1/35 Dragon Leopold--Build Complete: 89 hours over 21 days!

Mike,

It could be worse, they could be bad drawings accompanied by text in Japanese...

Day 8 Log: September 11, 2004:

Today was extremely productive. Absolutely gorgeous weather, not a breath of wind and temps hovering around 90 degrees, perfect outdoor painting. Had to finish up several details first before though, so was a busy day both in construction and painting.

Errors/Issues Found: 1

---Step 15 has you build the shell transport cart and includes two sets of railings. In the drawing, the railings are identical and are supposed to meet up together in the middle in a clamshell arrangement. Part E15 is molded as drawn, however E14 has a bend and an angle at the top corner so it's not possible to get them to match up without breaking the part. Not sure if I just got a malformed part or if the drawings are wrong. I chose to keep the angle and tinger with the frame, it looks like it belongs but does not match the instructions.

Steps Completed:

---Step14 left at 50% due to missing ladder rungs, so progressed on to Step 15. Completed Step 15 and 16 to assemble the driving cart (not sure if that's what it really is called, but it's the structure housing the self-propelling engine for the Leo...) prior to painting.

---Completed remaining exterior superstructure painting on the gun cradle, upper plate decks, and self-propelled motor carriage. Consumed an additional 1.5 bottles of Panzer Schwarzgrau. Grand total of 3.5 bottles required to paint overall gray basecoat, confirming that this monster is indeed a paint sponge! Still have additional painting for the railroad tracks and bed. So far paint consumption on this project stands at 4.5 bottles in total.

---Completed weathering on exhaust stacks and shell transfer cart. Body of cart as well as upper structures on the rail carriages and gun cradle still require weathering.

Total Time Today: 10 hours

Total Time to Date: 44 hours

Progress Pic:



Additional comments:

Tomorrow I will be working on the T34 build, so will not touch the Leo again until Monday or later depending. Last remaining construction step involves the railroad bed.

Did the kit come wth a railway embankment or base?
good luck
Ryan

Critr,

Yes it does...comes with sections for about 48" of embankment plus rails and ties. The sections are pretty big but the railroad ties are individuals along with individual sections or rail.

What a monster. I can't wait to see it finished.
mark956

Sneaked in a little bit of time today since the T34 work went smoother than expected.

Day 9 Log: September 12, 2004:

The last remaining major construction efforts now center around the railroad embankment and track section aseemblies.

Errors Found: None

Steps Completed:

Step 19 30% completed.

--- Embankment sections assembled in one long piece. 7 sections plus 2 end caps comes to 43" in length. Instructions call for the sections to be assembled using snap-together connectors between the sections, but these are too weak on their own to support the sections' weight when you get more than two together. Applied liquid glue to the connectors as well as the sections were they met up. Built two sections at a time and then gradually linked the together into one piece. Final assembly was done on a pull out drawer for easy removal for painting and transportation.

---Prepped the assembled embankment for painting. the embankment is rough textured to simulate gravel/dirt and is nicely molded in a somewhat random pattern. This has a negative effect though in that the joints between two sections are uneven. Had to use putty to fill the gaps and work with a toothpick to make sure the rocky pattern was maintained (nothing like a straight smooth line of putty to look out of place among a bunch of rocks! ).

---Airbrushed the embankment with MM Dark Earth thinned 50%. Consumed about 2/3 bottle (partially used to begin with, so just an estimate). Once paint had dried sufficiently, weathered the embankment to simulate sooty gravel look common to railbeds (at least the ones here in El Paso!). Total paint consumed so far: approximately 5 bottles. ( .5 Dark Earth, 1 Burnt Iron, 3.5 Schwarzgrau).

Total Time Today: 3 hours

Total Time to Date: 47 hours

Progress Pic:





Additional Comments:

The embankment still has a long way to go. There are 57 railroad ties that still have to be painted and detailed along with their respective rail sections. I have to stop at the LHS and get more Burnt Iron for the rails so still many hours left on this before it's done.

And how is the sanity??

QUOTE: Originally posted by JWest21 And how is the sanity??

That's a good question...my wife is starting to look at me funny since she says I keep talking about someone named Leo in my sleep...

Ha!! Beware in the future of doing any tanks with female names. You might be sleeping on the couch for a while!!

Just got off the phone with Dragon USA about replacement parts for my missing G44 and G9 that the cat carried away along with the 5 E5 parts that were missing for the second ladder. They said it would take a couple of weeks for their customer service department to handle it, but they didn't charge so that's a plus.

It's good to hear that Dragon is not going to charge you for the damaged or missing parts Bill. But a couple of weeks before delivery! Don't they realize the world is watching this build? Give me names and phone numbers, I'll put the full court press on them, we can't have these kinds of delays. Semper fi, mike

Day 10 Log: September 13, 2004

Errors/Issues Found: 1

In a bizarre, yet quirky, fashion, the instructions for assembling the railroad ties and rails have you do some very strange things. Inside the tie slots in the embankment, there are arrows and numbers indicating which way the ties should go in...funny thing is, I've studied all the ties as close as possible and, as near as I can tell, there's nothing different about them or the orientation they go into the slots. Still, better to be safe than sorry, so I am diligently following the pattern of g2, g6, g7, g6, g2, g6. g7, g6, etc. taking note that the arrows are lined up properly. Of course, when they told you to assemble the embankment sections, they did not indicate that anything had to match up with the arrows, so this could turn out to be quite amusing in the end... [:0]

Additionally, the instructions call for you to use two rails pristine as they are on the sprue, 4 rails that you remove 9.5mm from the end, and one rail that you cut in half at the 154mm mark (they only supply 7 rails but you need 8...). Measuring out 9.5mm and getting a clean cut is going to be really fun.

Steps Completed:

Step 19: 40% complete.

---airbrushed the railroad ties with MM Leather enamel and the rails and connectors with MM Burnt Iron.

---hand detailed the ties for the metal work that attaches the rails to the ties.

---placed ties for first two sections and their respective rails.

Total time today: 3 hours

Total time to date: 50 hours

Progress Pic:



Additional comments:

Threading the rails through the ties already in the embankment was very rough going... the tolerances are very tight and ended up having to use needle-nosed pliers to feed through the last few ties. May try threading the rails first and then placing the ties but that has some risk as the tie connection points aren't all that strong...have to think about it first and try it verrrry carefully or I'll be on the phone to Dragon again for more parts.

Weathering of the rails and the ties will be done once the entire rail section is complete. At this rate, that won't happen for a couple days.

Day 11 Log: September 14, 2004

Errors Found: none

Steps completed:

--Continued working on Step 19 and building the rails for the Leopold to ride on. Installed a 2nd section of ties and rails and joined it up to the first section. Had some success with threading the ties onto the rails and then adjust them to fit the slots but the tension was too high once a few ties were in place and the rail would slip out of the guides. Tried this three different ways and no luck Ended up putting the ties in place and threading the rail through as with the first one. These rails went in much smoother, no pliers required, probably because of the pre-threading I'd already done. As I suspected, it's taking about 2 hours to install one set of rails so I'm getting a section a day done working on the railroad...


---A word of caution about the ties and the embankment slots. I learned this the hard way with the first tie and neglected to mention it in yesterday's entry. Once you get the tie into the slot...it won't come out. It takes a bit of pressure to get it to go in all the way, and once there, it stays. Only way to get it back out is to thread the rail through it and use the rail to lift it back out but this runs the huge risk of the rail slots on the ties bending or giving way completely in the process.

--Weathered the first set of ties installed yesterday with black pastel and a small sable brush. You can see the before/after in the progress pics. Still a long way to go before this road is finished.

Total time today: 2.5 hours

Total time to Date: 52.5 hours

Progress Pic:

Just an impressive build so bar Bill. It's like watching a reality tv show. Just way cooler.

QUOTE: Originally posted by tigerman Just an impressive build so bar Bill. It's like watching a reality tv show. Just way cooler.

Maybe one of the cable channels should pick up on this idea...it could work on a Survivor/Apprentice type model I think. Take a group of modelers, lock them in a house or on a deserted island for 6 weeks and tell them to build like maniacs...hey if Gilligan and the professor could turn coconuts into phones, it could work.

bill simply outstanding work so far. thanks for the updates on your build.

joe

Bill. It's just absolutely poetry in motion, watching you put this all together. What a treat. semper fi, mike

Mike and Joe,

Glad you are enjoying the ride along with me! I'm enjoying this build immensely, so many different things to work on to bring it all together. It comes with a set of figures specifically designed for this kit as well and they are highly detailed, so more hours will go into them as well before she's all wrapped up.

Day 12 Log: September 15, 2004

Errors/Issues Found: 1

---I figured out by accident why they have the ties go into their respective slots in that zany pattern outlined earlier. I accidentally put a g2 in a g7 slot due to poor attention and mistaking the upside down writing of a 2 for a 7...pushed it in all the way (once in they don't come out) before I realized the mistake. The impact hit home when I threaded the rails through. The misplaced tie had it's rail holder out of line by about .5 mm...just enough to make the rail bow slightly as it passed through. Fortunately this happend right at a rail junction so I was able to correct it using the other rail and the rail joint halves.

Steps Completed:

---Completed Step 19 in terms of the construction of the railroad bed. Ended up with 7 extra ties and 1 set of extra rail joints, but that was to be expected since they give you 7 sprues with 6 ties and 1 set of joints but you only need 57 ties and 6 sets of joints.

---Weathering of the rails and remaining ties still needs to be completed.

---Discovered a neat way to cut the rails cleanly. I used a pin vise and drilled a hole in the center of the rail where the plastic was thin and then used the sprue cutters top and bottom. Only a small amount of sanding required to smooth it out and didn't have to worry about stress cracking or a ragged end to begin with. The measurements they give for the final rails at 154mm seems a bit off...unless you want the rails extending off the end of the embankment (this looked strange to me and I ended up removing about 10mm off the ends so they looked clean on the ties).

Total time today: 3 hours

Total time to date: 55.5 hours

Progress Pics:





Additional comments:

Hopefully my replacement parts from Dragon will arrive this weekend so I can build the remaining ladder I need, secure down the gun mounts, and begin weathering the on the gray structures. Cross those fingers!

QUOTE: Originally posted by wbill76 QUOTE: Originally posted by tigerman Just an impressive build so bar Bill. It's like watching a reality tv show. Just way cooler. Maybe one of the cable channels should pick up on this idea...it could work on a Survivor/Apprentice type model I think. Take a group of modelers, lock them in a house or on a deserted island for 6 weeks and tell them to build like maniacs...hey if Gilligan and the professor could turn coconuts into phones, it could work.

Can we make sure it is a nice tropical deserted island?? Ahh...sun, tropical drinks and model glue. Now THAT'S av Vacation. The build is looking great, by the wya

Thanks Jwest! It's been a great ride so far...the end is starting to come into view now...unless that's just a locomotive coming down the opposite track!

Day 13 Log: September 16, 2004

Errors/Issues: None

Steps Completed:

---Completed weathering on the railroad ties. Am debating whether or not to go ahead and weather the rails themselves or leave as is. I'll try out a little bit of drybrushing tomorrow and if it looks good, will do the rest. If not, will repaint the test section and leave as is.

Time today: 2 hours

Time to Date: 57.5 hours

Progress Pic:



Additional comments: I'm having real problems getting good pics now due to sheer size. My normal portrait area is designed for the usual 1/35 tanks and vehicles, but can't accomodate this monster. Had to use the flash so everything looks lighter/shinier than it really is. Oh well...the limitations of indoor digital photography at work I guess.

The rails also appear in the photo to not be perfectly straight...I'm not sure if that's a combination of the lighting/flash, the alignment of the track vs. the photo, or slight variation in the ties, or all three...When I look down the track length from one end, they look straight so I'm not going to worry about it that much...

Wbill, you are a modeling machine. I have been watching your progress and am amazed at the speed and accuracy in which you taclkle all of your projects. These forums surely give me alot to aspire to .

Hat's off to you.

Thanks ted! I am thoroughly enjoying this build and it's likely to be finished much sooner than I had originally thought it would be. I'm seriously considering entering it in the October DesertCon being held here locally but I'm not sure how I'd work out the transportation logistics for this monster...

This work really needs too make it to the Oct DesertCon Bill. I wonder if maybe you get a sponsor from a local business too assist you with logistical transportation of this traffic jam in the making? It's just a thought! Take a couple of photographs and show it around. You might be surprised how some folks might want to help.(note). I can just see your local funeral home hauling it in one of their hearses. On the other hand it probably would be the safest way to move it. Think about it. semper fi, mike

Hmmm not a bad idea there mike...although it might look very strange if I roll up to the contest site in a hearse! (It's being held in a methodist church event hall). The good news on transporting it is that even when completed, it can still be broken down into the track bed, the gun cradle, and the railroad carriages without too much difficulty.

Well Bill! sometimes my ideas just don't quite meet the sensitivities of the surroundings. In this case the hearse idea might not be the way to go. You folks would probably be looking for a new place to exhibit your work in the future. semper fi, mike

bill i agree this has to make a contest appearance. it is an awesome site.


joe

QUOTE: Originally posted by JWest21 Can we make sure it is a nice tropical deserted island?? Ahh...sun, tropical drinks and model glue. Now THAT'S av Vacation. The build is looking great, by the wya

Don't forget the bikini clad native assistants serving us coconut milk with little umbrellas. Just a nice thought.

Bill, I lost the pool. I thought 50 might not be enough. The picture might not be accurate, but it looks like the top of the rails needs some shiney steel. Sorry if you did this already, just the pic looks as though it needs it, at least on my computer.

You are psychic eric! The last pic from yesterday showed only the weathering being done to the railroad ties. The first thing I tackled today was weathering the rails themselves. No one else entered the pool, so I guess I'll keep the virtual dollar.

Day 14 Log: September 17, 2004:

Errors Issues: None

Steps Completed:

---Continued/Finished the weathering to the railroad bed by drybrushing MM Steel lightly on the rail tops and edges as well as the rail joints. Followed behind with black pastel to slightly dull the silver so that it retained the exposed metal look without being too shiny. Going off the local railroad references I pass by, it seems that the rails themselves don't stay as shiny as opposed to the railcar wheels.

---Weathered the upperstructures on the SP engine housing and shell loading decks. Drybrushed with MM steel and again followed along behind with black pastels to create shadows on the deck grids as well as slightly dull the scratched/exposed steel.

Time today: 4 hours

Time to date: 61.5 hours

Progress Pics:







Additional comments:

Weathering this beast is an unusual proposition but so far progressing well. The kit included a figure set so they will be added as well to further bring it to life. Extra parts have not arrived yet and I'm holding off mounting the ladders and railings until I have them all and can take care of them in one go. Tomorrow's efforts will focus on continuing the weathering process and getting ready for the huge number of decals. [:0]

The weathering process on so large a piece of work has got to be pretty tedious. I think that one would have trouble just maintaining a consistency with so much area to weather. looking forward to seeing more. Keep up the tremendous job you're doing Bill. semper fi, mike

Mike,

That's kind of why I'm doing the weathering in sections. I keep referring back to the ones already completed as I do a new one in order to try and keep some consistency going while still having enough realistic variation over the whole thing. It's tough...I take a lot of breaks in this process which makes it slow going but insures I don't get in a big hurry and make a costly mistake, or at least I hope it does.

Day 15 Log: September 18, 2004:

Errors/Issues: None

Steps Completed:

--Continued the weathering process on the railroad carriages. Completed both front and rear using the MM Steel and black pastel combination. Sealed both up with Testors Dullcote as I'm now having to move them around quite a bit and keep finding traces of black pastel show up on my fingers at the worst moments... [:0]

---Added the kit-included copper safety chain to the shell loading deck. It was somewhat of a pain, not enough to qualify as an issue, but still a pain, because the chain links do not slip over the attachment points as indicated in the instructions. The links are too small to do this easily, but nothing a little CA and accelerator couldn't handle.

---Began the weathering on the gun barrel and mount/elevation mechanisms. These are now completely weathered but still unsecured due to waiting on replacement parts from Dragon. This makes it particularly difficult to work on but I think it's better to take care of it now while I still have some flexibility to it than trying to work with it locked down.

--Re-puttied and sanded the breech block joint area after examining it and discovering gap/seam still visible (sometimes it pays to let things sit for a while and come back to them with a critical eye!).

---Used the airbrush to repaint the breech and touch up some areas that had scuffed since the last paint application. Used up the remaining 1/2 bottle from the previous painting so that makes 4 bottles of Schwarzgray that have gone into this beast.

---Constructed the kit-included shells and canvas powder bags. Painted and weathered them. One shell and the bags will go on the shell cart with a figure pushing them, not sure what I will do with the other 3 shells provided, but will no doubt put them to good use.

Total Time today: 8 hours

Total time to date: 69.5

Progress Pics:













Additional Comments:

Weathering is taking longer than anticipated. I still have the gun cradle itself to weather and it has a lot of surface area to deal with. My intention is to finish the base weathering, apply a gloss coat to the cradle, add the decals, then gloss coat to seal and dull coat over that and then add weathering as needed. The figures on the shelf are starting to mock me, they know all too well why I've saved them for last...

As another note, the MM Steel is showing up in the pics as more pronounced than it actually is under normal lighting conditions. I use two 60W lamps for taking the pics and this lighting is somewhat harsher and the digital enhances the brighter look as a result.

Looks like you've been working on the railroad this weekend Bill! The weathering looks like it is coming along nicely. Just one question on the weathering process you use, When you use the MM steel and pastel black, are the two being mixed together or are you applying the paint then brushing the pastel over the still wet paint? I'm very very new to using pastels and don't think I've quite got the jest of appying them yet. Seems I've read that sealing the pastels takes away from the weathered look? I don't really want to get away from your building of this huge gun but the question ia one I'm trying to better understand. Better let you get back to your railroad it's fantastic so far. semper fi, mike