Dragon Jagdpanzer IV 70 (A) Kit 6015 COMPLETE

[Bomber_County]

Looking good Gaz, like the brass crow bars, the PE latches look perfect……

[GazzaS]

20 hours ago, DocRob said:

Keep on the good roll with the PE and metal stuff Gary, Your detailing looks supercool and yes, I glued some track links on with no brackets at all , but also tried a more realistic approach once or twice.

Cheers Rob

Thank you, Rob.  I have to admit that the detail is much better at this level, and am happy to have got so far. 

[GazzaS]

19 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Looking good Gaz, like the brass crow bars, the PE latches look perfect……

Thank you, Phil.  I won;t say too  much until I'm happy the way they look under paint.  I think the dark color of the plated PE hides things.

[GazzaS]

For those of you following this build....

I just want to write a note about my dog Satan...  I mean Kaiser.   I pray every day that he doesn't get to my bench.  He's already cost me a detail paint brush, a roll of fine twine, and a bag of wooden coffee stirrers.  He's smart and energetic. 

 

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Right with the Guys, your detailing, tools and PE work look amazing. The negative aspect of closeup/macro work is you see details in a very unrealistic way. Your photographs of an area (back deck) show just how good everything really looks. And of course, I completely agree about parts hanging on in place magically - your solution is prefect.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Martinnfb]

 

 

 

[GazzaS]

54 minutes ago, Martinnfb said:

 

 

 

Very nice, Martin!

[Martinnfb]

I have a few of them

[GazzaS]

Despite having the day off work, I only managed the jack brackets and the wire cutters.  The wire cutters had to be rebuilt.  The only part of the original wire cutters I kept was the head.  I used styrene rod and brass tube for the rest.

Happy modelling!

 

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Awesome work on the tools - the details are looking so good.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[GazzaS]

15 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Awesome work on the tools - the details are looking so good.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

Thank you, Peter.  There are some small half "ovals" required for the hull.  The kit PE supplied doesn't seem to bend right for them.  So. I will attempt to make my own from Brass foil.

[Kaireckstadt]

Copy Peter, Gary: the tools look amazing! 

[GazzaS]

On 5/28/2022 at 6:56 AM, Kaireckstadt said:

Copy Peter, Gary: the tools look amazing! 

Thank you, Kai!

 

[GazzaS]

HI Gents,

     I'm sort of at a milestone in the build.  If it weren't for Schurzen, I'd be ready for paint.  Along the way, I've found a new way to do PE.  I saw it on NIghtshift a few weeks ago, and tried it out myself.  So, here it is.  Once you have your PE sitting where you want it, before putting any CA on it, hit it with Tamiya extra thin.  Adjust positioning if need be.   It makes it stick...  Like the metal parts sink into the softened plastic or something.  Then, once the Extra Thin has cured, I reinforce it with thin CA.  It beats the hell out of trying to get it right with CA on the very first contact.

Anyway...   here are the photos.  If it's brass , white, or copper color, I added it.  Anything dark is Eduard PE.  At this time, the metal barrel is only dry fitted.

 

 

Thanks for looking!

[DocRob]

Looking very good Gary. Using Extra Thin for PE sounds interesting, I will definitely try this out.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Gaz Looking good and the PE adds so much. Thanks fr the tip on using Tamiya Extra Thin to sel small PE parts before CA - it's going to come in mighty handy.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Sasha As]

Great job!!!

[GazzaS]

18 hours ago, DocRob said:

Looking very good Gary. Using Extra Thin for PE sounds interesting, I will definitely try this out.

Cheers Rob

 

17 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz Looking good and the PE adds so much. Thanks fr the tip on using Tamiya Extra Thin to sel small PE parts before CA - it's going to come in mighty handy.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

 

10 hours ago, Sasha As said:

Great job!!!

Thank you, fellas!

[Kaireckstadt]

Great progress Gary and I wiil for sure try your tipp for attaching PE-parts with Extra-Thin cement. I used Contacta Clear from Revell  so far to do the same job. 

[GazzaS]

1 hour ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Great progress Gary and I wiil for sure try your tipp for attaching PE-parts with Extra-Thin cement. I used contacts clear so far to do the same job. 

Thank you, Kai!  

[Bomber_County]

Nice tip Gaz, looking very very good…..

 

[GazzaS]

A Soldering lesson.

Now, some very close images of nastiness...

One of my mates at the club had another Dragon 70 (A) with photo  etch for 45AUD.  So, I bought it and married it's photo-etch to my #40 Gauge brass mesh.

The way the photo etch is made, the modeller will bend it around the edges of the mesh and then fix in place.  This is fine for mesh that doesn't move.  However, my brass mesh is truly woven.  So, every touch bends the ends and makes a general mess of the fine filaments.  Then there are the filaments that escape via the unsealed edges.  Very untidy.  But this is the way it is when you have to fondle something as lively as woven brass mesh.

So...   What is the solution?  My mind has been working on it while I was working at work today.  What I will have to do is:

1.  Fix a larger piece of mesh to a frame, ensuring all of the filaments are running north-south and east-west.  I will do this with masking tape. 

2.  Attach new brass strips to the immobilized mesh.  I prefer to use soldering as it is less prone to accidental detachment.

3.  Solder 'mirror' strips on the other side of the Schurzen.

4.  Seal the un-framed edges with CA.  I tried to do this with solder, but apparently soldering mesh is very difficult according to my web-research.

5.  Finally cut away the Thoma Schurzen piece from the overly large piece of brass mesh.

6.  Attach additional hardware pieces required to hang the Schurzen from the vehicle.

7.  Soak in pickle solution.

A friend gave me some pictures of how Thoma Schurzen should look on a Pz IV.   I'll attach a couple pics.

 

 

[DocRob]

That turned out pretty bad Gary, sorry to see that. Your not un delicate solution could maybe work, but if your mesh is made from brass, it will weaken through the soldering process. I think, I would use only CA for the Schürzen.
Another option might be, to sell the 45$ kit and to buy a newer one with the Thoma Schürzen like mine, pre cut steel mesh with PE framing. I guess, that should work relatively easy, but haven't tried. If you need more info about my Thoma's let me know.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Rob's solutions seems the best course of action and will save your nerves at the same time. Easily a 'head knocker' ..  hope when it's done, you'll look back at your work with a big satisfaction smile.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[GazzaS]

19 hours ago, DocRob said:

That turned out pretty bad Gary, sorry to see that. Your not un delicate solution could maybe work, but if your mesh is made from brass, it will weaken through the soldering process. I think, I would use only CA for the Schürzen.
Another option might be, to sell the 45$ kit and to buy a newer one with the Thoma Schürzen like mine, pre cut steel mesh with PE framing. I guess, that should work relatively easy, but haven't tried. If you need more info about my Thoma's let me know.

Cheers Rob

The $45 kit has the steel mesh.  But having bought the brass mesh...   I wanted to use it.