...and the parade of teeny tiny parts goes on...and on...and on...
This hunk-o-metal is the driver's thermal sight guard that sits right about in the center of the hull, just to the right of the driver's hatch. I'm using a piece of round brass stock to form the rounded edge of the guard (hence the series of scribed bendy places instead of just a right angle.)
...like so.
I did a little bit of preliminary work on the periscopes. The 'scopes are molded in clear plastic, and there's a bunch of them. The instructions call for painting the glass "magenta + gold" (anybody happen to know the Federal Standard number for magenta?) Instead of that, I went to the LWM (local walmart) and picked up a bag of shiny mylar-coated plastic parts back in the arts and crafts section. I found a shiny magenta shape, cut it into strips and tried a test fit. It looks like it should work.
This is the exhaust deflector that came with the Eduard Big Ed set. It fits right over the existing engine exhaust.
It came time to secure the additional armor plates to the side of the vehicle. Please note the error I made here. The lower set of armor plate brackets have several small tabs that fold under the edge of the vehicle, as I have done here (which is why its kinda hard to see them.) Big mistake, as the tabs fit under part of the lower hull, which is obviously not attached yet. I had to gently bend them back down in order to attach the two hull sections together. Once they're together, I'll just bend the tabs back and glue the heck out of them.
...and yes, I had to fix both sides. Another potential problem is seen here as well, as that bracket on the side escape hatch (part of the basic Eduard Stryker IFV detail part set) needs to come off to attach brackets there for the slat armor.
A nice close view of the front of the hull, and yet another problem. Note the lack of headlights. Yes, my earlier post showed them in place. Yes, I ripped them off, and with good reason. Most of the photos I have from the two Concord books show slat-armored Strykers with their headlights repositioned on brackets farther back on the hull, near the lift rings. This puts the lights above the slats, instead of shining through them. The Eduard PE set does not contain this bracket assembly, so I'll have to fashion something out of scrap. I'll do that after I add the slat armor to get the positioning right. Anyhoo, this shows the engine deck and its set of IBTT tiedowns, the driver's hatch, exhaust deflector and driver's thermal sight.
This is the tool I'm using to detach the PE parts from their frets. I stole this from my wife, a metalsmith.
Note the sharp, pointy tip. It does a great job of cutting through the metal sprue, right up against the part I need to get free. It can be easily sharpened on a whetting stone.
And hey, a note to anybody at Eduard who might happen to stumble upon this thread. MAKE YOUR FRET SHEETS SMALLER!!
(if my dad were still alive I'd ask him how to say it in Slovak). The PE sheet for the slats is wonderful, but its about 5"x7" and kinda hard to manoever around. Six 3x5 frets would be much easier to manage than two big 5x7 frets. If nothing else, make it so the large fret could easily be trimmed back into smaller pieces (there's no obvious way currently to cut the fret down without possibly separating a set of parts from their part number.)
This is the device I rigged up on my own. I found a piece of sheet metal and attached 3 strips of adhesive magnetic tape. Then I used two metal angle supports, which magically attach themselves to the magnets (ain't physics fun?) And what exactly is this contraption for?
Slat construction. The inside angles keep the parts nice and right, while a bit of gentle tapping on the second bracket applies enough force to keep everythingtight. I later improved this by placing a piece of backing paper from a sheet of adhesive labels between the magnetic strips and the metal...superglue won't stick to the waxy backing (but it will stick to the brackets, as I found out.)
The edges of the slats fit into small grooves in the edges of the frames, while the small notch in the slat center fits into a corresponding slot in the center support.
One set of slats down, 21 more to go.
Ta daaa! This is assembly "T", a set of slats on the left side of the vehicle that protect the lower hull. Once the assembly is finished, I put this into a small compartmented box with a note indicating what assembly it is and where it goes...this also keeps me from screwing it up later.
Thats it for now...more later. Many slats to build.
Ranger Joe, Defender of Bunnies