How to be an Armoured Farmer, building Hobart's Funnies in Glorious 15mm (and maybe 28mm if they arrive in time!)
Episode Four - 'Eavy Metal!
Some people say that metal models are a pain in the butt, and do you know what, they are right!….to some extent anyway.
The key thing again is the 7 P’s, metal models normally have bigger issues with flash and mould lines; they can warp and fit issues are common. Also because the parts tend to be heavy it is sometimes very difficult to fix them together and when they get knocked they will fall apart more easy than a plastic version. there is no getting away from the fact that you are going to rely on a chemical reaction to hold the parts together using superglue, where plastic models physically melt and then harden the plastic into one part.
However, trial fitting and a lot of filing, drilling and pinning if necessary will make the models more robust and looking good. For the SkyTrex ones I bought there were all the usual issues but luckily I didn’t need to pin anything, as there were sufficient surface area on the joints to be able to support the weight of the parts. I did have to bring out the big guns filing wise and bought some 2,000grit wet and dry emery paper to get a smooth finish.
Glue wise I stuck (get it?!) with gorilla gel superglue and then used a cheap activator spray from a local hardware store to ensure the glue went off quickly, so I didn’t have to hold the parts together for ages.
First off I thought I'd look at the Fascine laying AVRE, here are the parts, plus the three Fascines I purchased. They were simply cleared of flash, mated up and then glued. I then did a little bit of trimming, they will still need a bit of filling before they can be painted.
Leave a Reply