Desert Rat Achilles

[Beekster]

Thank you! This kind of work is the fun stuff for me.

I was right, the driver's floor had to be cut back about eighty thou so that job is in progress. Surprisingly I didn't do a lot of damage to the etch treadplate when I fired up the Dremel with a cutting disc, and what I did do is easily fixed. I think I've got a good handle on dealing with the seat mounts, so probably more to say about those tomorrow. The TMD hatches just arrived, so now I have to go and ogle those for a while...

[Beekster]

And now three No. 19 sets. Top to bottom are AFV Club, Academy, and Resicast.

There's really no comparison; the plastic examples fall far short on detail even without the etched cage (which, admittedly, wasn't always fitted). The resin piece will certainly fill the space and look the business, and will be largely visible through the open hatches. Worth $16? Yep. Not shown are a couple of additional junction boxes, antenna bases, a microphone, and earphone ends, so you do get your money's worth with this accessory.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

We're talking communications here! How many antennas?

[Beekster]

May 22, 2020 17:27:44 GMT -6 dogfish7 (R.I.P.) said:

We're talking communications here! How many antennas?

Two.  One twenty inches tall for inter-troop communications and one eight feet tall for longer-range transmission to squadron or brigade.  Standard British fit.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Use to run a 102 inch Whip on my vehicle for CB radio. Now, 2 MHZ antennas are just 2 feet tall or less.

[Beekster]

The hull interior is coming together, bit by bit:




What you see in these two images is in there for good now. Missing is one of the transmission actuators, which is still drying, and the driver's steering rods. I'm still having issues with casting those, and I suspect that getting them cleaned up intact is a bridge too far for the resin chemistry I'm using. What will probably end up happening is that I will salvage the handles themselves, then use the kit part to measure for bent brass rods to finish the assembly. Not shown is that lovely radio set, but it fits perfectly well. I got good casts for the forward sponson bulkheads, but I was an idiot...I made the mold too soon. See, those bulkheads ought to have a pair of vertical, oval slots in them similar to the horizontal ones on the firewall. I ought to have drilled the masters and taped off one side before doing the mold. I'll use what I have and drill the bulkheads for the models which will have full, visible interiors and not bother for the one (at least) which will not.

My last reference arrived on Saturday, the M10/Achilles book from David Doyle Books. Also well worth having for any M10 project, and I was delighted to discover that one of the restored Achilles tank destroyers featured in the book is a wedge-counterweight Mk. 1, which is exactly what I am modeling here.

[JCON]

Looking good Beeks!!!

[BUCKY]

Fine bit of work, beekster!

[ogrejohn]

Nice work Beeks! 

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Superb detail work.

[Beekster]

Work has been progressing on the turret. To do the conversion from an Achilles IIc to a Ic, most of the work is simply filling all locating holes & slots on the turret walls and rearranging where items go. The brackets for the six ready rounds do need some massaging to fit the earlier pattern turret shell because the plate angles are different, but that's not a big deal. Tamiya gives you decent Sten guns for the crew, but no representation of the clip brackets that held them to the sides. I used the corresponding Academy part as a pattern to make simple brackets with strip & rod stock. Also added were bolt heads on the upper rear plates, since bolts are what held the counterweights on and they are visible in decent reference photos. This is the last you will see of the turret halves separated; there's no way to reasonably leave them separate and paint the interior ahead of time since that rear seam needs some cleanup inside & out and a couple of parts added after the turret is together...plus one more bit of bent strip on the left side that Tamiya doesn't give you at all.










Obviously painting everything in situ is going to be a challenge. The elevation wheel and one crew seat which sits upright on the left side will wait until everything else is done before installation; the wheel because it would certainly break off and the seat because it couldn't be painted and would inhibit painting other stuff. Before I glue this all together there's a bit of careful file work to be done on the upper plates at the back, and some reference consultation to place the turret traverse locks (resin copies of Academy parts). Tamiya doesn't give you those bits, either. Not shown are four bolt heads on each of the trunnion plates on the gun; they look the part and with the gun sitting level will be fine. Tamiya molds those as part of the gun rather than the turret, so they move with it and shouldn't, but unless the gun is off level the discrepancy won't be noticed. Indeed, if you were to build one of these with the official overhead cover kit installed it wouldn't be visible at all. Yes, I have official drawing for that, but that's another project for another time

[JCON]

Nice upgrade!!!

[Beekster]

Mocked up like this, it begins to look like a proper tank destroyer:

But like Transformers, there's more than meets the eye. Visible here is a white axle shaft for the right drive sprocket. The OD one was there on Monday; on Thursday I noticed it had broken off. I have no idea when that happened. Fortunately (I guess) Tamiya molds that part hollow, so there was a ready-made centered hole to enlarge for a new solid axle. It goes in behind the transmission and butts up against a big hunk of plastic H-beam that stiffens the differential housing inside. Little dots on the hatch hinge mounts will have little wire hooks added, and there will be lots of other exterior work to come.

Inside, the turret is together now and has two travel locks added. Between them is the empty mount for a seat which will be installed after painting is done in here.



And work progresses in the lower hull. No seats yet; that will be complicated and my first thought about how to do it (replicate the picture) was discarded as being far too fragile. The mount under the seat itself won't be seen, so I'm working on a visually inaccurate but structurally sound method. I've got the little main electrical switch box nearly done, sitting in front of the raised floor. The tray above the transmission sits nicely, and is ready for primer. The two forward bulkeads are slotted and installed too, and will get primered in white with everything else. The ammo stowage that Tamiya gives you isn't bad, but isn't complete, either. There's no way to get a complete stowage arrangement without scratchbuilding the racks and getting brass rounds to fill them, and I'm not in the mood (or budget) for that. So I'm adding thick styrene stock to fill out the depth, and count on the area being mostly in shadow to disguise the fact that there ought to be a lot more rounds in there. I'm also about to venture into the realm of speculative modeling. There are a couple of extra junction boxes that came with Resicast's lovely radio, but no indication of where they go. My references don't show them, and one of those shows the No. 19 set connected to a standard US junction box on the lower hull wall...but that could be an artifact of vehicle restoration seven decades later, not how it was built. I'll figure something out.

[JCON]

Looking mean!!!

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Wow! Almost like looking into the 1:1!

[Beekster]

And here we have the seats. The brick structure under the seat bottoms is decidedly not like the real thing, but is strong enough to hold the seat in place...or it will be, once the glue has fully cured. The strip pieces with the round discs will be glued to the hull side walls. I will add a couple of small bolt heads to those yet, and will have to figure out something for the springs which attach to the brass rods which extend out the back. There's not enough room for an accurate rendition of the Y-yoke that is there on the real thing, so I will have to figure something out.

[Robbo]

Stunning building, love it

[Beekster]

Thanks, Ian! These are fun puzzles to solve.

[Robbo]

I've got one of them little radios sets from Inside The Armour, load of crap

[Beekster]

May 30, 2020 15:17:40 GMT -6 Robbo said:

I've got one of them little radios sets from Inside The Armour, load of crap

The Resicast set is quite nice and worth the price, IMO.  The major elements (radio, variometer, junction boxes) are all separate so you can change their configuration to suit the vehicle you are using them in.  The protective cage wasn't always installed either, so you don't have to use that if you don't want to.