Thursday 30 March 2017

1/48 Zaku II - Part 8

Only these small sections to go now.
The side skirt armour was primed & painted with the lighter UK Azure Blue to match the front & rear armour.
1/48 Zaku 2 skirt armour primed
1/48 Zaku 2 skirt armour primed
 The hands for the Zaku 2 come in two designs to use with or without the rifle.  At this stage, I had not decided which to have, so cleaned up & primed all the parts for the hand & the protective armour.
1/48 Zaku 2 hands primed in grey
1/48 Zaku 2 hands primed in grey

Completed hand ready for top coats
Completed hand ready for top coats

The hand armour were painted in the darker blue to blend with the arm armour & the actual fingers sprayed with Gun Metal.
The rifle comes in various sections, so these were glued& sanded, but not put together at this stage.   To give some subtle shading effects for the rifle instead of doing all the priming in Gloss Black I did the handle, magazine & targeting sight in grey.
Gun parts primed in various colours to give different effects
Primed in various colours to give different effects when metal coats added
 The handle, magazine & targeting sight were sprayed with Exhaust Manifold & the body & barrel in Gun Metal Grey.
Gradients of metallic shade now show through
Gradients of metallic shade now show through
 The lens for the sight was given some Ammo Of Mig clear Orange on the inside & when dry pushed into place.
Clear Orange painted inside sight lens
Clear Orange painted inside sight lens
The gun now just fits together & the 2-tone shading now comes into its own.
The 2 parts for the right hand clip over the trigger & grip, then the back armour clip on the outside. The rifle is now ready to go on the Zaku 2.
1/48 Zaku 2 hand fixed to rifle handle
1/48 Zaku 2 hand fixed to rifle handle
All that is now left to do is to push the pre made arms, legs & head onto the torso & connect up the gun & there you have it, one vary large & blue Zaku II.
Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.
Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.

Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.2
Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.2


Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.3
Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.3
 
Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.4
Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.4

Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.5
Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.

Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.6
Completed 1/48 Zaku 2 picture No.6
 

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Part 4 :- 1/6 Harley Davidson FLH Classic

Fitting the rear trim bars (Stages 34 & 35)
These were primed then painted to match the rest of the bike. The best way I found to set them up was to at first only glue the top set to the rear support (see diagram below), then just using H12 to keep the correct space, fix the rear of P3 & P4 just the same. A bit of super glue at the front four points holds it with the correct spacing for the bars.

This may seem long winded, but it allowed each stage to dry as the support pins at the rear are very small & if you try to glue both ends at once they may come loose. It also gives the correct distance between the bars.
First fixing position of side bars
First fixing position of side bars
Second fixing position of side bars
Second fixing position of side bars
1/6 Harley Davidson side bars now set
1/6 Harley Davidson side bars now set
The side boxes were then glued into place & left to set fully.

Fitting exhausts (Stages 33 to 35)
I removed all the chrome from the exhausts, then painted them in gold and matt black. I thought it better to fit the pipe in stage 35 first as it gave a solid fixing for the pipe in stage 34. I carefully fed the assembly in at a slight angle to get close to the outlet then turned it level into the outlet holes. I then screwed the rear pipe in place & left to set.

When you fit the exhaust to the pipe put a small amount of glue at the junction of the pipe & exhaust to fix, screw it into place.
Left side exhaust fitted
Left side exhaust fitted
Completed right side exhaust fitted
Completed right side exhaust fitted
Here are two more photos showing the exhausts & side boxes in place ready for the next stage of building.
View of completed rear section of 1/6 Harley Davidson
View of completed rear section of 1/6 Harley Davidson
View of rear section of 1/6 Harley Davidson
View of rear section of 1/6 Harley Davidson
Fitting the top box ( Stage 46 )
No trouble with this. The box needs no glue at all as it clips into place on the support bars.
Completed top box
Completed top box
1/6 harley Davidson top box clipped into place
1/6 harley Davidson top box clipped into place
Making the fuel tanks (Stage 38)
These needed a lot of filler at the seams, which were sanded down, primed & sprayed in "Canyon Red" The parts G20, N22 & N23 were sanded, painted in the gold colour & glued into place ready to be fitted to the bike later.
Large seam gaps in 1/6 Harley fuel tank
Large seam gaps in 1/6 Harley fuel tank

Finished and painted 1/6 Harley fuel tank
Finished and painted 1/6 Harley fuel tank
Seat build & fitting
I followed the instructions for making the rear seat, but using the colour scheme of the bike. The seat padding was painted satin black.
Seat for Harley Davidson now finished
Seat for Harley Davidson now finished
Air intake fitting
The air intake was painted in copper to match the bike colours. First I fitted the connection pipe to the engine, let it set, then connected the piping & finally fitted the intake using superglue so it would not "sag" or move.
Painted air intake on 1/6 Harley Davidson
Painted air intake on 1/6 Harley Davidson

Fitting the throttle controls
One very large gripe here!! The controls are made with a rubbery plastic, so no glue I have will hold them together, married with the way of holding them with the mirror stalk/clip does not work.

I had to devise a way to keep them connected so I came up with a "wire" system. It worked for me so here's how I did it.
I made two 0.5mm holes in both of the parts that hold the levers and fed a thin wire between them. I also drilled 4 holes in the small part which connects to them to receive the wires. The controls were painted & fitted ready for the next stage.
I fed the wires through the connecting piece and bent the wires over ready to fit to the handlebars. I pushed the units onto the handlebars, followed by the grips to get the correct position, then twisted the wires till they were tight, cut the ends off & painted them black to disguise the copper wire.
Fine fixing wires on hand grips
Fine fixing wires on hand grips
Wire now holds the 1/6 grips together
Wire now holds the 1/6 grips together
brakes handles now fitted to handlebars
Brake handles now fitted to handlebars

Close up of 1/6 Harley brake handles
Close up of 1/6 Harley brake handles

Fitting the fuel tanks (Stage 38)
OH NO!! that dreaded rubbery plastic again & no glue I had will stick it so I followed the throttle plan by drilling four holes in one of the tanks, fed wire through & fastened underneath. This way no wire will show on the top of the tanks & as you can see fits fine on the model. See the series of photo's below to how it was done.
Small holes drilled in 1/6 Harley tank
Small holes drilled in 1/6 Harley tank
Fine wire goes through 1/6 Harley tank
Fine wire goes through 1/6 Harley tank

Wire fitted through rubber cover
Wire fitted through rubber cover


Rubber cover now secure on 1/6 Harley Davidson tank
Rubber cover now secure on 1/6 Harley Davidson tank
I then glued this half of the tank in place & allowed to set.

Making & fitting the gauges
No trouble with this stage and they just clip into place on the handlebars.
Completed 1/6 Harley Davidson gauges
Completed 1/6 Harley Davidson gauges

Completed gauges on the handlebars
Completed gauges on the handlebars

  
Lights & front fairing
I sprayed the front lights outer parts, then built them up with the clear & coloured lenses. Superglue was best to fix them to the fairing supports. I used superglue as normal plastic would take a while to set & you need to get the angle correct.
Harley Davidson front lights and indicators
Harley Davidson front lights and indicators
The windshield screws into the fairing supports as shown in the diagram, but give it a clean beforehand.. The fairing should then push into the support, but mine looked out of postion as there was a gap between the top of the headlight & the bottom of the fairing, so I cut the lugs off the fairing & glued the base to the headlight. As you can see this, to me, looks better & is how it should look on a real bike.
Wind shield and screen fitted to 1/6 Harley Davidson
Wind shield and screen fitted to 1/6 Harley Davidson
  
Finishing the fuel tanks
I fitted the spark plugs & connected the ignition wiring. I then glued the other side of the tank on with the rubber resting between the two. I also fitted the clutch pedels after they were painted copper & black. The central guage unit was painted copper, the transfer & other parts added. This was then fitted to the top of the tanks.


Finished fuel tanks on frame of 1/6 Harley Davidson
Finished fuel tanks on frame of 1/6 Harley Davidson
 
Finishing off
All that needs to be done now is to fit the fragile items like the mirrors & put the fuel caps on. I looked at putting the decals on the tanks & boxes, but they were offline, had white lines when lifted off the backing paper so they were left off. So at last there it is in all its glory to go on the display shelf.

  

Finished 1/6 Harley Davison picture No.1
Finished 1/6 Harley Davison picture No.1

Finished 1/6 Harley Davison picture No.2
Finished 1/6 Harley Davison picture No.2

Finished 1/6 Harley Davison picture No.3
Finished 1/6 Harley Davison picture No.3
Finished 1/6 Harley Davison picture No.4
Finished 1/6 Harley Davison picture No.4

Monday 27 February 2017

1/48 Zaku II - Part 7

Need to do some work on the upper legs. The top leg armour & the covers for the side of the knee joint followed the usual process & were primed like the rest of the kit, but I did glue in the front piece the fittings joint for the energy cables ready.

Knee covers for 1/48 Zaku 2
Knee covers for 1/48 Zaku 2
Primed leg armour
Primed leg armour
 
Instead of doing it like in the instructions, the hip joints were made as a normal model making & they are just 2 pieces with a poly cap in the centre. These were primed & painted in Duraluminium.
Painted 1/48 Zaku 2 hip joints
Painted 1/48 Zaku 2 hip joints
 
I know on the finished model it won’t be seen, but I like to try to give some detail to the kit, so on the knee joints I painted the inner sections in Burnt Iron & what is meant to be bolt heads in Brass.  The knee covers were given light coats of UK Azure Blue & then dry some highlights of Steel in the recesses.
Painted 1/48 Zaku 2 knee joints and covers
Painted 1/48 Zaku 2 knee joints and covers
 
The covers for the top of the leg were painted with the darker UK Mediterranean Blue & with Steel for highlights where I thought it was needed. These & the knee covers just push into place.
Fitted top armour on Zaku 2 legs
Fitted top armour on Zaku 2 legs
 
To add some contrast the knee cover was primed & painted in the same Light Grey as the torso with some of the darker blue just to blend them in a bit.  All these bits now push into the already made lower legs & they are nearly done.
1/48 Zaku 2 legs nearly finished
1/48 Zaku 2 legs nearly finished
 
All the pieces for the side energy cables were sanded & primed as before & went through the same painting process to produce the very shiny metallic blue effect.  When it comes to fitting, the cables to the legs please take great care when pushing the poly caps onto the pieces & then gently push the pieces together before putting on the model.
I tried to be smart at first by putting the large parts on the kit & then fit the small single pieces; well I pushed to hard & caught the metallic paint so had to sand & re spray one side.
The hip joints pushed into the top of the legs & now there are finished.
Finished Zaku 2 legs
Finished Zaku 2 legs
The arms need to be finished now & the top armour was primed& these & the shoulder joints sprayed in the darker blue & some steel accents added to the recesses. The elbow joints had some detail work added like the knees just for my personal enjoyment.
Painted arm joints and inner frame
Painted arm joints and inner frame
 
The covers for the elbow were done in light grey top follow the theme for the legs & all the pieces & the earlier lower arm parts fitted together.
Finished 1/48 Zaku 2 arms
Finished 1/48 Zaku 2 arms