Post by mshackleton on Sept 14, 2012 7:04:40 GMT -5
PART 4
This carries on from Part 1 here:
modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/3428/meng-tortoise-build-blog-1
Part 2 here:
modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/3429/meng-tortoise-build-blog-2
Part 3 here:
modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/3431/meng-tortoise-build-blog-3
Smudge has kindly uploaded the instructions which can be found at the end of Part 2.
Chrisb has been to Bovington and taken some photos of the beast. His walkaround photos can be found here:
s1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa408/cjb7878/Bovington%20Tortoise/
The first three parts of this build blog covered the main construction elements - suspension, tracks, hull - though I didn’t necessarily follow the instructions and do them in the right order.
This final part will deal with the detailing of the beast and this turned out to be the most stressful - in places - part of the build.
In Part 3, I had already done a certain amount of this. Various fittings were in place on the glacis (Step 7 in the instructions), the gun (Step 9), and commander’s cupola (Step 10), the majority of pesky periscopes (Steps 8 and 10), the ball-mounted BESA (Step 11), the upper and lower hulls mated up and side plates added (Step 12).
Although built, I left the main gun off for the time being as I thought it might get in the way.
Unlike previously, I’ve kept pretty much to the order suggested in the instructions. Enough of being a deviant and let’s follow through from Step 13!
Tortoise has five very large tow hooks - three at the front and two at the rear. Two different kinds have to be built - A and B - which are mirrored assemblies. The instructions make this clear and each is built from five parts. The central part can be left unglued to dangle naturally if you like. An auxiliary power unit exhaust is added to the left-rear corner of the superstructure. The bottom of this mates to a lump on the engine deck which is not clear in the instructions.
I found it necessary to look forward to subsequent steps on several occasions to see how some parts fitted, the APU exhaust being one.
A jerry can holder, fire extinguishers, rear lifting hooks, rear lights and one set of spare tracks completes this step. The only thing that has been missed on this kit is a strap across the jerry can holder - or a jerry can with strap to put in it.
Step 14 - The main tow hook on the rear plate is quite a complicated affair involving 12 parts. This device articulates in two directions and, if built carefully, replicates the movement of the real thing. There are two spring-like things either side the purpose of which I couldn’t tell you. The instructions have misnumbered one of them as C31. It should be C36. No big deal. I can see now that I’ve put mine on back-to-front so don’t tell me off. The instructions suggest that these should be glued to the sides of the tow hook assembly. Don’t! They actually fit into slots on the hull rear for a more accurate fit, none of which I appreciated at the time.
This step also covers the construction of the exhaust and the gun travel lock. The travel lock is fully operable. Even the little bolt on the side that locks the two halves together is hinged and works!
Step 15 - The tow hook and exhaust are added to the busy rear plate along with a telephone box (I think). Also, on the right side are fittings for the tow cables and an electrical conduit that runs vertically down the side of the superstructure. This is the first of four similar parts which are all delicately moulded. This delicacy has its price, though. Each of them has numerous attachment points which can easily lead to breaking the conduit itself if you use side cutters or a knife too close to the conduit. I cut the sprues well away from the thin parts to separate each conduit. Using a very sharp knife, the attachments can then be cut more safely. Final clean up is best done when the parts are firmly in place on the hull, otherwise you could have more breakages on your hands. As you will see in the photo, my first conduit ended up as fodder for the carpet monster and I had to replace it with solder.
Most manufacturers would have moulded these conduits in place (or left them off). Meng have been brave to mould these and should be commended, even if they are very fiddly and delicate to fit. Some modellers will use solder or copper wire rather than use the kit parts. I would have gone this route if this wasn’t an OOTB build blog.
Step 16 - The two front hatches are added here. The driver’s hatch can be made operable. Front tow hooks (already built in Stage 13) and headlights are added to the hull front along with track guard reinforcements, and the remaining spare track links go on the left superstructure wall.
Step 17 - Two more conduits to the smoke launchers are added to the front corners. These are far more complicated than the previous one up the side, so be careful not to break them. The gun travel lock can be clipped in place – it hinges at the bottom. Side lights are added and some roof fittings. Periscope guards are fitted around the driver’s hatch. Part C35 wouldn’t fit the circumference so I had to cut it to get it angled correctly. These guards have pegs underneath to fit into slots in the hull roof. They don’t fit as the slots are too small. Cut the pegs off otherwise the guards stand too high.
Steps 18 and 19 - Tow cables. These are horrible things to put together. Thread is supplied to represent the cables and four lengths have to be cut to 108 mm. That’s the easy bit. Each cable eye has two cables leading into it. The instructions ask you to drill two 0.8 mm holes into the ends of the cable eyes. This is impossible as they are only about 1 mm deep. At first I was simply going to leave the tow cables off as I couldn’t see a way of doing this without tearing the rest of my hair out.
This is my solution. I took two lengths of thread and super-glued the ends together. Once this had firmly set, cut the ends absolutely square and super-glue the cable eyes to each end of the double thread. It’s not the strongest solution but as long as you don’t actually use the tow cables to pull your model Tortoise, it does work. The front end of the tow cables have a triangular ‘thing’ (technical term) to join them together. The cables can then be mounted on the hull side (or left separately for painting).
Steps 20 and 21 - Smoke launchers. These look a little daunting but thankfully they go together quite easily. Six pots are glued onto the main body. Three of these are built. Then a backing plate is added followed by different brackets. The brackets are finely moulded and very nice. Like the conduits, final clean up of mould seems is best done when they are in place on the hull and have more strength. The only thing I’d say is to make sure the glue on the pots is set before adding the hull brackets.
Steps 22 and 23 – This is a big tank, but it has a small turret. The whole assembly is very simple and doesn’t really warrant any further comment except that the two BESA barrels could be replaced with after-marker brass barrels.
That’s it. The build is complete. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. In the end it was quite a quick build - start to finish in less than two weeks working about an hour or so most, but not all, evenings plus a couple of afternoons.
I’ve put a T-34 alongside to give you an idea of its size. It’s not as big as you might think. A modern MBT would be pretty much the same size.
Conclusion
Not many of us thought that we’d ever see this in plastic. Meng have made a very brave choice with Tortoise and have made a very, very good scale replica of the real thing. I can’t really fault it. It’s nice not to have to resort to photo-etch as the plastic moulding is well-defined and very fine where it needs to be. There are a couple of fiddly bits such as the electrical conduits and tow cables, but the end results are well worth the effort. The only thing I can find that is missing is a strap for the jerry can holder.
The instructions aren’t as logical as they could be (particularly the main suspension bogies - see Part 1), but it is easy to work around them as I have done. That’s the only complaint I have. When I was offered this Tortoise build, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic as it isn’t the kind of thing I usually build. However, I’m very glad I have built it. It has introduced me to Meng Models and has resulted in an impressive piece of plastic engineering - not to mention an impressive British beast.
My thanks go to Smudge and Meng Models for supplying the review model.
Model Walkaround
This carries on from Part 1 here:
modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/3428/meng-tortoise-build-blog-1
Part 2 here:
modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/3429/meng-tortoise-build-blog-2
Part 3 here:
modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/3431/meng-tortoise-build-blog-3
Smudge has kindly uploaded the instructions which can be found at the end of Part 2.
Chrisb has been to Bovington and taken some photos of the beast. His walkaround photos can be found here:
s1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa408/cjb7878/Bovington%20Tortoise/
The first three parts of this build blog covered the main construction elements - suspension, tracks, hull - though I didn’t necessarily follow the instructions and do them in the right order.
This final part will deal with the detailing of the beast and this turned out to be the most stressful - in places - part of the build.
In Part 3, I had already done a certain amount of this. Various fittings were in place on the glacis (Step 7 in the instructions), the gun (Step 9), and commander’s cupola (Step 10), the majority of pesky periscopes (Steps 8 and 10), the ball-mounted BESA (Step 11), the upper and lower hulls mated up and side plates added (Step 12).
Although built, I left the main gun off for the time being as I thought it might get in the way.
Unlike previously, I’ve kept pretty much to the order suggested in the instructions. Enough of being a deviant and let’s follow through from Step 13!
Tortoise has five very large tow hooks - three at the front and two at the rear. Two different kinds have to be built - A and B - which are mirrored assemblies. The instructions make this clear and each is built from five parts. The central part can be left unglued to dangle naturally if you like. An auxiliary power unit exhaust is added to the left-rear corner of the superstructure. The bottom of this mates to a lump on the engine deck which is not clear in the instructions.
I found it necessary to look forward to subsequent steps on several occasions to see how some parts fitted, the APU exhaust being one.
A jerry can holder, fire extinguishers, rear lifting hooks, rear lights and one set of spare tracks completes this step. The only thing that has been missed on this kit is a strap across the jerry can holder - or a jerry can with strap to put in it.
Step 14 - The main tow hook on the rear plate is quite a complicated affair involving 12 parts. This device articulates in two directions and, if built carefully, replicates the movement of the real thing. There are two spring-like things either side the purpose of which I couldn’t tell you. The instructions have misnumbered one of them as C31. It should be C36. No big deal. I can see now that I’ve put mine on back-to-front so don’t tell me off. The instructions suggest that these should be glued to the sides of the tow hook assembly. Don’t! They actually fit into slots on the hull rear for a more accurate fit, none of which I appreciated at the time.
This step also covers the construction of the exhaust and the gun travel lock. The travel lock is fully operable. Even the little bolt on the side that locks the two halves together is hinged and works!
Step 15 - The tow hook and exhaust are added to the busy rear plate along with a telephone box (I think). Also, on the right side are fittings for the tow cables and an electrical conduit that runs vertically down the side of the superstructure. This is the first of four similar parts which are all delicately moulded. This delicacy has its price, though. Each of them has numerous attachment points which can easily lead to breaking the conduit itself if you use side cutters or a knife too close to the conduit. I cut the sprues well away from the thin parts to separate each conduit. Using a very sharp knife, the attachments can then be cut more safely. Final clean up is best done when the parts are firmly in place on the hull, otherwise you could have more breakages on your hands. As you will see in the photo, my first conduit ended up as fodder for the carpet monster and I had to replace it with solder.
Most manufacturers would have moulded these conduits in place (or left them off). Meng have been brave to mould these and should be commended, even if they are very fiddly and delicate to fit. Some modellers will use solder or copper wire rather than use the kit parts. I would have gone this route if this wasn’t an OOTB build blog.
Step 16 - The two front hatches are added here. The driver’s hatch can be made operable. Front tow hooks (already built in Stage 13) and headlights are added to the hull front along with track guard reinforcements, and the remaining spare track links go on the left superstructure wall.
Step 17 - Two more conduits to the smoke launchers are added to the front corners. These are far more complicated than the previous one up the side, so be careful not to break them. The gun travel lock can be clipped in place – it hinges at the bottom. Side lights are added and some roof fittings. Periscope guards are fitted around the driver’s hatch. Part C35 wouldn’t fit the circumference so I had to cut it to get it angled correctly. These guards have pegs underneath to fit into slots in the hull roof. They don’t fit as the slots are too small. Cut the pegs off otherwise the guards stand too high.
Steps 18 and 19 - Tow cables. These are horrible things to put together. Thread is supplied to represent the cables and four lengths have to be cut to 108 mm. That’s the easy bit. Each cable eye has two cables leading into it. The instructions ask you to drill two 0.8 mm holes into the ends of the cable eyes. This is impossible as they are only about 1 mm deep. At first I was simply going to leave the tow cables off as I couldn’t see a way of doing this without tearing the rest of my hair out.
This is my solution. I took two lengths of thread and super-glued the ends together. Once this had firmly set, cut the ends absolutely square and super-glue the cable eyes to each end of the double thread. It’s not the strongest solution but as long as you don’t actually use the tow cables to pull your model Tortoise, it does work. The front end of the tow cables have a triangular ‘thing’ (technical term) to join them together. The cables can then be mounted on the hull side (or left separately for painting).
Steps 20 and 21 - Smoke launchers. These look a little daunting but thankfully they go together quite easily. Six pots are glued onto the main body. Three of these are built. Then a backing plate is added followed by different brackets. The brackets are finely moulded and very nice. Like the conduits, final clean up of mould seems is best done when they are in place on the hull and have more strength. The only thing I’d say is to make sure the glue on the pots is set before adding the hull brackets.
Steps 22 and 23 – This is a big tank, but it has a small turret. The whole assembly is very simple and doesn’t really warrant any further comment except that the two BESA barrels could be replaced with after-marker brass barrels.
That’s it. The build is complete. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. In the end it was quite a quick build - start to finish in less than two weeks working about an hour or so most, but not all, evenings plus a couple of afternoons.
I’ve put a T-34 alongside to give you an idea of its size. It’s not as big as you might think. A modern MBT would be pretty much the same size.
Conclusion
Not many of us thought that we’d ever see this in plastic. Meng have made a very brave choice with Tortoise and have made a very, very good scale replica of the real thing. I can’t really fault it. It’s nice not to have to resort to photo-etch as the plastic moulding is well-defined and very fine where it needs to be. There are a couple of fiddly bits such as the electrical conduits and tow cables, but the end results are well worth the effort. The only thing I can find that is missing is a strap for the jerry can holder.
The instructions aren’t as logical as they could be (particularly the main suspension bogies - see Part 1), but it is easy to work around them as I have done. That’s the only complaint I have. When I was offered this Tortoise build, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic as it isn’t the kind of thing I usually build. However, I’m very glad I have built it. It has introduced me to Meng Models and has resulted in an impressive piece of plastic engineering - not to mention an impressive British beast.
My thanks go to Smudge and Meng Models for supplying the review model.
Model Walkaround
Thanks for sharing this with us man. 
