Armortek

I have been slowly filling in gaps and holes with Milliput and also opening up 384 2.5mm holes and making them 3mm in the road wheels. This afternoon I did the blind rivets in the pannier gusset. Some photos show them as flush rivets whilst others show them as slightly indented. I went with the slightly indented blind rivets.
They don't look too bad but was wondering if I should have made them flush.

Vince

I wasn't in the mood of playing with Milliput or drilling holes. So, I made the front spare track holder. I used a piece of 10mm square section BMS for the pillars and a brass 'L' profile of 10 x 10 mm for the holder.
If the last photo looks strange, that is because the tank is at the moment upside down. When the model is right side up, I will put some tracks and see if it was worth the trouble. I also made the pillars longer than required as I don't know what thickness of zimm I will end up with.

Vince

Looks good Vince, the units performed this mod very often in the field workshop with what ever they had to hand, I can see its up side down but how does it look with track links hanging on it? Liam in Oz made a cool rotisserie for his tigers so he could flip the vehicle anyway he wanted but he did recreate the entire suspension system, take a look at his posts when you get a minute, Regards Phil.

Hi Phil.

Yes I saw Liam's build and the contraption he built. It was a great idea.

I am assuming that as I am using the pre-drilled holes, they are at the correct height for the spare tracks. I have held a couple of track links in place and they seem to be in the proper height. A final decision will be taken when I turn the model around again and put some links in the holder and properly see how they look. Fingers crossed.

Vince

Finished widening the holes in all the road wheels and today did a start on some weld seams but stopped as I wasn't certain about something.

I need an honest opinion here.
I know that weld seams should not look perfect but I am having a suspicion that I am laying it too thick and wide. What do you think? Should I redo them and make them smaller?

Vince

Vince Cutajar wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:31 am

I know that weld seams should not look perfect but I am having a suspicion that I am laying it too thick and wide. What do you think? Should I redo them and make them smaller?

First put some paint on them and they will look different. I think these are fine!

Mine:

IMHO, your hull to idler weld is near enough, but the hull plate weld is too thick.

These are similar welds from the front of Tiger 131.

This is the hull fillet from Tiger 131 - the weld is only about half the thickness of the fillet itself.

Adrian.

Vince, I think there’s a principle in scale modelling, which is that anything over-scale is will disproportionately ruin the scale effect. Any detail which is too small will simply fade out of sight. If you’re in any doubt, go for too little rather than too much. A good test is to apply the weld then measure it with a digitial calliper. Multiply the result by six and you’ll soon see if you’ve created something out of scale. Milliput does tend to be over-size unless you’re very conscious of applying the finest amounts. I now tend to use fabric paint, applied through a syringe for anything but long, straight weld seams.

Lilliput not Milliput .......

Stephen

Some more 131 weldines to help you:

Thank you gentlemen for the comments and suggestions which were all taken on board.

So, this afternoon I removed the Milliput around the fillets which was bugging me. I left the ones around the idler thingy.

Attempt number two and now it's official. I hate Milliput. Gets my heart racing and increases the blood pressure.
Does this look better? If it's rubbish just say so.

Thanks in advance

Vince

Vince,

I dislike Milliput.
- it's messy
- the weld detail is crude, however fine the scribing tool
- it's fragile and will fracture if knocked
- the working time is limited
- too little water and everything sticks, too much and it doesn't adhere to the surface
- it's relatively expensive

Here's a previous post on Welds I put up a while back:

Stephen White wrote: ↑

Fri May 26, 2017 4:27 pm

Steve, Tim

I've posted about fabric paint a few times, including:

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... &start=360

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... &start=750

I then did an update with a new source of material to replace the one Fabrice le Roux originally recommended here:

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... 527#p55527

I'd recommend fabric paint over Milliput now having use it a lot on my Cent build. It's much quicker and easier to use and above all, it gives much more refined results in smaller areas. I'll still use Milliput for the bigger structural welds but for fine detail, i.e. the majority of welds, I'll use fabric paint.

Stephen

There is life beyond Milliput or as a Millennial would say, "Milliput is so yesterday....". I wouldn't write it off completely but I prefer to use other materials where possible.

Stephen

Practise makes perfect.

I'm on a roll. The weld seams are coming along nicely at a steady rate. I seem to have sort of mastered the vagaries of Milliput. I should have the weld seams finished in another two sessions. Also started the painting process on the road wheels so that I can fit the 3mm bolts, nuts and locking tabs.

Which brings me to my question (this guy never stops asking questions).

After the weld seams are finished I intend to etch prime and red prime the hull. I also intend to apply the base coat in the areas where no zimm will be applied. For zimm I intend to use tile adhesive. Is it a good idea to use etch primer and red primer in the areas where zimm is going to be applied? Will the tile adhesive stick to the primer?

As usual thank you for your patience and replies.

Vince

I can answer the question myself. Had a look at Tim Bowman's build log and it seems that is what he did. He applied the adhesive on the paint.

http://www.armortek.co.uk/Forum3b/viewt ... &start=195

Vince

vince i recommend tile adhesive/grout, for the zimmerit, easy and quick to apply, you can apply a thin coat and it looks more to scale, milliput seems to thick and harder to work, also when mixing your tile grout add some p.v.a. glue to the mix, sticks like you know what, you will need some toothed comb to replicate the zimmerit pattern, mike stannard made some sets a few years ago, make your own or put out a request to buy or borrow a set, regards simon manning.

That's a good idea Simon to add PVA glue to the mixture. Is there a recommended amount of PVA glue you add to the mixture?

Regarding the zimm tools; I managed to get them from 6th scale icons.

Vince