This will actually be one of the last packs to be put onto the model.
Stage 6 consists of Packs 19-22 for the bodywork detailing. This section also shows some custom additions.
Because some of these parts are difficult - if not impossible - to fit once the model has been completely finished up to Stage 5, you'll notice in some photos that much of the fixed detailing was done during the construction shown in Stage 5. So please bear with me that although this blog appears in 'manual' order, it isn't truly chronological in Stages 5 & 6. As they say in theoretical mathematics papers, "We leave it as an exercise for the reader to work out the intermediate details".
On this page, things are presented in (more-or-less) from the front of the model to the back. Again, the actual build order may have been different...
| Pack
19 is the seating. This consists of a metal plate for each bench and a
number of rubber pads representing the seat and back cushions, the
corners of which need to be rounded
off. Counter-sunk screws are fixed through the plates and the pads
glued to
the top. The seats can then be held in place on the seat benches either
by the just screws locating in corresponding holes in the bench top, or
glued more permanently. Since I have some figures to put on the model
and they'll need to be held in place somehow, I'll leave the seats
loose for the time being. The back pads just glue onto the seat back
panels. This will actually be one of the last packs to be put onto the model. |
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| Pack
20 is the body trim. The radiator grill from this pack was installed a
while back with the sound/smoke & speaker units, as was the
radiator cap. The bonnet handles were attached to the engine side
panels (Pack 18) back in Stage 5, along with the headlights (but see
below for
the details). The remaining parts are the front
tow bracket and pin (in the centre of the photo), side
lights,
indicator housings, body side panel trim and handles (bottom part of
photo) and dummy side doors
and rear body trim, doors and hinges (upper photo). These parts will be fitted with the main body side panels, though the tow bracket & pin can be done at any time These last items are now on the model, with one addition - a fine chain so the pin doesn't get lost if it should shake out of the bracket. |
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| The
headlights were already added at the end of Stage 5, but I'll
briefly describe them here. I planned to
have working front and rear lights, so I included a pair of
wires
in the wiring loom (See Stage 5) to take an R/C-switched 12V supply. These parts come as solid castings and hollowing them out through the black-out slit proved a bit tricky, so in the end I just sliced through the middle of each casting horizontally, drilled a 3mm hole through bottom half just behind the fixing hole for the bulb wires and hollowed out each half with a Dremel gouge tool. The halves were then glued back together and the join filled with car body filler smoothed down. After painting the joins are invisible. The insides were carefully smoothed and painted with several thick coats of chrome enamel paint and the front 'lenses' painted matt black for the black-out. effect. After mounting the headlight castings on the front wings as intended, I joined up a pair of white 12V 'grain of wheat' bulbs to the supply and inserted the bulbs into the castings - held at just the right height with a small blob of Blu-Tack under the wing. The effect can be seen in the photos. Also to be seen here is the Notek lamp (by Armorpax, not a kit item) now mounted on the left wing bracket. Less easy to see is a filler cap on a chain just to the right of the radiator housing. This actually a stopper for the smoke generator filler tube, exiting through a filing in the top of the side panel, to save taking the bonnet off just to fill the unit. I'm using a syringe & needle from a printer cartridge re-filler kit to replenish the smoke oil. Apart from painting and fitting the tow bracket (done after this photo was taken), and adding a (non-kit) number plate, that just about finishes the front end of the model. |
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| Pack
20 is
the cockpit detailing, including control panel steering wheel, column
and
bracket, dash tank, tachometer, foot pedals and gear levers and hand
brake. The photo also shows a handrail from Pack 20 and the dashboard from Pack 17 and windscreen bar from Pack 18 at the top. |
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| I scanned
photos of the dashboard and tacho from the Sd.Kfz.7 book at
1200dpi
(top half of photo), did some Paintshop Pro editing to get the
perspective back to round
shapes and printed the set at just the right size onto glossy photo
paper. I also made up some switches, knobs and indicator lamps from odd
bits of plastic which
don't look completely unlike those on the original, and so made up the
control panel and tacho, which were then both epoxied into place on the
dashboard. The dash-mounted fuel tank was bolted into place (after a little 'adjustment' to the mounting holes). The blocks for the foot pedals & levers were next bolted to the underside of the cockpit floor panel (Pack 17) and the pieces glued into place. The handbrake lever is fixed with a screw, which holds it in place but not so tightly that it can't be moved. The result can be seen in the bottom half of the photo |
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| Finally,
I wanted
the steering wheel to move in sync with the front wheels. I have a
driver 'Hans' (see Figures
section below) which moves the head
from
side to side as the arms move up and down in opposite directions, so as
he 'steers' he's looking where
he's going - generally good practice when driving! I just couldn't get an angle to couple the steering servo to the steering column, so I've mounted a slave servo under the bonnet, controlled via a Y-lead off the main steering servo, connecting to a horn fixed to the lower end of the steering column. Quite a bit of force is needed to get the figure to move - the arc is small, so the lever arm needs to be long at the servo and short at the column - needing some modifications:
|
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| Here we
have our "Hans on the wheel" (sorry!). As these figures are designed to be posable, the joints are rather stiff, which put too much strain on the servo; even a hi-torque model could hardly move him. A bit of painful surgery (no anesthetics available, sadly) on his elbow and wrist joints now allow more flexibility for sufficient movement, as can be seen in this animation. (By the way, this is not 'stop frame', but taken in 3fps rapid fire mode as the Tx steering was operated live.) |
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| The final
supplied pack, Pack 22, is for the rear tow hook assembly (right of
photo) and roller for
the winch hawser (left). Since mounting these items requires bolting from the back (inside) face of the rear stretcher, doing this is nigh on impossible with the rear body and electrics in place, so this is best done before finally assembly of this part of the model - i.e. before Stage 5 is finished. |
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| While
at
the Armortek open day, I purchased an Armorpax tool set in white metal
from one of
the traders (Newthorpe
Models). The set consists of a spade, sledge
hammer, axe and mattock (all with separate wood-effect handles) plus a
small axe and track
forceps (for lack of a better description!) and 'spare' sledge-hammer
head - see photo, in which the
handles have been attached to the tool heads. The tools were then painted with realistically worn & slightly rusty metal heads and 'wooden' handles. |
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| On the late model Sd.Kfz.7, such tools were mounted on the bonnet, but on this version they were stowed under the seats. I've made some mounting brackets from strips of thin sheet metal glued and pinned into place on the seat benches and on the rear of the drivers seat back panel. These hold the tools firmly, but they can still be removed. I'll glue them in place permanently when the model's finished. |
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| Here
are some gruesome characters you'd rather not meet on a cold dark night
behind a sand dune. The three crew members in the top photo are decked
out in DAK (Deutsches
Afrika Korps) uniforms, fitting with the Sd.Kfz.7 paint job.
The lower photo shows their passenger. Click on the photos
for
full-length views. Hans (top right) is my driver. As mentioned earlier, he is articulated so his head turns as his arms 'steer'. Hans was sourced by club member Chris, who added the movement, and is by Dragon Models Limited. The other two are infantry back-seat escorts: Fritz (top middle) and Jurgen (top left). Neither do anything exciting, but have a full accessory set of rifles and harness with belt, knife, ammo pouch with clips of bullets and canteen. The latter two were sourced from Newthorpe Models, unboxed, but also made by Dragon. These two are identical figures apart from having different heads. In the middle is Ernst, another Dragon model from Newthorpe. The box says he's Ernst Krüger having an SS rank of Scharfürer (NCO). His kit includes binoculars, two wireless headsets, document pouch and pistol & holder. And here's the whole crew on board. |
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Total elapsed time from the boxes arriving: 30 months (sorry, little progress since April as some personal issues have distracted me for much of 2008...)
Total model attention time: approx 190 hours
Total build time: approx 110 hours
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