Sharp work Paul. putting that razor saw to work. 
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1/16th scale sFH 18 Howitzer
- Thread starter Heavens Eagle
- Start date
Heavens Eagle
Well-known member
No razor saw so far. Been using sharpened jewelry engravers and a VERY sharp chisel Xacto blade with small files. If I decide to redo the spade posts on the trails, it will be by cutting off the posts, then making patterns of the plates around them. Then completely removing the plates that are molded in and putting the new ones in the correct places. Lots of cut, remove, scratchbuild, measure, place, measure, remove and replace, check again, (check my sanity for choosing to do this) and finally just finish it.
Sounds like me each December when I fix ornaments!I sacrificed my sharp chisel blade to fix something my Stepdaughter needed done. She'll never know how much that hurt me...
Heavens Eagle
Well-known member
I have been eyeing some tools on Temu for holding chisels in order to sharpen them. There is a fair amount of junk on there, but I have picked up some really decent stuff as well. You just have to be choosy.
Heavens Eagle
Well-known member
While I have been recuperating from being burned in the can, I have not had the gumption to go work on a model. I just had enough energy to "think" about it, which is where I sometimes get great ideas or big disasters.
In this case it was a great idea.
Sunday night I went in and started in on this little idea. Had it all planned in my head, just had to do the work. I didn't want to use my mill, too much set up. I also didn't want to use my Dremel drill press, not quite solid enough to accurately drill the hole depths.
BUT!
I have an ANCIENT Dremel with an awesome drill press. The Dremel is ancient and quite worn, but the drill press is super tight and made to last forever (NO PLASTIC) It is all steel or heavy zinc castings. Decided to see if my Dremel would fit in place of the old one. It was a smidge loose, but I was able to deal with that with a single layer of card stock wrapped around my Dremel. Perfect fit, solid! WooHOO!
With this new (ancient) drill press, I was able to set up perfect depthing to drill the holes using feeler gauges. There was a process to get the perfect spheres that I won't go into, but it involved a ball cutter from a jewelers set I bought a while back. Ball cutters from about .010 up to just over 1/8th diameter, and there are a bunch in size order.
Here is what I ended up with.
I heat, squish (quickly) into the mold. The plastic cools almost immediately. Then I just tug and the next molded batch pops out of the aluminum mold. At most if I could do "all" the holes I would get 40 rivets. On average now with practice I can get about 25 or so good rivets per squish and it doesn't take that long.
In this case it was a great idea.
Sunday night I went in and started in on this little idea. Had it all planned in my head, just had to do the work. I didn't want to use my mill, too much set up. I also didn't want to use my Dremel drill press, not quite solid enough to accurately drill the hole depths.
BUT!
I have an ANCIENT Dremel with an awesome drill press. The Dremel is ancient and quite worn, but the drill press is super tight and made to last forever (NO PLASTIC) It is all steel or heavy zinc castings. Decided to see if my Dremel would fit in place of the old one. It was a smidge loose, but I was able to deal with that with a single layer of card stock wrapped around my Dremel. Perfect fit, solid! WooHOO!
With this new (ancient) drill press, I was able to set up perfect depthing to drill the holes using feeler gauges. There was a process to get the perfect spheres that I won't go into, but it involved a ball cutter from a jewelers set I bought a while back. Ball cutters from about .010 up to just over 1/8th diameter, and there are a bunch in size order.
Here is what I ended up with.
I heat, squish (quickly) into the mold. The plastic cools almost immediately. Then I just tug and the next molded batch pops out of the aluminum mold. At most if I could do "all" the holes I would get 40 rivets. On average now with practice I can get about 25 or so good rivets per squish and it doesn't take that long.
Old school modeling! You made a squash cast mold! I have the ancient Greif (sic) molds from Mexico for bolts and nuts. Same exact idea!
Another, more tedious method, is to lightly coat the part to be molded with an oil moistened paper towel then use two-part epoxy putty, such as Aves, to make the mold. Let the epoxy cure 24 hours, heat up sprue and squash into the mold!
Another, more tedious method, is to lightly coat the part to be molded with an oil moistened paper towel then use two-part epoxy putty, such as Aves, to make the mold. Let the epoxy cure 24 hours, heat up sprue and squash into the mold!
Nut Maker... :beevus lol...
Looks good Paul.
Looks good Paul.
Heavens Eagle
Well-known member
This weekend I have been making a bunch of the pneumatic couplers to go on things. The photos show a bunch and they are all fairly easy to make. I did a number of the hex parts, and am now adding the coupler end and the tubing for the piping. There was something that was supposed to be one on the kit but it was about 3x too big. When I get them done and placed I will take some photos (before paint) so you can see what I did.
Heavens Eagle
Well-known member
Am also machining some parts that go on the end plates for the trails. I figured out what they mated to and thus needed to make the appropriate parts to make the parts mate up. Have 2 1/2 of the cone shaped parts made before I stopped in the wee hours this morning. On vacation till I go back on Thursday, so going to try and get a bunch done. Also modifying the trails to correctly mount the end pieces and lock the gun mount for transport. Again, a lot of it is in my head till I get it done, so in for a pfennig, in for a Reichsmark.
That's how great things begin, with a brain spark!
Heavens Eagle
Well-known member
Not a spark as much as AMS. Looking through photos of the spades that go on the ends of the trails, and there were a number of things wrong with the details. I fixed the extra holes, removed the pointed posts that were not supposed to be there, fixed the mounting post so that it would actually work. Then there were these two tapered tubes with levers that were half assed and completely wrong. I noticed them, but couldn't figure out what they were for.
Then I assembled the limber. It had two grates with pointy things on them.
I had a "light bulb"
moment! Remembering some grates being at the ends of the trails, these had to be the grates mounted on the limber. I checked and the parts were so close that it became obvious I was on the right track.Here are some update photos.
Tomorrow, I will probably work on the post mounts for the trails. Those should be fairly easy to make and mount up as all I have to do is make the brackets with the posts. Tack the posts with brackets into the holes in the spades then locate them in the correct spot and tack glue the brackets. Once the tack has taken hold, I can pull the spades off and finish gluing the brackets to the trails.
