6252 for 2?

[bbrowniii]

Jul 19, 2018 20:08:44 GMT -5 dupes said:

I believe you're right, Bill. This begs the question - what the F is part P8 for, then? There's nothing in the instructions indicating that using that part requires modification of other parts (believe me, I checked!). And, of course, I find out now that there's no parts to add to this one to complete the assembly.

I'm going to have to try to saw down G19 and then see if there's any way to attach it to P8 with any sort of positive fit...might need to brace it underneath somehow.

Dupes

I saw that part too and considered it. I think (correct me if I'm wrong Bill) that, maybe, it was intended if you wanted to build the kit without fenders? I believe I have seen lots of pics of Tigers that have lost their fenders?

Maybe? Maybe not?

And yeah, the instructions are USELESS for that part.

[bbrowniii]

Dupes

Are you too far along to pop that piece off an replace it with the one with fenders?

[dupes]

Jul 22, 2018 16:24:04 GMT -5 bbrowniii said:

Dupes

Are you too far along to pop that piece off an replace it with the one with fenders?

Oh yes. That one gets tucked in under the vertical plate with the hull MG and vision block...no getting her out now!

[bbrowniii]

Hello all,

It has been a while since I updated my progress. Partly that was because I've not had the bench time I would have liked in the last couple weeks, and partly because the progress has been minor.

The only major elements I have left are the tracks and the tools. I decided to tackle the tools first, that way, I can get a coat of primer on this beast.

Being a little bit foolish, I opted for the PE option for the tool clasps:

DML has given us a nice set of tools and a nice set of PE to go with them:



In addition, there is actually a little jig on the tool sprue to assist with folding the clamps. I did not expect this to be useful, but have been pleasantly surprised:



I will admit, it has been a while since I have done PE tool clamps, so the learning curve was steep. Nonetheless, I did make some progress with the ax and shovel:



Now that I've hit my stride I hope to finish these up tomorrow or Sunday.

[Leon]

Nice work on the PE clamps Boyd!

[mustang1989]

This one's gonna be fun to watch. Rock on you guys.

[bbrowniii]

Aug 10, 2018 22:04:10 GMT -5 Leon said:

Nice work on the PE clamps Boyd!

They are a PITA, Leon, but look pretty nice when they are done.

Truth be told, I do take a bit of satisfaction in doing them....

[wbill76]

Worth the effort, looks sharp!

[bbrowniii]

Hey guys

It has been a while since I updated the old 6252 build, so let me try to bring you up to speed:

I completed assembly and they turned my attention to the tracks.... and immediately had issues with the provided Magic tracks. I hemmed and hawed for weeks until, finally, in November I said f&%k it and bought a set of Fruils, which I finally got in early December. More on that soon...

So, the build itself made it to the paint shed and has a layer of primer on it and is ready for some good old German gray.

However, once again, I have hit a snag with the tracks. And, I'd really be interested to hear your guys thoughts on this:

I had never used fruils before, so after I cleaned them up, I bought a bottle of AK burnishing fluid (AK159). I was a bit nervous, so I tried it out on a couple of the fruils that were a bit wonky and that I didn't plan to use in the track runs. So, I mixed up a small batch of the fluid and water. I had six links, and put them in together and took one out a 15 minutes, two out at 30, and the last three out at 45. Overall, I was pretty pleased:



So, last night I plunked the first set of tracks into the fluid and I set them to cooking. I noticed they didn't seem to be taking on the same look as fast, and figured it had to do with there being so many more links, and figured maybe it would take longer. I left them in for 2 hours, but when I took them out, they looked pretty good. I dried them on a towel, then rinse them in water, and set them aside. And then, when I went down to do the other side tonight, I got a bit of a shock to see that the ones I did last night had turned green:



Also, when I poured the rest of the fluid out of the jar, I noticed all these blue flakes on the bottom. I tried to add some water and shake them up, but that just seemed to move them around and not do anything:



I have to admit I'm a little baffled. Would love any ideas about what went wrong.

[dupes]

That jar says "ready in 30 seconds"? Something isn't working out quite right there.

[bbrowniii]

Jan 2, 2019 22:05:36 GMT -5 dupes said:

That jar says "ready in 30 seconds"? Something isn't working out quite right there.

Exactly.

30 seconds if you do it straight, a few minutes if you dilute it...

[wbill76]

I've never used burnishing fluids myself but do know they work on the basis of a corrosive chemical reaction (the fluid is an acid-based solution), so it's possible that the fluid got contaminated or changed in some way between your first test run and the 2nd effort. I'm assuming that you used a fresh mix of diluted fluid on the ones that turned green and not the same fluid you used on the test samples, right? What about the bowl/container for the fluid? Was the water you used to dilute it tap water, distilled water, etc.? You also mentioned that you cleaned up the tracks...did you use something like vinegar, soap/water, etc. before putting them into the solution?

The blue flakes in the bottom of the bottle are an oddity, no idea why that would happen unless the bottle contents also got contaminated in some way and caused some of the fluid ingredients to come out of suspension and collect on the bottom. Did you add water to the bottle to dilute the fluid before you noticed the flakes or poured it out and then added the water you mentioned later when you noticed the flakes?

Short answer is something along the way altered the chemical state of the fluid, how it interacted with the tracks, etc. to produce that interesting green effect. The presence of the blue flakes and the greenish tint on the tracks suggests an interaction with copper as the culprit.

[bbrowniii]

Bill

Great questions all around...

Here is what I did:

First, I went to AK and watched probably more YouTube videos than was needed to make sure I knew how to use this, because this was my first time.

Next, I wanted to be DOUBLY sure I knew how to use it, so I poured maybe two ounces into a plastic container I have, then added a roughly equal amount of tap water (good old Ashford CT well water, yep!).

Happy with my test, I repeated the process for one set of the links. The primary difference this time, of course, is that the volume of burnishing fluid and water was higher - but still roughly a 50/50 ratio. Basically, I used half of what was left in the bottle (the water was added from a plastic dixie cup).

The tracks had been cleaned, first by soaking them in Windex and then in plain water, and lastly by putting them in warm water with some dish soap. I did not individually scrub each one, but I feel like I got them pretty clean (as indicated by the test links I did).

It was probably another week or so before I got to soak them, with maybe two or three days from the practice links to the full set. I realized pretty quickly that the process was taking longer, and figured maybe I had diluted it a little more than in the test batch, but after two hours, I was pretty satisfied. I took them out, put them in clean water, then put them on a paper towel to dry. The next day is when I realized they had gone green.

Fast forward... I put the rest of the fluid and an equal amount of water in the same container and added the last run of tracks. It was at that point, when the bottle was empty, that I noticed the residue in the bottom. Only then did I add water to the bottle and shook it vigorously, but the flakes remained.

So, I let the second set soak, checking on their progress. When I was pretty satisfied, I took them out, put them in water, and on a towel, just as I'd done before. THEN, I took the green set, and put them back in the fluid I had just taken set two out of. I left them for about half an hour and, when I removed them and repeated the rinse/dry process. They took on a color I am pretty satisfied with, so I didn't muck with it.

I agree with you - somehow that solution got contaminated, and my results are not what I wanted, but fortunately I at least got rid of (most) of the green and the tracks look relatively track like.

[wbill76]

Jan 4, 2019 19:29:20 GMT -5 bbrowniii said:

Bill

So, I let the second set soak, checking on their progress. When I was pretty satisfied, I took them out, put them in water, and on a towel, just as I'd done before. THEN, I took the green set, and put them back in the fluid I had just taken set two out of. I left them for about half an hour and, when I removed them and repeated the rinse/dry process. They took on a color I am pretty satisfied with, so I didn't muck with it.

I agree with you - somehow that solution got contaminated, and my results are not what I wanted, but fortunately I at least got rid of (most) of the green and the tracks look relatively track like.

Happy it turned out reasonably well in the end! Sounds like the 'green' set just needed a little more time or a reactivation of the reaction with the solution from the 2nd set to get them to complete the process.

I've never personally used metal tracks or burnishing solution myself, so can't offer anything beyond the theoretical explanation. I do know that well/tap water can often contain trace minerals and perhaps there wasn't enough of it present in the smaller test batch to have an effect but was in the larger full track batch to create the 'green' effect. Or it could just have been a one-off in terms of those links having some higher trace residue from the soap/Windex/whatever that the others didn't and also playing a role since you didn't scrub them individually (not saying that would've been enough, just that it's a difference). There are multiple possible variables and, unlike all good science experiments, doesn't sound like the experience was replicable given how the other links behaved, so you may never know the real answer!

[Tobi]

I have used several burnishing fluids from different brands in the past, always with differing results, but no track ever turned green?
What I found is that the agent, even after you've rinsed the track carefully in water would still react with the air. I had once a situation where a nice brown track would re-darken to almost black over night! You may want to keep that in mind for the future.

To help you with the green I can offer you this suggestion: apply a coat of hairspray and then paint the tracks in Panzer grey. After that you can scrub away the paint from the raised surfaces again and apply a little weathering and dusting, that should do.

It was practice to paint the tracks at the factories in Panzer grey throughout the complete war, like numerous findings of original track links in Russia with paint flakes on the them have proven in the past. This can be also looked up in the book "Panzerketten" by Dr.  Schwarzmann.

[bbrowniii]

Toni

That's some good info, thanks.

I may try some hair spray related weathering since I feel like they still need some work.

Thanks again, I'll keep you informed as to my progress.