PzKpfw I Ausf.A ohne Aufbau ~ Tristar

[Jamie Tainton]

[Jamie Tainton]

(Remember to pull your windows wider )
Okay made some changes since the last update. Number one, sorry for the delay- I was compiling all my books into a program called Delicious Library the last few days- 870 title so far- That's not including all the magazines I have! But I have done some work on this build. I painted the inside of the hull out with a primer red after gluing in the axles. I wasn't happy with how everything looked or lined up. In the dry test fittings the Aber engine/fighting compartment firewall seemed to stick up higher than it should compared to the side hull walls. I had begun to think this would be fixed next time on the next interior build by sanding down the Tristar floor part thickness. Well after looking at the problems I've had so far with this build and fumbling towards an understanding I decided to abandon this hull to the next build- the tiny Kleine Panzerbefehlswagen (Sd Kfz 265) viewtopic.php?f=10&t=147 which I will build at the same time as this one. One of the major goof ups was not gluing in the front axle and spring parts. These should have been glued in even before the side walls went onto the bottom plate so I could fill any recesses. Then I should have sanded this smooth to have no sign of the locating holes in the wall on the inside . Since the Befelwagen will be totally enclosed I decided to use the parts from that kit to do a re-do on this ohne Aufbau.
Here in the next series you can see the front suspension parts I am speaking of.







Here you can see where I have started to solder the tiny bolt heads asked for in the Aber instructions that are to represent were the top tread plate is attached to the fender metal frame.


After trying a few different methods of getting these to stay put I have come up with a pretty easy solution.
Step 1.~ apply some flux paste to the backside of the #1 bolt head parts


Step 2.~ melt a small amount of solder onto the soldering iron tip and then transfer this to the fluxed backside.





Step 3.~ carefully cut the parts from the fret with a sharp new x-Acto blade - be careful not to lose any. Some trimming of nubs and stubs maybe required.




Step 4.~ brush on some flux to the receiving surface of the fender tread plate.


Step 5.~ position the bolt heads where the holes on the tread plate indicate


Step 6.~ use the soldering iron to heat the metal enough to melt the solder on the bottom of the bolt heads and there you have it.


Here are the parts from the donor kit.


a side part and the floor sanded down some.


Here are the previous parts- from now only to be seen over at the Kleine Panzerbefehlswagen build.

[Jamie Tainton]

In this next set of photos you will see that I glued all the suspension parts thathave location holes that will show on the interior. This was done after I again shave off the fender mounting details molded onto the side wall parts.




Here you can see the inside where the suspension part stick through =this will be cut and sanded flush with the wal. You can see I have completely sanded away the details on the floor piece- it is much thinner- this should help with the fitting of the Aber firewall.


Filler applied to some of the openings not plugged with plastic- The upper side wall is further along on preparation.


Glued one side in place= careful about positioning. I think I will use Dragons Panzer I/A's in future for any other modified Panzer I/A's- this slab technique of the Tristar kits are not very conducive to concise crisp corners-





These last four will show the extent my insanity has as I will use the PE parts from the Aber detail set for the Tristar kit to hyper-detail the suspension parts. First ya need to cut away all the unwanted bits.

[Laura]

oh my goodness! james! superuberdetailing the suspension? when you're through with this build you'll be ready for the nuthouse!

it wouldn't surprise me if the engine would be operational when this build is finished!

[Dan Reed]

Good luck on the suspension parts! They are small!
Dan

[Jamie Tainton]

Thanks for looking in guys. The suspension will be easy compared to the transmission and all the linkage attachments yet to come- This is really tricky because everything needs to be painted before the parts can be installed- it's a bit like a prolonged jig-saw puzzle.

I really didn't like the way the configuration looked on this rear engine hatch. I decided the side walls on the door were to thin and used some Evergreen strips to hide some of the Aber guides and thicken the frame. Not perfect but it'll do for now.


Comparison shot of the Tristar rear idler and the Dragon one, which is apparently 1mm to large in diameter.




The older Tristar idler (left) compared to the newer version, which is much more realistic with the parts added to show some depth on the interior.


So now I've taken the parts from the first attempt on the hull and added them to this one. I decided not to spend as much time portraying the weld beads this time just gluing in some sprue to fill the gap at the corners. Just added the metal firewall for checking. You may have noticed that I have threaded the Evergreen rod right through the walls. This will help with alignment of the wheels and also should provide a much more solid base. The excess will be trimmed later on once the wheels are added.




Next you can see I've prepared to spray some primer red, Humbrol #113 in this case, which according to David Byrden comments on accurate paint colours, comes closest to the real thing.








Here you can see some ofthe parts that make up the streeing mechanisism- I must say this stuff really slows done the build. Everything needs to be handled delecetly
and it's a real challenge not to become totally frustrated. I'm glad I could solder metal parts though as this adds strength to joints that would most likely break during all the handling if it was just CA glue. After getting it totally together BTW I noticed I had it all backwards and had to take it all apart and do it again. I also choose to drill right through where I needed to solder the parts together on some wire spacers- it was easier to solder that way than just but joints.




Next a linkage is created and then attached to the rod attached to the transmission. The other end goes onto the parts made above.The ends are threaded with streched sprue and melted back with a piece of incense.




I couldn't bare the pink resin any longer and decided to get some paint on the transmission parts.

[Jamie Tainton]

Here are the parts for the left hand side steering mechanism. More complicated than the right hand side. All these linkages are a bit daunting as there is the painting issue ti keep in mind. I don't like building everything together and then painting- I doubt you can get as clean distinctions between parts.
After trying to solder the three parts together as was asked by Aber and not having success, I decided to drill out the attachment points and thread the wire posts through and then soldered. This afforded much better control. Again a reminder to pull your browser window as wide as you can as the format of this website's software has that huge margin on the right. I think in all subsequent blogs my pics will only be 1000 pixels wide.






Here you can see I've attached the connector and wire. The other end will be attached to another linkage forward of this.


A test look


dry fitting the actual handle


Here the previously mention linage parts being added to. I found drilling a hole for the rod to sit in allowed better handling in threading the u shaped connector to the actuator.




A couple of shots showing the transmission/steering parts after I brushed with some graphite powder. This will all be painted over with a grey green but I wanted to see how the edges looked.




Using a recipe from Humbrol I mixed up the grey green and sprayed the transmission brake drums and floor panel with the mix.
As given in their own Colour System book ages ago, is:
H34 X 37 parts
H25 X 10 parts
H150 X 6 parts
H80 X 3 parts






Prepping the inside of the hull for some Interior white (Elfenbein). I wanted to try the Model Master version and it looks pretty good. There are some places where the paint sprayed through the tape but these will be covered with subsequent post shading and aging.

[Jamie Tainton]

Made some progress with the interior- man, I'll be glad when that is finalized- it takes a lot to be patient while going through all the sub assemblies. Not being able to see progress as a whole drains one, and it's not sure that everything will just fall into place, everything hinges on the piece beside it. Anyways- I'll just post pics fr now- come back later tomorrow - for the text.

[Steve Sprague]

Hey James...magnificent build on this kit (whats left of it in its original form!)

I got your PM and started updating my thread for that PZIV. I tried to PM you back but there was no way to reply that I saw...

Keep up the great work.

Steve

[Jamie Tainton]

Well guess what, had a bit of a set back. While trying to fit all the floor parts in I had to file some of the right hand side, which caused some problems and I also noticed that here and there the joint was weak on some of the framing. One leg on the right hand frame was broken because of metal fatigue. Basically I had to drop all the metal into the lacquer thinner and stripped the paint back to raw metal.one of the reasons I like metal- easy to remove paint without damaging the parts. Try dropping plastic into lacquer!

Anyways this allowed me to re-solder some weak points and also repair the leg. I also was able to then after cleaning to use a rattle can of metal primer from Tamiya. A small amount decanted into the airbrush cup was all that was needed.




This will provide a better base for the red primer and green colours that will follow. I also took the opportunity to rework the two clasps that are on the right hand side of the hull wall. These were used to hold a container housing spare machine gun barrels I believe. Since this is a trainer vehicle there wouldn't be any need for this item. The Tristar instructions also indicate this as well but there are no clamps, which would most likely be left behind. I also made the effort to use some solder to secure the handles of the clamps in place rather than CA as I did in the first time. Everything was tidied up and I'm happier with the results.


A couple of other detail parts readied for paint and gluing. I have found that the tolerances for everything to fit inside the hull to be very very tight. Because this is my first time using this kit to detail one of these Tristar's Pz I/As out I am trying to have access to all the storage areas under the floor plates. But this may be a bit anal. I guess it seems a shame to just cover up all the inner workings. I would recommend that the whole floor section, floor plates and framing, could be soldered together and made square and secure prior to installing. One may even want to construct this all before gluing the plastic side walls onto the hull-just to assure a good fit.


I also had to fix the centre hub section as it was to wide at the front end. The metal end pieces needed to be removed cleaned and then annealed and reshaped to a slightly narrower width so the plate framing and plates would fit better it was too tight before. Thus the previous comment about tolerances These were then re-glued to the stripped resin part and everything was secured to the floor again. Much better this time.




The Aber set even has replacements for the funny little S shaped parts that go on the strengthening bar of the suspension. Pretty difficult but I got two good ones.
It takes three pieces to make one.


The return rollers also have replacements for the centre hubs. I don't know if it is very much of an improvement but because I have this compulsion to use all of the Aber pats, at least once I went ahead and used them.