Making the windscreen with simple basic materials

[Stewart Ashton]

Like me I bet several owners searched through all the boxes looking for
componants to build the windscreen, and all we found was the steel frame
on its own.

At least one modeler has made a more realistic looking windscreen

To save money I used the exsisting windscreen and troted off to the
nearest glass works and they kindly cut me three pieces of 4mm float glass
making them slightly smaller than the actual size of the openings to allow space to fit the brass frame which I bought from the local model shop.



The glass was a £1 and the brass was five strips less than a fiver.

I measured the brass strips fairly accurately so they fitted snugly around
the glass. To achieve a tight fit within the frame I used thin slivers of
wood left over from another model and placed these between the glass and frame. No glue used.

Excuse the colour as flash is kaput!



And another



So for a couple of quid the screen starts to look like one

Heres a view mounted temp in positon



And............



Next job is to clean it up and add dummy wipers and motors.

Regards Stewart

PS Someone with more talent than I and more betterer tools can make the
window open

[Allan Richards]

Stewart,

That screen is looking really good. A man after my heart using all sorts of material and achieving first class results for little outlay. I use wood and plastic, whichever is easiest for the job I'm doing. Once its painted its not possible to see what material it is.

[Stewart Ashton]

Hi Allan

Indeed the painting hides everything!!!

If you look at the dash you will see two slider levers with balls on

Thats two toothpicks with beads stuck on and by coincidence they are
the same size as the gear knobs and they will be used on the front
mudguards as the measureing prongs.

All good fun

Regards Stewart

[Stewart Ashton]

An update

Wipers and dummy motors added.



The stand is a lashup of bitsof wood, the idea being that the feet only
support the windscreen on the glass area. Hence no waiting for ages to
paint the other side



Regards Stewart

[Stewart Ashton]

Finished view of windscreen



Sorry about all the stuff in the background but I have no where else to
move this monster too.



and wifey wont let me move her ebay pics

Regards Stewart

[Allan Richards]

A very nice looking screen, the model is coming along well. I like all the little detail parts. Don't worry about all the bits in the background, you should see the junk in my garage.

[Stewart Ashton]

Hi Allan,
Yeps bit by bit its slowly coming together

It will never be museum quality but I enjoy building both the 7 and
the 88. I am tending to apply more detail to the 7 and leave the 88 as
the basic kit which I could always upgrade later using the tons of
pics downloaded from you expert types

On the bright side I am using loads of old bits and bobs from my
old kit spares boxes.

Regards Stewart

[Allan Richards]

Stewart,

The one to follow for the 88 is Jeff Goff. He's really gone to town but it looks as if the 88 is lacking a lot of detail, so you can go as far as you want with it. I find the fun is mostly in the building so I am prepared to make the build last, especially with my Sherman as its my second tank, so I have a runner in my Tiger. The problem is that not many people are interested in the allied stuff, look at the Sherman and US half track topics - very little interest.

[Stewart Ashton]

Allan,
I am following J`s 88 rebuid and it is looking fantastic to say the
least.

The basic 88 has a lot of detail missing but I am presuming thats
down to financial constraints.

The germans built almost everything in a very over engineered way
making things to complicated and very expensive to manufacture, BUT
they do look a LOT better than allied vehicles IMO.

Regards Stewart