Has been a good start to this week with me getting peace from the wife to model.

Finished off the shaping of the hook arm with the small outriggers that the flatrack frame bed down on when fully loaded

Then got down to the tricky work reshaping the hubs of the six drive wheels and two non-drive steer wheels bought from KFS.

I used the shaft of a kitchen utensil that had lost its handle to ream out the hubs

The drive wheel had the three bolt holes for the centre hubs drilled

The dead second steer axle wheels have a more recessed hub bearing

All wheels had the sharp square edges rubbed down and the treads scribed out from the mould plugs

All eight wheels ready to role


Nige

The KFS Leyland T45 / Scammell S26 resin cab is supplied as the commercial vehicle and needs militerised

Side bins on the cab to store ratchet straps had to be cut out from the cab and floor pan

above before and below after

The rectangular roof vent (civvy) makes way for the millitary cupola

I used one of the step drills from Power Craft tools to drill out the cupola using a vertical drill stand

Hole drilled and milk bottle top (I think) from my junk bits and bobs stash for the liner and cupola cover

The rest of the civvy roof vent needs to be ground down and the corugated finish to the roof replicated around where the vent used to be to match the rest of the roof

This will take a lot of patience to match the surrounding detail. I might get away with some blemishes as the roof surface gets a a rough non-slip coating (tape over to protect the rest of the cab roof)


Nige

End of a night's work on the DROPS. Got the cab roof surface altered

Bottle top was exact size for cupola cover

Weapons mount brackets fitted around cupola


Just got to figure how to make the hinge to allow the cupola to be posed open or closed

Any ideas folks???????

Thanks
Nige

Looking Good!!!


As far as the hinge..... Brass wire and plastic??

Hi Matt

Thanks for the encouragement, greatly appreciated. I am enjoying the build and have had a good few days of peace from family duties to get working on it. Back to work for xmas party then a couple more weeks off to see me through to the new year.

Am determined to get out to my huffin hoose to keep the momentum going.

Nige

Nige,

Great work so far and a very interesting subject matter for a build. I like the way you've incorporated odds and ends (milk bottle cap) into the build. Now that's creative! Why scratchbuild something when the size and shape you need is right over there on the counter or even the trash bin?
Thanks for posting the photos of your build too, it's always great to see another builder making progress and solving problems.


Jim
Large Scale Armory

Thanks James

Glad you like it. I have a large stash of odds and sods of plastic bits and the usual spare parts from kits. With the price of plastic sheet and rods, etc it is good to get something for nothing out of day to day esentials. It is also doing my wee part for our dear old mother earth.

My wife on the other hand has the door wide open to put the tumble drier vent pipe out and it is baltic outside! Go figure!!! I suppose it is one of my "round to its" that I promised her I would cut a hole in the wall for the tube to go out.

Not as baltic as where you are I suppose?

Priorities!! Get some modelling done!!!!!

Nige

Hi Folks

I found these at a craft shop and wondered what you think of them for use as the NATO towing pintle for the DROPS?



They are used for necklasses and the like but to my mind have a reasonable resemblance to the pintles. It looks like it would be easy enough to secure them to the chassis using the ring and might allow it to pivot if shown towing a fixed eyelet trailer. The advantage of allowing the pintle to be opened and closed instead of having to make a cut in a plastic version. I know I would never get a plastic hinge to work at that scale.

I have still to get the sizes of the real pintles to scale it down but I know these come in a few sizes.

What do you think?

Nige

Nige