idea to get one of these pencils and give them a try!




I'm sure I could use an item like this BUT, it won't hold the part for the type of operation I was trying to perform on it. I do have a "Grabber" tool but even it was a tad too large to hold the return rollers.


Quoted Text


Jan, I have a few sets of the holding clamps you set your vehicle on and from this I can see this model is quite small. I was wondering from one your pictures if there was any rivet detail removed during the sanding process from the rear part of the hull turret housing?


Eddy, on the rear superstructure on which the turrets are mounted there was no rivet detail. I'm sure there may be rivets visible on that rear plate but they weren't on the moulded part before sanding. Further, I haven't found any images of this version of the tank showing the back plate in any detail.

@spacewolfdad - Paul,

Quoted Text

I have used the 'sticky pencil' and for small parts, especially photo-etch, it is brilliant. ...if you intend to do Braille and handle small parts (my last use was placing tie downs on a Famo and they were minute!) they are a must...

As to the return rollers, my method was to mount one on a small piece of blu-tac and position the other using a cocktail stick with some blu-tac on the end, finally using extra thin glue to secure them. Mounting on the side of the tank can be done using the cocktail stick with blu-tac, worked for me .
l


Paul, as I mentioned above the sticky pencil is a great idea as is the blue tack but while it may be fine for parts placement, it lacks in the securing of parts for further shall we say processing/manipulation.

The return roller pairs for the right side are paired and "cleaned-up" and I'll glue them on and a few other parts on shortly with pictures to follow.

Cheers,
Jan
Das_Abteilung
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Posted: Monday, March 13, 2017 - 09:33 PM UTC
Thinking on from the tacky pencil, originally used for jewellery making but most useful in modelling, there are a couple of brands of "sticks" with blobs of tacky plastic goo at the ends. A bit like the magic tacky material used on some car mobile phone holders. Micro Stix is a brand that springs to mind - cocktail stick sized. I found some pencil-sized versions looking for jewellery tools on eBay. Someone - and I can't for the life of me remember the brand - does tweezers with lengthwise and widthwise slots in the jaws to help grip shaped parts. Although this is something one could probably do ones-self carefully with a triangular swiss file or rotary cutting disc.
celt15
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Posted: Monday, March 20, 2017 - 03:53 AM UTC
Not familiar with this company,will watch with interest.
firstcircle
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Posted: Monday, March 20, 2017 - 04:45 AM UTC
Jan, good job on getting back into the swing of things - you didn't pick something too easy then to ease yourself in... As well as all that manual plate aligning and roller pinging I see it looks like you've had the ****ard file out on the back of that fighting compartment as well.

I also sometimes use the blue tack + cocktail stick method, though I am thinking that what might be good is fine tweezers with a rubber lining of the jaws?

Paul, cutting rivets off an Airfix Mk I mixed with saliva... a heady modelling brew.

tread_geek
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Posted: Monday, March 20, 2017 - 08:11 PM UTC
celt15- Kenneth,


Quoted Text

Not familiar with this company,will watch with interest.


Mirage is an Eastern European company and the producers of a few rather unique subject kits. This is my first experience with building one and it appears to have or be “over-engineered” much in the same way as IBG kits.

firstcircle- Matthew,


Quoted Text

Jan, good job on getting back into the swing of things - you didn't pick something too easy then to ease yourself in... As well as all that manual plate aligning and roller pinging I see it looks like you've had the ****ard file out on the back of that fighting compartment as well.


On your first point about the choice of kit to “ease myself” back into things, I chose that kit because it was the one I had on hand that fit the requirements to join my first campaign in years. I had no knowledge or prior experience with Mirage kits so I attacked this one “blind”.

On the second point, it quickly became apparent that I hadn’t exactly chosen the most “user friendly” kit in existance. Filing, with a “diamond cut” metal file has been necessary in a few cases and as I have posted, the return roller have been their own adventure that I would have rather not had exposure. Parts fit and locating features have also not been the best where at all they exhisted.


Quoted Text

I also sometimes use the blue tack + cocktail stick method, though I am thinking that what might be good is fine tweezers with a rubber lining of the jaws?


As I have mentioned before, I had a need to hold small parts for further processing so gripping strength had a vital role to play in this type of manipulation. I forced my “Gripper” to hold the return rollers so there was no more “launching into space”.




NOTE: I am trying a new image hosting as Photobucket is acting up again today! I do hope it works!

Cheers,
Jan
firstcircle
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Posted: Monday, March 20, 2017 - 08:18 PM UTC
It works... That looks like the thing the aliens use to probe their abductees on the X-Files...
tread_geek
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Posted: Monday, March 20, 2017 - 10:47 PM UTC

Quoted Text

It works... That looks like the thing the aliens use to probe their abductees on the X-Files...


Well, here's another view of the "alien contraption" in use.



It does work quite well to grip small, non-fragile parts but it can be a bit of a chore to get the part positioned so that operations with other tools can be carried out on the part without damage to the gripping claws. All I'll say about the gripper is that I do have a friend who originates from and lived in Roswell, New Mexico at one time and was in the air force. That's my story and I'm sticking to it?

Cheers and "Trust No One!",
Jan (not Moulder)
celt15
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Posted: Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 04:48 AM UTC
I have seen a couple of Mirage kits on this forum,they look good,I will have to invest in a couple.BTW very interesting build.
tread_geek
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Posted: Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - 08:12 PM UTC
Greetings all! Been a bit(AGAIN) but unfortunately non-hobby concerns have seriously monopolized my time and impacted progress of my build. However, I have made a bit of progress but this kit keeps throwing curve balls at me! Parts fit is less than stellar, to be kind and filing and/or sanding are far from uncommon.

First issue was the drivers' compartment hatches. The "indents" on the side pieces were far too shallow to support the hatch plates. A judicious use of Evergreen styrene strips helped rectify the situation.





Next up was the placement of a couple of parts on the rear plate. Location features for these parts were all but non-existent.



Here's a couple of images of the driver's hatches and please note the spaces top, centre and bottom caused by the poor fit. I'll need to fill these spaces with prepared strips of plastic so it can look correct.





Cheers,
Jan
celt15
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Posted: Saturday, April 22, 2017 - 04:33 AM UTC
Looking very good so far.
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