Diggin myself into a hole!

[TRM]

Hey guys!

Thought I would start up a little thread on this one; Perfect Scale Modellbau's Pionierpanzer 1(PiPz 1) mit Inneneinrichtung - Leopard 1 AEV 1 with interior 1/35 resin kit! Pheeew!

Basically in short, I will be having at this Leopard 1 AEV from PSM...LOL!!

I do have too many things on the move but trying to help out a friend. I won't be starting this right away but wanted to have a place to park things once I do.

So just to keep things interesting, a couple box shots...





This a good size kit, with that, this won't be done in one night! LOL!!





So far the details look pretty crisp! I am looking forward to digging in my heels on this when the time comes!



I do have to give a bit of thanks to Mike Shackleton and the Leopard
Club here and it most likely won't be the last...LOL!! Mike has been
great in answering a couple AEV Noobe questions for me! Not to mention,
I have made and early decision on the scheme and I like the Gelbolive
suggested by him. This will give me the best opportunity to really play
around with weathering after the fact!

This is not going to be a speed build by all means but I should be able to move along with it just the same!

First...If you have a chance and have not seen it already, Darren Baker posted a short in-box showing of this kit here: www.armorama.com/modules.php?op= ... t&id=10291 All the the parts for the kit are laid out so if you are interested you can check out what comes in the box!

Not to drag on with a bunch of useless words,(I know...I already did!) it is time to dig in and get moving!

As
part of this build I will more or less review what I see with the kit
as I go...I could have just said "build/review" and called it a day! |
|)

Let me start by covering one thing about this kit; the
instructions. If you are putting this kit on your must have list or
thinking you might want to pick it up, be aware that the instructions
are somewhat daunting.



The
photographs are not exactly the clearest and and the arrows don't point
to the exact location that the part is intended for. It is best that
you compile a few good reference photos of this vehicle before you start
and thing will be much clearer as you go.

So following the
instructions, the Tub was first out of the box. As you seen in the
first pictures I posted, there is a large casting plug at the front of
the lower hull. This does not need to be removed, but does need to be
trimmed down before attempting to fit the floor.



There
are two inner sleeve parts that will need to be installed at the front
of the hull, these close off the openings for the support arms for the
dozer blade. As you can see in the picture, I needed to hone out the
hull a bit to get these to seat correctly. In addition, I needed to
sand the parts themselves so they lined up square. Per the
instructions, for this and many other locations, the suggestion of the
use of filler/putty was given.

I have been able to go to town and clean up a few parts as I get ready to start getting things together.



The
interior is not too bad. There is some rough edges inside but with a
quick dry fit of the top and bottom sections, there is a little bit of a
limited view inside and depending on your level of anal retentiveness,
alteration can be made...but certainly not needed.



I
don't plan on gluing all the interior parts down yet as I want to make
my life a bit easier with the painting...but I do want to place a couple
of them just the same. First would the outside storage locker that can
be shown open when done and the rack for the radios.



The
first little bump in the road is the handle for the side on one of the
shelving units. The kit supplied part is larger than the pre-cast
holes.



A simple fix....



Things are coming together now.



The floor plating has some nice tread to it and fit well first time out. The driver controls and the seat mounts fit nice...



Next step will be a little interior painting I think. Then I can start to glue some parts!!


I still have more to bring over from the other site...patience!! 

[TRM]

Pulled some time to get some resin flying around here....

Per the
1st page instructions is called for the cooling fan located in the rear
deck to be installed. The instructions ask for this part to be painted
prior to installation as there is actually two PE parts, the grills,
that need to be installed over it; one before the fan gets installed and
one after...much after.



A
couple notes here....there are a couple EPM (Ejector Pin Marks) inside
the fan box. Obviously this was a copied part from some Leopard kit
along the way...no problem here. First the part only fills the void so
"IF" you could see through the grills on top it would not look so empty
and secondly there is no way anyone will ever see the EPM's let alone
the painting of this part due to the two grills being installed....minor
formality I guess!









As
you can see with only the one grill in place, you can barely see the
fan...almost not point in painting this part really! The second grill
will go in place after I paint the #1 grill.

I laid down some interior color....





Interior parts are painted and installed!







Looks
like a little weathering inside is next and then I can button things
up. I am expecting a little bit of work in getting things to match up
between the upper and lower halves. The instruction are not shy about
letting the builder know about the use of filler.

The front lip on the AEV does in fact hang over a little so the fit here only needs some cleaning from what I can see so far...



The
rear plate is whole other ballgame. The rear plate has a warp to it,
which is not uncommon with flat resin parts and correctable by placing
in a cup of hot (coffee or tea standards) for a few moments. This will
soften the part and it will go right back to its original shape. BE
CAREFUL...that is my warning about the hot water....you have
tweezers...use them!!



The
first big "OOPS" I found with this PSM Kit was alignment. You can see
the rear plate is not even inside the upper hull section at all when
placed correctly on the lower hull.I have a fix for this and will show
this in my next update. The second big "OOPS" with this kit is the tail
light location...this is wrong. Each of the oval-shaped tail lights
should be above the reflectors that are to the outside of the lights and
close to the joint between the upper hull and rear plate. I will cover
what I will have to do with this as well in the next update! Time for
a little surgery I guess!!

[TRM]

Let's keep this rolling some!!

I slapped around some chipping
and a quick wash on the interior. Might be a bit heavy near the
driver's side hatch floor, but oh well! Not too mention I rushed down to snap the pic before I realized my wash was a bit uneven! Fixed now though!





On
to the tail light repositioning. I seem to have not the thin type of
hobby saw in my possession at this time (surely on the list of thing to
replace
) I managed to use the ancient secret of hot water to get my way in
removing the tail lights and salvaging them for replacement.



I
boiled some water in a coffee mug, 2 minutes on high in the microwave,
dropped the part in the mug and the part softened right up. This
accomplished removing the warp to the rear deck as well as making the
resin soft enough to slide a brand new #11 through it behind the lights
and saving the bulk of the part. The rest was just clean up to which I
found not only filling and sanding the areas where the lights were
previously installed but across the middle section of the plate there
was a minute unevenness to the face which sanded out for the most part
decently when I attached the upper and lower sections, which in turn
needed to filled as well.

As I mentioned and showed in my last
update, there was the issue with the upper and lower hull fit to contend
with. This needed to be dealt with from literally two fronts. The
rear of the upper hull was where there was a cast block attachment
leaving an uneven edge. Typically a quick sand an all is well...



However,
since the rear edge of the upper hull was already inset too far for the
rear plate to sit flush within it, I needed to then sand the area
behind the upper front glacis plate causing the top hull section to move
back and get the fit I needed. This needed to be brought back about
1.5 to 2mm or the thickness of the rear plate.



The two halves...come together!!





The front still retained the slight "overbite" that it needed and the rear fell right into place.



The
filler inside the slots where the plow blade support arm will be is
completely normal (from what I read) for this kit. If interested, a
sanding stick fits perfectly into the slot and the sanding was too easy.

The rear plate installed and tail light move up and out.





As
you may have noticed, the swing arms and suspension parts are installed
now. There are a few things in this area one might want to be aware of
when building...The swing arms appear to be simple copies of maybe the
revel kit and there is little help from the instruction on the
installation not to mention some air bubble associated with them. The
shocks have no set pins to them yet there is a placement hole in the
hull for the mounting. Attachment of the shock to the swing arm and
there being three glued attachment points is a daunting task to say the
least but if you take you time, things come together just fine!

I have some wheels ans sprockets to contend with at the moment...back soon with another update!!

[TRM]

A little more for you tonight...

Wheels, the things that make the world go round and round! Lets talk wheels for a moment!



After
having a pretty good couple of discussion with Mr. Shackleton, I ended
up with some new wheels in front of me for this one. Right off the bat I
can see where the Leopard Club Replacement wheels are a great fix to
lacking details and what I found to be "scale" when it comes to the PSM
wheels.



This
set comes with obviously the complete set of road wheels, two different
colors show the inner and outer wheels and actually a slightly lighter
grey for the set of two idlers provided.



For
the sake of this build review, it is good to go over what is out there
for wheels. As labeled you can see the different manufacturers. This is
the backs of the wheels. As you can see, the key point behind the
Leopard Club Replacement Wheels is the details added to the backs of the
wheels. NONE of the other companies have this including this PSM kit.
I do know this is one of those take it or leave it details for some,
but they are seen depending on weathering and placement of the model.

The fronts



For
the sake of this PSM Build Review I would like to point out the big
differences and why I decided to add these upgraded wheels. The hubs on
the Leopard Club Idlers is crisper with a cleaner look. I do like the
lug nuts a little better on the PSM but the cleaner demarcation between
the rim and the rubber on the Leopard Club wheels makes this a no
brainer decision on my part!.



I
will add the PSN are larger in diameter than the Leopard Club's wheels
which are more to scale...not by much but still noticeable.



The
hubs on the road wheels are just as clean as the Idlers. Here you can
see the big difference in the lug nuts but as with the Idlers, the rim
edge is sharper on the Leo Club Wheels. Second biggest note is the wheel
thickness. The Leo Club Replacement Wheels are thicker and more
indicative of the Leopard 1's wheels.

I realize this update plays
out like a review within a review but it is certainly some information
that is needed to know when dealing with this kit. Now the kit will
build up nicely with the supplied wheels and the sizing probably would
not get noticed by most. For the low cost of these replacement wheels
it just seemed the best course for helping out when the kit lacks a
little.



Shoes are in place!! Well, not permanently but always good to check the stance!!





Okay,
that ends this session of "look at my new sneakers"!! I have begun to
clean up and install exterior parts on this beast. I am sure this will
take the bulk of my time on this one. I will try and get an update to
the progress real soon!!

[TRM]

Well it looks like its time for another update. I am getting close to
the end on this one. There are a few things that have cropped up as I
build my way through the kit. I will try to best describe these things
and what I did to fix the problems I came across.

First out of
the gate this time around, the door and hinge system for the winch on
the front of the AEV. The cast resin bar which the hinge would be
attached seemed to have a few bubbles in it.



Basically
all of the brass pieces on the front plate to the AEV here, I made up.
These are metal brackets and standoffs used to hold down various
peripheral items.

As for the door itself, the two hinges were
all but missing. This is a picture I borrowed from Darren Baker's
in-box showing of this kit. I would have to suspect that the hinges
rubbed up against something upon transport over the pond to me.



Before
the door came around to fixing I went after the bar. When I removed
the bar there was a rather large sink hole beneath the exiting part.



After
a little filler and a brass rod, the spot was brought up to speed. I
also pulled out some styrene to make a pair of new hinges for the door.



Everything
seemed to work out really well with the rehab. I did need to drill the
two outer holes on the front of the door to accommodate a handle that
PSM neglected to supply with the kit.

I have had the chance to
add a number of the kit supplied details. Most of these are in decent
condition and the PE is of great quality; however, there are a few
things missed form the kit maker. As you can see in this head on shot,
there are two small brackets i made from styrene at the top of the
glacis. This bracket is to hold the pulley for the crane. The kit
supplied a small pieces of PE, u-shaped and the instructions called for
it to be installed the opposite way than it should have been...plus it
was square only.



You
might notice the tow support bracket on the side next to the
headlight(s), I needed to make up two new ones as the kit supplied
plates had bubbles on the out most edge and were very brittle.

You
might have also noticed I have made a latch handle as well as a grab
handle for the winch door. What can't be seen is since I had to go
through the trouble of the extra work on the door, I had to make it
work.



I
will say, once the exterior parts begin to go on, the beast does come
alive a little. After cleaning a few more of the frontal parts, basic
tools, bracket and handles were attached to the exterior.



The
dozer blade cleats are all cleaned and dry fit to the upper hull. I
did feel I needed to add posts for the plates, not installed yet, that
were supplied on the PE sheet.



Having
a look at the back here, you can see all the brass as it stands out
pretty well on the grey field. The brass handles did not come with the
kit. There is wire supplied for this task, but it was a bit flimsy to
work with. Not a big deal to bend up some small handles really.



Looking
at the rear of the AEV so far. You can see I replaced the tow bar
brackets with styrene as the kit supplied version were a bit chunky. As
mentioned before once or twice, the instructions lack tremendously with
this kit. There are several parts that need installing on the entire
beast that do not show up, from what I can tell, on the sheets. One of
which is some tiny locks for the storage bins on the back and top. As
you can see these are not installed as of yet.



So
far, things are shaping up somewhat with the build but to be honest,
some of the frustration level has been high at times. I do not consider
myself of the rivet counting variety at all, but I did feel that many
of the alterations and additions were needed and probably should have
been addressed by the kit maker before release.

I had a chance to
make up some tow cables. The kit comes with more than enough is part,
in copper stranded wire to do this task.



The
dozer or plow blade was an easy construction. There is only three
parts to this unless you wish to install the plow blade clears on the
bottom and the side plates, which I installed on the rear deck. These
are the half moon object straddling the fan grill.





Before
I leave for this evening, I will show some of the crane as I began to
clean and install some of the parts. Most of this is straight forward.










The
only part so far I ran into was the ring and hook. The hook has been
modified but is drying right now, here I managed to add a new ring out
of aluminum rod.





I
will have to say that is that for now. I still have a few things to
finish on the crane boom as well as various smaller items on the upper
hull before I get to the tracks. We can discuss that in my next update
possibly.

As always, thanks for swinging by to have a peek!!

[bigjohn]

Some nice work so far T! Gotta keep me eye on this one

[TRM]

Thanks for those kind words BJ!!

[pantherf..-Email Not Valid]

Yep, same here!  Interesting subject and always exciting working with resin. 

I bet after it's all said and done it's yours... right? 








Jeff

[TRM]

I don't know about exciting but it is 'work' Jeff!! Yeah, it will be mine I guess. Let's hope I don't go insane first though!!

[DeafStuG]

Wow, Nice work & diggin with rich resin parts! Must be huge chassis. I had seen real big one pionierpanzer I at panzermuseum in Germany.

[imatanker]

Holy spit Todd. Heck of an update Son. Stellar assemblage Buddy.

[pantherf..-Email Not Valid]

Jul 15, 2014 19:18:28 GMT -5 TRM said:

Let's hope I don't go insane first though!!

Ahh... doubt that.  LOL  Between this and that beautiful Chieftain ARV of Dickys last month, I want an engineering type of vehicle now!


Will keep an eye out on this one!











Jeff

[wbill76]

Just have to keep reminding myself this is an all-resin kit...you're doing a great job with it T!

[TRM]

Thank Jeff...Most appreciated!! I am doing what I can here brother!

Jeff...#2...LOL!! These engineering vehicles are pretty cool! Adampolo is cranking on an M88 right now...I need to get him over here an post it!

Thanks Bill!! I keep trying to forget it resin!!!

[Teabone]

Todd

Kind of a little deja vu here but I enjoyed the craftsmanship the second time as well as the first.  And a little review within a review is always a treat with your well written text.

Bones    

[TRM]

Thanks again Bones!! Much appreciated!! Happy to hear you're enjoying it!! I'll keep plugging away here! Almost there now!!

[reserve]

Yessir the joys of resin...almost seems that the use of this particular medium gives manufacturers license for "cusstom" fit

Yer beatin it into shape quite well it's gonna be very impressive when done

Regards,
Mark

[TRM]

Thanks Mark! Getting there! Well, these will be "custom" until more plastic manufacturers jump into the game!!

[pantherf..-Email Not Valid]

Resin is an art all it's own.  I have yet to do a full kit with it but want to soon someday.

One of those Accurate Armor trucks might be the cure! 










Jeff

[spud]

You are mad....... this looks sweet tough Todd cant wait for paint

[Leon]

Looking really good Todd. Boy do I have a lot to catch up on.

[dupes]

You're certainly making the best of a very "multimedia" kit!

[TRM]

Jeff - Personally I would look into Mirror models or even LZ first. Mirror has some nice stuff! I have WOT-2 from Plus Model that is not too bad, but they tend to lack in some areas...like storage/radios/equipment for the back. Still not sure why that have this nicely tricked out engine and the hood doesn't open...what's the point?!

Spud - I am beginning to think that myself sometimes...LOL!! Thank you sir! Soon, very soon!!!

Leon - Thanks buddy!! Sucks when the PC starts acting up!! Take your time getting back to things...no one is going anywhere!

Dupes - Thank you sir! Not the easiest thing I have built but I suppose it could be worse!

[Teabone]

Yea but only adding one part a day at night is going to drag this out some.

Bones

[TRM]

So is running out of .5mm styrene rod...LOL!!! I was working on the ladder on the boom and wouldn't cha know-it!! Still have other things to slap around on this as well as a ship that has been talking to me on the side of the bench!!

[`Boots`]

Wow that is some seriously dam fine work there my friend........i really do like the look of this vehicle i gotta say, now i know for a fact i have commented on this build coz i remember the wheels having the detail on both sides...must be losing the plot cuckoo

[TRM]

I think you are sniffing too many "decorating fumes" my friend!! LOL! Thanks buddy, appreciate the kind words!! You have indeed commented...was over on MHI. But with the move and all you house work, I am surprised you know your own name anymore!!

[`Boots`]

(((LOL)))...........think ya right bro, had the plasterer turn up and do my lounge today so i sneaked outta the way into me mancave (blue :D_).........yeah ya right.....it was on MHISC Thumbs Up!

[TRM]

Looks like you might need to spend a couple days in the cave to stay out of his way brotha! You know how those contractors get!!

[`Boots`]

Jul 18, 2014 19:27:56 GMT -5 TRM said:

Looks like you might need to spend a couple days in the cave to stay out of his way brotha! You know how those contractors get!!

I wish......he was in and out in one day , did a good job tho......happy days, now i got the rest of the lounge to do