Rear mudguards from 6th Scale Icons

[Vince Cutajar]

As I had some fasteners left over from the front mudguards I thought I would start one of the side flaps. Bent some bits with the aide of the milling vice and opened up the holes for the rivets. Noticed that some of those miniature holes were not all etched through but it wasn't a problem as I needed to make them slightly larger.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Still waiting for the fasteners. Hopefully they arrive tomorrow. In the meantime I thought I would fix the mudguard to the rear plate. As it is it has to be done eventually.

Vince

[Phil Woollard]

The ol "like button" is making me lazy They look pretty good Vince, maybe keep a set of the Armortek guards for your road march to the front! They will photograph very nicely indeed....Phil.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Phil. I'm afraid no road march planned for the Tiger. Like all my scratch built working models, I suspect it will have low mileage and end up just for display.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

The fasteners I was waiting for arrived . Soon realised that I had under-ordered some of the fasteners . Oh well things that happen. I still have enough to continue work on one of the rear mudguards and that's what I did.

Attached the photo-etched hinge profiles to the main panel and side panel. Not using the countersunk screws that came with the kit.

Bent the hinge tabs roughly about 45 degrees.

Brought both panels together.

Placed the brass hinge rod as shown.

Bent the hinge tabs over as shown. Started with the small tabs first as they are easier to bend over and then did the wider tabs. It's not as easy as it looks or sounds.

Then using either a screwdriver or small pliers continued to bend them over. As I am not using the countersunk screws I had to modify slightly the edges of the tabs to do this. If using countersunk screws then it's not a problem.

The hinges are not perfect but functional and there is no looseness in them.
The instructions tells you to remove the hinge rod to do some other operations and then cut it and re-insert. I do not think I will be doing this as I worry that it would be hard to re-insert it. So I will be cutting it in place at a later stage.

Vince

[davidwilkins]

Hi Vince,

Very nice neat and tidy work.

Regards

David

[Brian Ostlind]

Wow nice work and great dedication.

[Adrian Harris]

> Wow nice work and great dedication.

I agree, and I'm afraid I can see me resorting to using commercial brass hinges when I get round to building my Early versions

Adrian.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks David, Brian and Adrian for the compliments.

Adrian, the problem I find when dealing with these custom parts is that I realise that I only have one attempt available at getting it right and that makes me a bit nervous. I am sure that when I do the other one I will be more relaxed as I know exactly what I need to do and how to do it.

If I could do it I'm sure you can.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Have been working on the lock slide bars. Had to fix the position of the slot in one of the bars. Added the end stop also. Used the screw and flynut that came with the kit.

That's one rear mudguard complete. Have to wait for the fasteners to do the other one and then paint them together.

Vince

[Vince Cutajar]

Yesterday I received the fasteners that I was waiting for and finished the other mudguard. The only thing remaining was to attach the hold-up bars to the rear plate. At first I was not going to bother doing them but as they were there might as well add them also. These are attached to the rear plate with miniature self-tapping screws. First thing I noticed was that the head of the self-tapping screw was too large so I had to reduce the diameter of the head. Then had some problems finding the correct size of drill for these screws. After breaking a couple of twist drills I went one size larger and ended up gluing the screw in.

Hold up bar in stowed position.

Hold up bar in use.

So basically that finishes the assembly of the rear mudguards. What did I like about this kit was that it is a good replica of the real thing. Also the bend lines are etched which helped a lot. The position of where the ribs should go are also etched which helped with the soldering. The instructions are also good although incomplete. It does not tell you how to work on the main panel. The greatest headache I had was how to form the hinges of the main panel and keep them aligned with each other. For this I had to build a jig.

The first photo of the instructions shows you all the contents of the kit and the main panels are shown as complete with pre-formed hinges, soldered ribs and appropriately bent. I was a bit disappointed when I found that I had to do all this myself. I suspect that previously Mike did all this work on the main panel.

Hope this was of help.

Vince

[simon_manning]

well done vince, every task on these models on the first build is difficult if you want to add detail, thats the interest, your making a great job of your's, keep at it, regards simon manning.

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks Simon for the words of encouragement.

Vince

[davidwilkins]

Very nice job Vince.

David

[Vince Cutajar]

Thanks David.

Vince