Anyone familiar with modern armour will recognize these tie downs. On real vehicles, they are a spot welded raised bar used to thread straps and ropes through. These straps are then used to securely fasten vehicle equipment such as pioneer tools and jerry cans; personal kit such as rucksacks and bedrools; and camouflage, either nets or using paracord to attach natural foliage.
Even the best 1/35 kits have these numerous ties downs moulded as a solid blob. I just don't think its practical (or possible?) to injection mould such a fine detail.
One method used by scratch builders is to use a fine punch & die set to create two discs, and then run a very short length of stretched sprue or wire between the discs. It's fairly monotonous work and care must be taken to ensure a consistent result.
the kit
Enter the Arms Corps solution of providing 100 resin tie down cast in 10 rows of 10 tie downs. Enough to do several vehicles. Both my samples, provided by Arms Corps, were flawlessy cast...there's not even the usual flash that needs to be scraped away when you see small openings like these. The ten tie downs are cast into a .010 wafer, making separation easy. The wafer is integrally cast into a pour block that looks to be about .060, which will go a long way to making sure the parts do not get damaged in transit.
I used a new knife or a straight razor to remove them, and a medium viscosity gel CA glue to attach them. They are so small that I am sure other more forgiving glues could be used as well.
SUMMARY
Highs: A huge time saving detail to add that extra bit of realism to your model. Enough to do several AFV's in a back. Please look at the photos to see how well they have been cast. Lows: I believe these have limited distribution, being available only through the Arms Corp web site. Verdict: A well executed product for those who are building super detailed armour.
Well,
Something else that I need to get from Australia for the M1064 build from hell. I will give it to him, Jason does cast some nice items. Thanks Graeme for the review.
John
Comments