M911 & M747 on Civvie street

[ogrejohn]

Oh heck yeah! 

[Dukemaddog]

Exceptional work man! This is really looking most impressive already!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

I hope the cab door will be open.

[Beekster]

Mar 10, 2019 16:54:53 GMT -6 dogfish7 (R.I.P.) said:

I hope the cab door will be open.

That might be possible, given how the thing fits together.  The piano-hinge at the front edge provides a lot of surface area for a fairly secure join, even using something like clear parts glue.  Would look something like this:

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Cool beans! Now you'll be able to see all that hard work.

[JCON]

I agree it's best open!!!

[BUCKY]

I like the open doors, too!

[RLFoster]

Very nice! Even one open, one closed would work...it's up to you.

[JED]

Top quality work,it would be a shame if it was all hidden away

[Beekster]

Well, it has not been the best couple of days on this one:

This morning the right front fender broke off, despite my attempts at careful handling. There just isn't enough surface area on those two outrigger supports to withstand much handling as the model goes together. It's probably better to totally ignore the assembly sequence, and only test-fit these parts without glue until the very end. Hard to see, but I've drilled the frame and the fender supports for bits of .020" brass rod to provide some added support, and when the fender goes back on it goes on with superglue.




The winch deck is coming together, but not as I had hoped. I've got some weight inside the square hydraulic fluid tank and the left side tool bin beneath the deck, to help ensure all the wheels hit the ground. That makes the structure a bit wobbly. I had to glue down the cover over the pusher axle, then glue down the winch deck to get this far. The winch control box isn't on yet, nor are a couple of pipes from the square tank. Unfortunately, all four of those pipes terminate just under the deck in open space. Obviously they go somewhere, but this area is not covered at all in my reference photos. I'll have to troll through the TM to see if it says anything about the plumbing under there. The cover over the pusher axle is another component that probably ought to be installed well out of sequence. Way back at the start of this I noted that the frame side rails were a little warped. I had to turn the model upside down and use weights draped over the pusher axle suspension to get the cover to sit down fully flat. I might have been better off including that part in the frame & crossmembers assembly to help keep things squared up. Ohs well...I've got another truck that will benefit from the travails on this one...eventually.

[BUCKY]

Sorry yer having a bad session on this. I'm sure you'll overcome these problems, tho! Keep plugging along!

[JCON]

We have faith in ya!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Lots of great details Beekster.

[JED]

A few hiccups but your dealing with them like a pro

[BUCKY]

Well sed, Jed!!

[Beekster]

Not much has been happening this week since I've been occupied with family duties. But I have managed some work on the winch deck, and that has revealed another shortcoming of the kit. Behold parts H28 and H29, the winch motors and attached hydraulic line (it's handy sometimes to have a spare kit!):

What these parts really look like is this:


Notice that each of these motors has two lines feeding it, not just one. They all run up the center of the deck, under a small platform that is barely visible (and which I must make), and vanish. Common sense tells me that they all go through the opening in the winch control station, and attach to the four pipes coming from the hydraulic feed tank. My solution is this:



The kit hydraulic line, which is only a stub anyway, was cut off and new fittings made from Meng bolt heads and punched discs. The wire is a very flexible, silicon-coated bit of loveliness that can be added after the rig is painted to plumb both winch motors to the hard lines beneath the winch deck.. Tomorrow I'll be able to show you all how this is supposed to look once these little fittings have set up and been attached to the winches.

[JCON]

Nice fix Beekster!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Easy peasy.

[BUCKY]

Like one of my old pipefitting mentors said, "That ain't no hill for a stepper!!"

You got it going yer way!!!

[JED]

Aaaah just another little hiccup to keep you on your toes 😬😬