I'm Better Now: The Gopher is Fixed! ! WARNING! Long Long Post, Loads of Pics!

It's amazing what I can do when I recover enough to build decently again!

I had hit on this idea for how to repair my 1/72 scale ACE Sa13 Gopher while painting some accessories from another kit. I noticed some prominent number tabs that looked like they'd be good hinge pieces. They were round on the one end, and the other end would be cut flat. The arrows below point out examples of the number tabs I thought would work:



So, I cut four of them off, and then cemented them together back to back. Once they were dry, I shaved off the numbers on the outside. Then I drilled holes in them near the rounded end like so:



Then I took my X-acto and cut one side of the arch near the middle of the tab. After that, using the pointed tweezers in the pic below, I carefully opened the rounded part of the arch to make an opening large enough to fit around the brass rod that was still CA'd to the Turret launcher arms. Here you see the openings indicated by the arrows:



Then, I placed the hinge pieces on the brass rod and tried to carefully re-close the arches in the tabs. One hinge piece closed up just fine, the other hinge piece broke off and was rendered useless. Once I got the remaining one closed, I poured a little ZAP-a-Gap CA glue on a piece of plastic and used my No.11 X-acto to sparingly apply some CA to hold the cut ends together. As the first layer dried and held the piece secure, I carefully added subsequent layers of CA, checking each time to be sure that I didn't glue the hinge piece to the brass rod or to either of the launcher arms. The unit has to be free to move so that the launcher assembly can be posed in any position. Here is what the one surviving hinge piece looked like once it was secure on the launcher arm:



In the picture above you are looking up from the bottom of the turret, just so you have an idea of the perspective.

Now that one hinge piece was completed, I started work on the next one to replace the piece that broke apart. I cut it a little longer, figuring that I could trim it to size once it was mounted on the brass rod. Here it is with the hole drilled and ready to be cut:



(I apologize for the quality of this pic. The light I was using is on an arm that slowly drifted down too close to the subject, over-lighting it. It happened while the timer was going on my camera. I caught it after the picture was taken.)

I cut and opened the new hinge piece like the first one, and got it on the brass rod where it fit on well and closed easily. Using the same system as before, I carefully applied the CA glue (shown in this pic) to the opening, and sealed it up well. I used multiple layers of glue to insure security on this hinge as well. I checked to see that both hinge pieces moved and they move well. Here they are both on the brass rod of the turret:



After the glue had dried for about twenty minutes, I even sanded both hinges carefully and lightly to remove some of the uneveness from the glue.

Now it was time to add the launcher assembly. I trimmed the long hinge piece to the same size as the first one and checked to see that the launcher assembly would sit straight (!) before moving on. Then I made a small plate from another number tab and glued that over the stubs of the original hinge pieces. Once that was secured, I glued the launcher assembly to the hinge pieces, adjusted then to the ideal location, and then propped the whole thing up to dry:



While that was drying, I looked at the instruction sheet for the Gopher and saw that the radar dish was drawn on the instruction sheet with four rods (?) that came from the side of the dish and met in front of the middle of the dish. Naturally the dish wasn't molded with these on it as they are quite delicate at this scale. I also noticed that there was no assembly step showing how ACE expected it to be done! So, I improvised!

I took two lengths of stretched sprue, trimmed them down and; using my pointed tweezers once again, I folded them down the middle. Then I glued the folds together, making a very small open pyramid. After checking the fit on the dish, I trimmed the ends so that the 'pyramid' would fit on the dish. Once I was satisfied in the size and position, I glued the 'pyramid' in place on the dish face. Here is how it looked when I got done. The No.11 X-acto blade is for size reference:



Now, the launcher assembly and turret were dry enough, so I checked the movement to be sure nothing glued together that wasn't supposed to. Then I cemented the finished Radar dish to the front of the launcher assembly as per the instructions and placed the whole restored turret onto the main hull:

SUCCESS!!!



Finally! I am pleased that I will be able to finish this kit!
Maybe I'll send a link of this post to Alexei, the owner of ACE who posts regularly on another forum!


Of course, there were times when I had to wait till things dried while repairing that turret, and I wasn't idle during those times. I was able to finally finish all eight wheels on my Revell/Germany 1/72 scale Spahpanzer Luchs:



Man, I'm glad those linkages are done! The rest of this kit is going to be a BREEZE to assemble now that THAT is done!

I also thought that with all this stretched sprue lying around, I'd mount an antenna on my Monty's Scout Car, as well as replace the lost antennas on my Revell/Germany 1/72 scale Leopard 2A5.

Here is my Scout Car with it's new antenna, all shiny and waiting for decals that still need to be found:



And I can finally declare this German Leopard 2A5 to be finished:



WHEW!

I know this was long, and I deeply apologize to those with slow connections. I didn't really see how to break up the post without affecting the 'storyline'. I figured that some people would like to see how I was able to figure out the way I was going to repair this. Frankly, it helped to take pics every so often; it allowed me a chance to think things through and be more thorough as I went along, as well as check my work before I moved on.

Anyway, my apologies again, I hope this doesn't get me tossed for being so long and tedious! Comments, constructive criticisms (besides: 'make shorter posts!' ) and suggestions are welcome!