AFV Club M42A1 Duster WIP - Done with pictures!!

Ahh the best part and they are looking great. Very nice details

Rounds Complete!!

Thanks Carl, good to know you're watching this one!

Have a nice day

Paweł

I'm liking all of the detail .

OK, I'm movin' on with the guns. I joined them together and I also worked on the shell ejection chutes. It wouldn't be like me, not to replace some of the detail with copper. Here's what it looks like:

I also fixed the base of the mount, with other shell ejection chutes, and cleaned up the top of the slip ring assembly so it can accept the cables:

Then I tried to mock-up the guns to see how everything works together. Oh yeah, it's tight:

The cool thing is, if I do everything right, I'l b able to show the guns elevating - all the necessary parts are movable. Thanks fo reading, have a nice day

Paweł

Tread - thanks for your kind words!

Steven - thanks anyhow, you already helped me a lot. Check back when you return from the leave, maybe it will be done by then.

Have a nice weekend

Paweł

I won't be able to get any more pictures of this one until mid-july since I've decided to take quite a bit of leave over the fourth.  They probably would have minded me taking reference photos of our current missile systems, but even with those; you can get a very good idea of every detail from a web search.  I've even had to host tours of our equipment when we were at an air force base.  They often call it the 'Patriot Petting Zoo'  yay.

coming along nice,Pawel : )

Nice to have that 1/1 reference !

keep up the good work,

tread

Steven - thanks a lot those are great photos. I thought it's not going to be so easy to photograph a vehicle on a military installation. I appreciate your dedication!

As for the travel lock, you got the elevation lock on your photos - it's the traingular piece of iron with two round lightening holes mounted forward of the equilibrators. There's also traverse lock - it's a bolt driven into the floor of the mount. They are both controlled by the gunner (who sits on the left) - he has two small levers right to his seat, I believe, to operate the locks. The guy sitting on the right is called sight setter or assistant gunner.

And I just started working on the guns themselves, Steven's photos are a great reference:

But before I got that I had to cut this part (top receiver covers) in two:

You see I went away from the kit instructions - they have you assemble the two guns as a unit, I decided to assemble the guns individually, do as much of the filling and sanding as practical, and then to put the guns together. and there is a lot of filling and sanding to do, around the receiver covers, top and bottom.

Aligning the guns requires careful sanding, you also have tu cut like 1mm of the rod connecting the elevation wheel with the mount on the other gun in orders for the guns to fit to each other. Correct positioning of the autoloaders (C39 and C40) is also critical. I'd recomment fixing them with some slow-curing glue (I did it with lacquer thinner) and fitting the guns together - then you have the option to correct the position of the autoloaders, so that everything snaps into place.

I did my filling using thick CA glue and mr. Surfacer. Here's what I have so far:

Please note how nice those little recoil mechanisms are!

Lots of work, not so much to show. Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

Hope I'm not to late, I've left a bewildered CW2 in my wake to get these.  The warning to 'be fast and don't leave any footprints or you get to clean it' still sticks in my head though.

Spare barrel stowage

Looking into the turret from under the barrels.  Luckily they have it sitting with turret to the rear, giving me lots of room to maneuver.

Looking at what would be the curbside barrel.

Roadside

This next group is taken from inside the turret, this would be if you stood to the right of the gun mount, or on the curbside of the vehicle.

And from the rear of the mount

(this would be the foot pedal for the crewman who sits curbside of the mount, not sure about who is who on one of these)

And the roadside crewman's station

Roadside, from inside turret to under the barrels

A policeman from Sherlock Holmes holding what undoubtedly must be a Martini Henry .577/.450 carbine.

There was no travel locking mechanism evident, but I was being rushed by the aforementioned chief.  Any other detail areas, I'd be more than happy to oblige.

Thanks a lot for your comments, gennulmen!

Bill - glad you like it, good to know youo're still following this one!

Beav - it's never too late for some nice reference. Aren't you going to get in trouble photographing that Duster? If I may, could you get some shots of the space in the gun mount, below the 40mm barrels (where the equilibrators are, and the backs of the oil gear are visible). The other detail inetersting to me would be the gun racks on the turret (there should be four of them). If you could get me those photos, I'd appreciate it a lot.

Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

Nice round of updates Pawel, looking forward to more.

A little late on putting this up, but if you need any reference pictures of this one, we've got a M42 sitting outside my motorpool in front of our Brigade and Battalion HQs, painted in a 3-tone NATO scheme.

Its a bit out of place here, since the Brigade is composed of two Patriot-pure battalions in Oklahoma with the third (and only remaining) Avenger-pure battalion up at Fort Lewis. 

Hello tread!

Thanks a lot for your comments, I'm glad you like this thread. It has been a tough decision, but I took my time and finally I decided.

I like to discuss things with Hans, because we can disagree without taking it personal. That's the way it should be, pity it often isn't.

So thanks again, and I'm movin' on with a next update!

I installed the APU (also called "Little Joe" by the crews) exhaust shroud on the rear deck. To build it, you use one of the three PE parts that come with the kit. It's a good thing, because you can't find it in the Eduard set (the old one that is - I wonder if they are going to update for the AFV Club!). Here's what it looks like:

And from this point on I start working on the gun mount, also called a "turret" by many people, although the TM calls it a gun mount. The lower gun mount is a big casting with lots of detail, pin ejector marks and sinkholes:

In the lower left portion of the last picture you can see a detail looking like a small axle - its a part of the firing pedal mechanism. Although it isn't connected to anything on the visible side, it leaves a large sinkhole to be filled there. I'm going to use it to determine the correct position for the firing pedal. In the first picture, in the center of the mount you can se the very top of the slip ring assembly - that's where the electric cables would go out to power certain components around the guns.

Now the worst two babies in the gun mount seem to be the so called oil gear. OK, from one side they look like this:

Not bad, huh? The oil gear's purpose is to traverse and elevate the guns in power operation mode. It's a marvel of 1950's technology - a hydraulic pump driven by high voltage AC motor coupled with a variable-speed hydraulic motor. But from the other side those parts look like this:

Lots of void space (and it could be visible, if you elevate the guns!). Also I marked the electrical connectors on the photo - there should be two of them per device, AFV Club only molded one. That's the weakest spot of the kit so far. But enough whining - I can hack it. I begun by filling the empty spaces:

More of that another time. But I have some more Tamiya bashing for you (please forgive me Hans - it seams to be stronger than me!):

On the left we have a trunnion support (trunnion is the axle around which gun elevates) from the Tamiya kit. On the right the corresponding part of the AFV Club kit. Night and day, isn't it?

So that's it for this week - thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Hi Pawel :  )

I just wanted to say I have read your whole thread and I really admire what you are doing with the Duster.

First class work, no doubt about that !  I admire your decision to shelve the Tamiya hull and it's inaccuracy in favor of the AFV kit . Much better result ! 

All the small,delicate details will make this a masterpiece. 

 Also, I felt the exchange of modeling ideals between you and Hans was done in a most gentlemanly fashion. This helps every one understand there are 2 sides to every coin. Diversity is what makes building models a cool hobby.

So congrats man on a great piece of modeling  I am really looking forward to your future progress posts !

tread

Hans, thanks a lot for your message and for your kind words!

You and I - we build different models, and that's perfectly OK with me. I understand what you are trying to achieve, and I respect that. I just wanted to point out, for the people seeing themselves somwhere between your and my point of view, that for some dollars more they now have the option to build a model that will look a lot better OOB. That could be also appealind to young modellers with some experience. Here you have, three (3!) PE parts in the box, like perfect introduction to PE, don't you think? I know you don't like too much PE in your model, but how would you like to do those peep sight rings other way? In any case, I'm not telling anybody what to do, just pointing out options. Now there are more options, more decisions to make. So thanks again for your input, I'll definitely ask you for more help at the point of building the crew and putting on stowage - for now I'd like to wish you good luck with your modelling projects and have a nice day

Paweł

Hans - I kinda knew you were going to chime in if I dog the old kit enough

Ahh, heck.. Ya hooked me..

You said in you first post:

This is important for me, as I like my models to be accurate from every direction

That's one major area in which we differ.. I build dioramas, so "every direction" isn't important.. Many of the builds I do are in shadow-boxes too.. The view is even more restricted, so many times I don't even bother to paint (or even fully assemble) a kit in the areas that will be invisible to the viewer... Also, with dioramas, the kit is is just a part of the model.. The whole diorama is the actual model, not the kit (or kits), figures, structures, landscape, etc..  

See, if I were building a Duster, I'd have to build the Duster, the crew, the 1/4-ton and trailer (for the storyline), the farmhouse/stone wall/barn/treeline, the creek and footbridge (to establish location an time-frame), and the road (I like roads)..

Like you said so many times - you have the time and you're not obsessed with acuracy, so that's probably not a big deal for you, but please tell me - let's look at the air cleaner - would you leave the Tamiya part like it is? Or if you decided to rework it, what would you say, how long it would take you to do it?OK, the Tamiya kit is like 35% cheaper than the AFV Club (here in Poland) - but then you have to put hundreds of hours of correcting and scratchbuilding do get something comparable to the AFV Club model out of the box.

I've never put hundereds of hours into any single kit, Pawel... The most time-consuming kit I ever did was one that took about 60 hours, which was the F-82 I did a couple years ago... THAT was a limited-run kit, and the problems were manifold..  I spent about 50 hours just scratch-buliding parts, filling, and sanding that one... Assembly and painting were a breeze...   (Yeah, I'd do it again..)  The estimated time I'd spend with the above Duster diorama?  I'd wager I'd bring it in in under 80 hours..

You said it yourself.. I'm not that obscessed with accuracy so I'd probably forego getting obsessed with the air cleaner... Things like roadwheels, tracks, and *gasp* motorization holes, I don't care about..  I don't turn the models on their backs (they're actually screwed into place to "spring" the suspensions a bit), and the roadwheels and tracks generally are covered in mud (I like to do European dioramas)... Rear decks are strewn with vehicle BII, camouflage nets, rations, water, and personal gear, etc...

I don't build "out of the box" anymore either, so that's not a good question for me.. (But then, neither are you, eh?)  Obviously, one cannot build the Tamiya kit to achieve what AFV has done out of the box, but then again, I don't need or want that level, so why pay for it?  If, on the off-chance that I DO have to change something, I've got the ability to make the parts I need... Can't fault anyone for that, man..

It comes from years and years of doing it, and I see no reason to change it, or to abandon a kit simply because it ain't "pretty" or "modern" enough...   I also tend to work in styrene strip rather than brass, thermo-forming stuff like brush-guards and ammo/fuel can racks...  But CAN I build a model of the Duster, using the Tamiya kit, enter it in a contest against the guy with the AFV kit, and win? Hmmm...  All else being equal... Probably... (Definately, if the judges are primarily ship or car modelers.. )

 Seriously though...   When people dog the old kits, especially experienced modelers with years of references, materials, skill-sets, etc.  built up, I think it discourages the younger or beginning, less-experienced guys, who look at the builds and then at the prices on the sides of the box at the hobby shop...  And then give up the idea of building either one altogether and go play Warcraft instead...So I've rather made it my mission to show people what the "Classics" can look like, with a little common-sense, a little more imagination,  and a lot of Gizmology...  One thing always missing from articles, which are usually rife with what AM parts are used and where to get them, that the total cost of the build is missing...

Bottom line... We're totally different when it come to our approaches to the hobby.. You want to build kits that're accurate to a degree that satifies you, I wanna tell "war stories"...   And that's just fine, but somebody has to speak up for the "underdogs" or one day soon, NOBODY will be able to buy a 1/35th scale AFV like the Duster, Sheridan, Patton, or Tiger for under 50-60 bucks, and what you're paying for now will cost even more..... That's bad..

When all is said and done, we both have a miniture representation of something.. You have something that shows others what it looked like, I have something that shows other people what it was for...

That said, you're building a helluva nice model, and it looks like you got your poop in group...  Rock on!

Thanks a lot for your comments, gentlemen!

Hans - I kinda knew you were going to chime in if I dog the old kit enough OK, the Tamiya kit is like 35% cheaper than the AFV Club (here in Poland) - but then you have to put hundreds of hours of correcting and scratchbuilding do get something comparable to the AFV Club model out of the box. Like you said so many times - you have the time and you're not obsessed with acuracy, so that's probably not a big deal for you, but please tell me - let's look at the air cleaner - would you leave the Tamiya part like it is? Or if you decided to rework it, what would you say, how long it would take you to do it?

Mike - Thanks a lot. You see, I was converting the Tamiya kit for years, because I thought the AFV Club Duster isn't going to materialize. In the moment it got here, I saw that there is still so much work to do on the Tamiya and the finished model still will be no match for the AFV Club based models, so I decided to switch and start over with the latter kit. Reaching this stage took me like a year with the Tamiya kit, and like six or seven weeks (working mainly on weekends) with the AFV Club kit, and this time it's a little better. So yeah, I was kinda waiting for this kit to come.

Bill - thanks for your kind words, I'm also quite happy with what I'm getting. The real challenge - the gun mount - is still ahead of me. Wish me luck, friends!

Thanks again, have a nice day

Paweł

Nice work on the details Pawel, the effort you're putting into this one is paying off for sure!

Pawel - Outstanding detail work. This is becoming a great reference blog. You can tell you have been waiting awhile for this one.

Rounds Complete!!

there are only very few reasons to use it today...

The main one being price... 

Hello Carl, thanks for your continued interest!

Shellback

That old Tamiya kit is a real clunker compared to this AFV kit.

That's the point I'm trying to make - there are only very few reasons to use it today, when there's a much better kit available. Thanks again, have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel , beautiful work and details . That old Tamiya kit is a real clunker compared to this AFV kit .

Greg - thanks for your commant and your kind words. And thanks for sharing - I found that tread, it will help me a lot.

Carl - thanks a lot, but you should see this:

First I worked on a relatively minor detail - AFV Club kit has this nice feature, it shows the spent bras chute that leads the spent cases under the vehicle - the old Tamiya kit omitted this altogether. But the AFV Club kit mises the "slip ring assembly", as the TM calls it - it's a mechanism to provide eletric power to the turret - to traverse and elevate the guns, and to power the computing sight. I started to build this part by cutting a portion of a plastic clothes hanger, then heating, bending and flattening it - that reduced the amount of subsequent filing needed to get the correct shape. After I was done, the part looked like this:

Then I put this part in the chute, using a jig made of styrene sheet, to make sure it is coaxial with the turret. Then I painted the chute white:

But the best thing I managed to do this time, was to realy put some work on the hull. I put the outfitted fenders on the hull, which allowed me to add lots of details, like the fender braces, air cleanersand stuff. The photos below show how complete my hull now is:

The next photo shows the machine gun ammo "corner" made out of sheet metal, fender brace and a photoetched water can holder:

On the photo below you can see another MG ammo "corner", also made out of sheet metal and the corrected T-handle for the fire extinguisher (inside the protective mount, near the turret ring):

Above you can see one of the air cleaner with the complicated ducts connecting it to the vehicle and also the APU's exhaust pipe and muffler. There is a kind of a shroud, where the exhaust pipe enters the hull, but at the point in time when this photo was taken, this part wasn't installed yet. Below is a photo of the old Tamiya air cleaners - to hold you from attempting to build the Tamiya kit . Lots of progres happened in the last 30 years!

So currently I declare the hull to be temporarily completed. I plan to build up the gun mount next, then to paint everything, and then to add the stowage and crew. But for now I would like to thank you all for reading - have a nice day and see you soon

Paweł

Coming along very well

                     Great looking build so far Pawel,I believe it was a Duster that I took some photos of at a roadside memorial. Check out the "Local Finds " thread its on page 2 now.

                                               Greg"Detailfreak"Rowley

Thanks a lot Bill! Of course I left the driver's head off to facilitate the painting... I don't have to work thursday to sunday, so I hope to get a few things done on this model. Best greetings

Paweł

Nice work on the office Pawel...as soon as the driver gets his head on straight you'll be able to steer it toward the finish line! Good progress on the other details as well.

Thanks a lot, Clay!

OUTSTANDING BUILD Pawel great Detail work

Clay

And I'm movin on. I decided I have to concentrate on closing up the hull to be able to move on on other areas of the model. As the driver is almost ready, now it's time to get him some rudimentary "office". First I buit something like a driver's seat:

Now if I really wanted to go to town here, I would have to add the backrest and the levers controlling the seat's vertical and horizontal movement, but it won't really be visible anyhow, so I passed on those details. Then I added the driver, that also is supported on the handlebar:

I added some red pigment, so the insides are not so terribly clean. After test-fitting the top and front armor plates I decided the "office" is still not busy enough, so I decided to scratch-build an instrument panel. Here's what it looks like fitted to the front armor:

That was starting to look OK, so I finally closed the hull up. The view through the driver's hatch now looks like this:

While the glue dried I examined the plans some more and found out I have to work on the rear tow shackle mounts for the third time - the way it looks like, not only the instructions, but also the official errata have an error - the mounts are supposed to point to the rear, not down, like the errata shows. By the way I also put the towing hook on, and now the rear armor looks like that:

And that would be it for this weekend - thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł