Hello Glenn!

Good to see you building a big gun! I have the M114 in my plans, too! (Oh it's stashed, all right).

I don't quite understand your problems with the equilibrator - you mean the part with the helical springs, right? Those are wonders of modern cating technology, but if you want to save some clean up, you might just wind your own coils with the right diameter copper wire - just take a drill bit or some rod for the core and wind the wire around that. Making grabhandles out of wire also saves a lot of cleanup and the end product is better looking and sturdier than plastic grabhandles.

Hope it helps and please be sure to post a WIP thread here - good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Oh my, how I remember the venerable old Peerless kit and its Testor's/Italeri successors of the 155mm.  With its spring equilibrators simultaneously being too short to be in travel mode and too long for any real elevation.

Those spring coils are tricky, too--the coils should not "touch" but have a gap in-between.

Ohhhhhhhh, cool!!! 

Left shield. Hat's off to you folks that can deal with those microscopic PE details. 

155 by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr

[quote user="Pawel"]

Hello Glenn!

Good to see you building a big gun! I have the M114 in my plans, too! (Oh it's stashed, all right).

I don't quite understand your problems with the equilibrator - you mean the part with the helical springs, right? Those are wonders of modern cating technology, but if you want to save some clean up, you might just wind your own coils with the right diameter copper wire - just take a drill bit or some rod for the core and wind the wire around that. Making grabhandles out of wire also saves a lot of cleanup and the end product is better looking and sturdier than plastic grabhandles.

Hope it helps and please be sure to post a WIP thread here - good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

[/quote

I like the grab handle idea cause I lose the remaining half  that I don't break. Do you drill a tiny hole to give those handles something to grab onto?

Hello Glenn!

Where applicable I drill two holes with a 0,6mm drill bit, and you can get a lot of nice 0,5 - 0,6mm wire from those thick cables that wire the car battery - just get a hold of a scrapped car wire harness. I've seen a lot of those since I started working for a company whose main business was making automotive wiring...

Hope it helps and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel

Hello Glenn!

Where applicable I drill two holes with a 0,6mm drill bit, and you can get a lot of nice 0,5 - 0,6mm wire from those thick cables that wire the car battery - just get a hold of a scrapped car wire harness. I've seen a lot of those since I started working for a company whose main business was making automotive wiring...

Hope it helps and have a nice day

Paweł

 

Thanks Pawel. I have to check out some honest reviews on pin drill bits. The last ones I got totally worthless! There is ZERO taper at the tips at all to even begin to start a hole. I don't even think a cutting edge even starts to grab till your in a ways.

Well one thing for sure. This kit is wayyy better than the one I built some decades back. I never built a Bronco kit before. I think one tiny thing that really impressed me is how exactly perfect two seperate multi curved parts for the brake lines met and joined perfectly in the center of that dip in the line.

 M114A1 by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr

or maybe we don't need no stinking brake lines! 

Army Viet Nam by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr

You're making great progress there, and nice work!!! 

Some time out stuff. Waiting on some darker green for the powder cannisters.

155 projoe by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr

I think they wanted the eyelets painted but I thought , no that's wrong.

Army Viet Nam by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr

One take out order done.

pallet by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, cool! 

M114A1 by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr 

and her sister at FSB Tomahawk '70 2/11 arty 101st ABN

Army Viet Nam by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr 

Oh wow, looks good! Could we see more photos? 

Cool! Great selection there! Really nice work. Like how all of them except the caboose of course are the same scale. 

The Paramedics use these things on me every time my heart stops. It hurts and I glow in the dark for a couple of days!