Hi folks,

i'm working on a HB Leopard 2E at the moment and was wondering how to remove the much too thick anti slip panels. Usually i remove details with a sharp blade or a small mill but there are a lot of parts/components all around the panels which could be destroyed by a single false move. There's just no room for any tool i got, no matter if it's a file, a blade, sanding paper or anything else. The fact that i got a lot of flats to do makes it even more difficult.

I already did some brainstorming and tried to figure out a possibility on my own but i don't have a solution for this problem yet. Anybody got an idea?:-?

Thanks!

Get an X acto chisel blade. You can cut them as narrow as you want to fit in tight places. I have cut a few this way. Gently scrape away detail at a 90 degree angle, NOT shallow, or you will dig into the plastic. It's a little rough, but if you plan on replacing the texture you'll never see it.

MfG

Usually, when I have very little room for my sanding tools, I made my sanding stick.
Using double-sided tape I attach a wooden stick stir (Those that Mc Donald uses are perfect...and free) on the back of a sand paper sheet. After then I cut all around the wood. This way I obtain a very narrow sanding stick. If I need a sanding tool more narrow a can shape the "head" of my tool because the wooden styr sticks are quite sturdy

Otherwise if I need blade smaller than the x acto one, I usually shape a razor blade with a pair of scissor





I hope this will be useful for you

cheers

Thanks for the replies. Scraping with a blade was the only possibility i got in mind because cutting is not an option. The tip with the razor blade is great!

So guys, before my vacation in the Nethelands the last two weeks i finally managed to remove the anti slip panels without damaging the areas around them. It took me around three afternoons/evenigs of work.









I did the job by carving them away with a few blades (the way which i was so afraid of before!). A month ago i would have bet to ruin the work that way. I still wonder about myself...

I couldn't avoid little damages to the surface though but that's not a problem of course. Just some filler, then sanding and the job is done. For sanding around details/engravings i made a few simple but very useful tools:





As you can see i just cut some pieces of sprue, tapered them on one end and glued on a piece of plastic sheet with different wet-sanding papers, applied with super glue and grain from 180 to 600.





Finally engraved the respective grain on the sprue and that's it. For better fitting to the surface i will make some new tools with some kind of sponge taken from a nail buffer between the sheet and the wet-sanding paper. This should improve the handling and reduce the risk of sanding grooves into the plastic.

Fortunately the silhouettes of the panels are still visible which will make the upcoming masking job for applying terracotta spray for the new panels much easier. There's still one panel left to remove. The problem is that it is right under the lifting harness on the engine deck but that's not really a problem. I will build the harness from scratch after i removed it. Also HobbyBoss forgot a panel here.

Other works to do will be the welding seems. I will remove the injected-on seems because they're not recognizable as such and apply new ones made from streched sprue. Of course the stirrups will also be redone (from wire).

After all this work the crudest jobs with the upper hull should be done. Of course there still will be room for more improvements but i didn't want to make this kit a state of the art model from the beginning. In my opinion the HobbyBoss kit is nothing else than a passable and low-priced conversion for the Tamiya-Kit if you want to build a Strv. 122, A6E and so on.

Hi

Thats a top idea with the sanding tools, you should start selling them before someone beats you to it.

Excelent job on the sanding as well.

Paul

Ingenious tool Bernd,congrats indeed!

I think i'll do something similar when I have to sand in avery little room

But instead of using sprues I think I'll use wooden stick and two side adhesive to fix sandpaper (that will allow me to change the consumed sandpaper)

It'll look more or less this way:



Thanks a lot for inspiration

cheers

Excellent tip for the micro sanding pads! Too bad that depth of field was too shallow in your last pic...but we don't want to offend the ladies here I guess-

Thanks for your feedback guys!

I was planing different shapings for the sanding tools also. Triangles for hard to reach areas for example and round shapings for "larger" areas.

The tools i have on my table at the moment where just an experiment to see if my idea works. Well, it did better than i expected. Right now i'm thinking about paying a visit on my old workplace (i'm a trained fitter), get some stainless steel sheet and rod, get on the lathe for a moment and then soldering the parts together to get some "more high quality" tools. I think the results would be pretty nice...








Oh you really think so?! Well than i will have to call the next pantent office right after getting up tomorrow i guess.

Too late for me. I plan on turning and milling my own in the morning!
A very good idea, though. So, why do you have that photo at your work bunch?