Gave it a go making IFF panels out of brass sheets. The largest Evergreen clapboard siding wasn't big enough and the brass allows for damage.









Paul

The Evergreen .100 spacing clapboard is the correct size. (based on the Legends M1 Accessory set. I've got a sheet and it matches perfectly.

I was working off the pictures shown here:
http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/message?forumid=47209&messageid=1049407121

and if you go by the 24' x 32' in the mil specs for the panel the Evergreen .100 gives you 7 panels instead of 6.

Paul

Paul,

They look awsome, I thought that the Evergreen siding method was okay too, but now looking at yours...

Again, very nice work.

-CT

Nice job ptruhe!!! Very neat scratchbuilding....
Ciao

that is truly awesome stuff Ptruhe, do you think you could explain about the jig that you've built? That would be truly useful... Jim

Hi Paul,
I've seen these panels on various armour used in IOF but was never sure what they were. At the risk of sounding dumb (:|) what are they used for? Excellent scratchbuilding by the way. Can you give me sizes of the stuff used for the jig you made please?
Cheers, Kenny.

Nice job on the panels; I'm doing some now using .015 evergreen and they seem to look good enough... Wow, that's an old M1 or M1IP kit in the first pics... Didn't know they were still around...

Thanks for the compliments. Yes, that is a old Tamiya M1 I built in 1988. For the one question; The Identification Friend or Foe(IFF)/Combat Identification Panel(CIP) is a device to try to avoid friendly fire. The panel is made of material that sheds heat easily so it appears cold on a thermal image.

I apologize to all the metric readers since everything I did was in inches or scale inches. All parts of the jig are built from Evergreen and the brass is from a K&S Engineering #258 Shim Brass Asst. pack.

The panel part of the jig is 6 pieces of #294 Angle 1.8" (.125) that have one side cut in half are are 32 scale inches wide(just under 14/16" wide). Then I shaped the cut side to make it perpendicular to what would be the panel surface. I put the panels within two rails of #158 .060 x .188" (1.5 x 4.8mm) which I put in place first to ensure that the panel slats were true and it keeps the brass sheet from moving. I spaced the rails with the placeholder(.060 sheet) which I use to shape the panel frame. The placeholder is the same depth and width of the complete panel. The U shaped part is the outside of the panel jig. It has just enough space for the placeholder and the brass sheet which makes up the panel frame. Made from .060 x .188 strips.


I found it easier to make sure the brass for the IFF panel was precut for length because it's hard to trim after it's been shaped. It's just under 13/16". The scribe and tin snips I got for Christmas really came through on this. The hardest part is marking and cutting the brass. I made a cutting panel so I could put the brass sheet and triangle against the edge and get a good line scribed.

I going to make a slight change and add a .060 rail at the left end of the panel form and when I scribe the brass I'll another .060 section that I'll fold up prior to shaping the rest of the panel. This is so I can duplicate this top part of the panel that if leftover when cutting the section.
I think I've seen the panel with and without this piece. The rail will also be useful in holding down the end while forcing the sheet into the form.

I'll make some extras after I make what I need so let me know if you would like a set. No sense in wasting the jig. I am also going to try the back panels on a Bradley. The Scimitar panel was just a smaller version of the M1/Challenger II panel.

Paul

i might give your method a go and try building some to add to my chally 2,

just a quick thought, the us department of defense might want to find a better replacement for IFF panels,

if the americans can stop shooting british units then they might save a few dollars on thier ammo expenditure!

Thanks for those picture references at ML. I was looking for some of that. Nice work.
I think next versions for US armor kits will have them included in the kit, but they are not too difficult to scratch. I think I'd go for the plastic solution.