Brummbar Mid Production

[danb.]

Very clean work so far Bill the zimm is awesome keep it coming.

Dan B

[wbill76]

Thanks Dan, appreciate the support.

[armorguy]

Man that's an awesome zimmerited hull !

[rm6239.]

Bill, sorry I'm late to the party mate, looking very good and the Atak Zim looks very good and seems a neat fit.

cheers

Rossco

[wbill76]

Armorguy, thanks and glad you like her so far!

Rossco, no worries mate, the party's just getting started!

[wbill76]

Lol Dicky! For a moment there I though you had posted a blank post...then the crawl appeared! Glad you approve.

[wbill76]

Just when I recently said I "only post updates on Sundays!", my wife had a school event this evening so I was left home alone...and decided to sneak in a little extra bench time to take advantage of the situation!

Step 8 is a prep step that assembles the side air intakes and the rear engine deck top as well as the rear plate...and then puts them all off to the side until Step 17. There's no real reason to wait that long so I went ahead and assembled the rear hull and installed it into the lower hull. The Atak set includes a replacement rear hull plate but it doesn't have the spare wheel holder parts attached to it, so those will have to be transplanted from the DML kit part later on. It's also important to note that in Step 8 the diagram isn't very clear in how the step plate over the muffler/exhaust installs...it has three L-shaped support arms that install to the back of the plate and support the plate over the exhaust. The Atak side panels were added as well at this point.



The installation into the hull in Step 17 includes the install of the rear bulkhead, the tread plate floor for the fighting compartment, and the gun mount base. The base is a 4 part affair that has to be assembled just so or it won't be possible to fit it into the hull in the correct position. You cannot assemble it outside the hull as the diagrams indicate and then install it as one piece into the hull. This is due to the way the two side supports interact with the hull...they have slots in their sides to fit into the angled "ribs" molded into the lower hull and also slots on their feet that match up with tabs on the hull floor. You have to install these first, then position the top part, D7, within the hull at a slight angle to clear the fender edges, then turn D7 to sit properly and flush on the side feet. The front support should be glued to D7 prior to doing this. It took me a couple of different attempts to figure this out, hence the glue marks on the hull floor you see in the photo.



The interior tread plate part, D6, should then install into position between the rear bulkhead and the gun mount. A test fit showed this was no problem and while my back was turned to take the photo above, my beloved boxer Brenda somehow managed to get hold of the plate. She only had it for a few seconds but the damage was done as she's a "power chewer"!



It's not a big loss as I wasn't planning to display the hatches open for the interior and this sealed it for sure if I did have any doubts otherwise!

Next up will be working on the 15cm gun assembly.

[eastrock]

The details looks great, Bill!!!

you got a playful dog...

[wouter]

oooh, lovely stuff mate, allready lookin' forward to next steps.

Zimm looks ace ey ^^

Cheers

[bullardino]

Very nice progress from both you and Brenda

[406 Silverado]

Another nice update Bill, good to see you snuck some bench time in. A bonus update for us....too cool.

[spud]

om nom nom... ;D nice update bill you were lucky thats all she got hold of ;D

[wbill76]

Thanks gentlemen!

ER, Brenda's normally extremely well behaved in the office/workbench area but she's also a creature of habit/routine. Since the routine was disrupted, she "acted out" a bit in snatching the part becuase I wasn't playing with her I think...but who really knows the mind of a dog? I have my own share of the blame as I left it within reach as a temptation.

Rob, figured you would like the bonus, now back to the regular schedule!

[eastrock]

Dogs is really playful in nature, especially when provide them the care not just a pet but a part of a family... we had a dog before that all the slippers and shoes had to be store inside the cabinet if you know what I mean. lol Maybe your right the routine was disrupted

[martyncrowther.]

Nice work Bill the Brummbar looks like a mean vehicle..

[tonylee-Rest In Peace]

You Know what? You guys need to implement the same techniques that your wifes use on you to control your pets.

Nice surprise up date Bill
Tony lee

[bigjohn]

Nice update Bill, I have a small dog I'll give ya, he's to short to reach the bench, lol

[wbill76]

ER, that's true and Brenda is definitely a member of the family. She's 17 months old now and fully grown and generally well behaved...but every now and then she has her "moments"!

Thanks Martyn! Have to agree the Brummbar is an ugly brute...that 100mm frontal armor was something I'm sure the crew appreciated though!

Tony,

Nice theory but don't think it would work out too well in practice...before I know it Brenda would be sneaking orders of bones online and building a stash in the back yard!

[TRM]

Again with the nice update Bil!! LOL, I was picture surfing before reading, saw the damage and thought you were changing the pace and making a knocked out Brummbar!!!! Well, it was a thought!! Brenda sounds like a little trouble maker!! LOL!!!

[wbill76]

Thanks T! Brenda's definitely my dog (wife has two cats for her side of the pet spectrum) and my office buddy...normally she sleeps under my desk during the day (she has a dog's life for sure!) and is only playful for about 1 hour in the evenings...and if she doesn't get it, she "talks" to me and lets me know it's "her" time!

[eastrock]

Bill, she looks like well behaved and would not do anything bad, look at the eyes, she seems curious.

[wbill76]

No question there ER...she's extremely curious and always has to investigate whatever is going on...but generally she's harmless and also afraid of her own shadow!

[armorguy]

That's serious damage, very well executed !

[wbill76]

Thanks Dicky! You might be on to something there...if only her results were more controllable!

Armorguy, will pass on the compliment!

[wbill76]

This weekend's round of bench time was very productive and work continued on the gun and superstructure. I decided to build the gun first as it's designed to go into a static mount in the fighting compartment and everything else revolves around it as a result in terms of fit and placement.

That meant skipping to Step 11 which assembles the gun and breech as well as the collar and recoil cylinders. The breech block can be left movable if you so desire and some sanding is necessary on the join halves of the breech but otherwise it's a straightforward step.



Step 12 combines the elements from the previous step and adds the recoil guards. Step 13 assembles part of the gunner's side of the gun mount by adding a choice of two different styles of traverse gears. I chose the simpler type for expediency.



Step 14 completes the gunner's side of the mount with the addition of the gunner's seat, the gun sight, and the elevation wheel. There's also a toothed gear that is added that the instructions indicate shouldn't be glued...I tried this out and found it to be unnecessary to allow the gun to elevate and omitted it since I'm closing up the interior anyhow. I suppose if you were really really careful with the glue you could find a way to make the gear actually "turn" with the gun as it elevates but it's not essential to the gun assembly in the long run.



Step 15 is the moment of truth, it adds all of the previous components together along with the base and ball mantlet to create the full gun assembly. The fit on E19, the ball mantlet, was too tight for the gun barrel to slide through so I had to trim and sand it with a round needle file on it's inside diameter to get the gun barrel to fit. Even then it was an extremely tight friction fit and a challenge to get it to slide all the way down. It also has to fit tightly over the side hinge points of the gun mount and the fit has to be just so for it all to work. I got it as far down onto the mount as I could make it go but I suspect that it needed to go about another 1mm or so to actually fit correctly. Unfortunately the friction fit made it impossible for me to remove it and try again...and this in turn resulted in some issues down the road in the following steps.



I added the interior plate from Step 9 and did a test fit with the gun mount dry-fit in place and sure enough, the mantlet interfered with the fit, causing the rear of the superstructure to not align properly with the fenders and engine deck...a major problem. This meant that the interior ring around the ball mount needed to be trimmed back to allow the mantlet to clear it. This was done with careful trial-and-error and much trimming and sanding.



This led me to wonder if the same issue might be encountered with the exterior circular plate, so I added the Atak zim panels and resin plate and did a test fit. It too had the same issue, so same trimming and sanding treatment was called for. I also used some Squadron White putty thinned with liquid cement to fill small gaps around the circular plate and create a unified look with the rest of the zim panels.



I decided to go ahead and zim the rest of the superstructure before installing it to the hull to make sure I didn't run into any more fit issues. I decided that I would not mount the schurzen rails and opted instead for just the small mount tabs as called out in Step 21. The tabs were installed first and the zim panels added after followed by the lifting hooks and pistol ports from Step 9. Small amounts of trimming were needed here and there and lots of test fits with the lower hull, so I'm glad I decided to zim first. I also opted for the command version "adler's nest" 2nd antenna mount and added that from Step 18.



With all that out of the way, it was time to install the superstructure to the lower hull. I used a combination of regular glue, liquid glue, rubber bands, and finger pressure to get a good join all around.



Next up will be the roof and small details and then I'll start in on the tracks.

[TRM]

Always a good update Bill!!! Nice work on the peashooter!!!! She is all coming together now!!! BTW...love Brenda....even if she eats your parts!!!

[wouter]

Nice work and photos Bill! And lovely explanation as well, glad you could solve things! Looks great so far ;-)

Cheers

[eastrock]

Nice update and Details really stands out, Bill

[tonylee-Rest In Peace]

That ball mantlet is the major fit problem with this kit. Makes you wonder how it got past the QA testers don't it Bill?

Good work Tex
Tony

[wbill76]

T, thanks for the comments both on the build and Brenda!

Wouter and ER, thanks as well!

Tony, yep but then it is DML...I can't recall if you built the pre-zimmed kit or not? If you did, then they had a chance to fix it then and didn't. A shame considering how prominent a feature it is on the vehicle but then that's why we are model builders and not just assemblers!