I have now finished making the base for the cupola to hold in the periscopes, this is a metal ring that will be attached to the base of the resin cupola. The cupola master has been modified to fit the metal ring and is now ready for molding. Making the rubber mold will take two days, which I will do this weekend, and plan to start casting the cupolas on Monday with a view to shipping them sometime after next weekend.
Master cupola and metal ring.
Ten metal rings cast to fill orders.
Set up of how periscopes and mounts are held in place by metal ring.
Periscope and mount as seen through cupola hatch. Note: the gap between the metal ring and cupola is due to it not being fixed. Once secured the gap will be closed and will apply pressure to the periscope mount holding it in place. The rubber gasket will act as the pressure point and periscopes can be removed by applying pressure upwards allowing the mount to be pulled out the same as the real ones.
Matching the metal ring to the cupola was a nightmare due to spin casting problems, it took over fifty shots to get the ten I was happy with. Some minor cleaning and filling will be required to match the two parts before painting.
Regards
Mike