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Post by loyalist on Sept 25, 2016 19:40:52 GMT
I've had a Land Ironclad kit for several months and have just cleaned up the castings and glued the suspension units to the tracks. The upper part of the suspension unit castings needed a lot of filing to square them up so they fit properly in the hull sockets and allow the tracks to be aligned parallel to the hull.
I'm ready to glue them onto the hull but the hull is so heavy I can't do it and keep everything aligned properly. How have people done this? I thinking I might have to support the hull level fore and aft and level sideways at exactly the right height to slot in the tracks and suspension units and attach them with slow setting/gap filling CA glue.
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Post by loyalist on Sept 29, 2016 13:55:45 GMT
The Land Ironclad tracks have been installed. I placed the hull on a block of balsa with the sockets for the track assemblies about 3/8" higher than the tops of the assemblies. The whole thing was on top of a couple of pieces of lined paper. I shimmed the track assemblies up using sheet balsa and stryene cut to match the footprint of the tracks. The reason for doing that was so I could see the bottom edges of the tracks and the lined paper underneath to make sure the tracks were all parallel. All the track assemblies were raised the same amount until they would slide into the sockets with less than a millimeter clearance. One of the suspension arms was shorter than the others so I glued a square of styrene to the top to make it a snug fit.
I glued the assemblies to the hull with thick, slow setting ca glue and did them one at a time. After the tracks were installed I turned the model over and filled any gaps with the thick ca glue. A bit time consuming but the method worked well. Extra details have been added to the track units to cover the slots on the outer side. S2G vents from the sides of the British MK II Dark WWI tank covered the big slots nicely and I had some 1/144 scale metal deck hatches that were the right size to cover the small slots to either side of the large one. They represent access hatches for track lubrication.
I'm modelling this as an US-built Land Ironclad in BEF or Canadian service and making some mods to it. The funnel has been shortened about an inch and I may put the control top on a tripod with the access ladder presumed to be inside the main leg as in British WWI capital ships. Might also replace the very bent metal deck railings with solid 'splinter screens' made of styrene. Searchlights will be added too.
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Post by David N.Tanner 07011959 on Sept 29, 2016 15:08:47 GMT
Please post a few pictures. I'd love to see your modifications.
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Post by Quendil on Sept 29, 2016 15:25:19 GMT
Can't remember how I built mine as it was ages ago, still in primer though
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Post by loyalist on Sept 30, 2016 1:48:02 GMT
Please post a few pictures. I'd love to see your modifications. I'll post some after the new cat-walks and splinter shields are made. I'm going to run searchlight positions to port and starboard from the cat-walks between the 5" guns and will probably replace the spotting top (which imo looks much too large for its supports). I have a collection of plans and reference books on WWI Royal Navy capital ships; had a look through them and am thinking about copying the spotting top from the Courageous Class battlecruisers and adding AQ style armoured window shutters. The original spotting top can be re-purposed as part of a bunker-top command tower.
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Post by loyalist on Sept 30, 2016 13:08:30 GMT
Because the Land Ironclad I'm building is supposed to be in BEF or Canadian use I'm thinking of changing the armament, replacing the 12" gun with a BEF 24" bombard and the 7" gun with a coil gun.
The stats Madmorgan and I discussed for a 1/2 pdr field gun version of the Imperial tank coil gun gave it range 40" and power +4. I suppose we could designate it as a 1 pdr coil gun instead. Whatever it's called it has the same stats as the Land Ironclad's 7" gun and could be a straight swap by putting one of my coil gun conversions on the turret.
If I use the bombard carried by the Thunderchild II/Benedict Arnold Class BEF LI, I'd have to figure out the points. Note that I'm not planning to use the BEF 4 pdr coil gun which is more powerful than the American 12" gun.
The BEF Land Ironclad costs 1200 points versus 750 for the American 'Destroyer' Class. The BEF LI carries 4 more HMGs (+40 pts) and 2 Spector armoured cars are included in its points cost (+110 pts), but lacks the American LI's 4 x 4" guns (-100 pts), leaving a difference of +50 pts so far. The remaining difference of +400 pts is presumably due to the different main guns.
Although the 4 pdr coil gun is more powerful than the 12" gun and the bombard more powerful than the 7" gun the differences don't seen to be worth 400 points.
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Post by loyalist on Oct 1, 2016 2:50:14 GMT
The few mods below deck level are done and the LI has been base coated up to the deck. I'm using Vallejo Brown Violet for the hull. (Aka Sherman Drab in FoW painting guidelines for WWI British tanks, and used for FoW WWII American tanks and WWII Canadian uniforms!)
I just finished a test highlight of the added details on one track unit; used Vallejo Green Grey and it looks pretty good. I'll probably do another very light highlight of flat white, then a wash with GW Agrax Earthshade to tone it down. The tracks are painted Vallejo Black Grey (a bluish medium grey) and will get highlights of GW Leadbelcher (dull silver metallic) and then some GW rust and dirt effects. This kit was part of a KS collection and had several small hull defects filled with an inferior, rough textured resin that's perfect for painting as rusty patches!
I found some suitable plastic model ship ventilators for the deck and am ordering an 11mm long ship's siren to go on the roof of the cabin just ahead of the funnel. I'm going to the hobby store tomorrow to get 1.5mm / 0.060" thick strip styrene to use for the new catwalks and 1.0mm for the splinter screens. The 1.5mm styrene doesn't come in 1/2" width so will be slightly wider than the metal catwalks that came with the kit.
I thought I was out of them and they're long OOP but I found a 1/144 scale printed silk Royal Navy battle ensign and will add it to the LI. They're 24' x 12' in 1/144 scale (2" x 1") so about 16' x 8' in 18mm scale.
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Post by loyalist on Oct 1, 2016 14:08:10 GMT
On reviewing the rule book stats again I found another reason the BEF LI is more expensive than the US version: it can take 6 critical hits versus 5. The ability to use the 2 Spectors it carries as spotters probably adds to the higher points value. I still think the 450 pt difference between them is a bit too much.
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Post by madmorgan on Oct 1, 2016 23:55:32 GMT
I would think the 'stun' effect of the huge mortar weapon would also pick up a few major points as well. That shock is almost as devastating as the power of the shell.
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Post by loyalist on Oct 2, 2016 2:20:16 GMT
Good point. The LI I'm building will probably replace the 4 x 4" guns with HMGs, replace the 7" gun with a 1 pdr coil gun in a 'welded' turret, and the 12" gun with the 24" bombard, also in a new turret. The 40K Demolisher cannon is the right size to use as the bombard and can be bought at bits stores. It will be sticking through the turret roof. The LI'll be cheaper than the 'Thunderchild II' lacking the 4 pdr super-heavy coil gun, the Spectors for scouting and the 6th critical hit.
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Post by madmorgan on Oct 2, 2016 10:13:52 GMT
Nice use of the Demolisher cannon out of 40k - I need to shop their 'bits' store for some other items to go into special designs for AQ as well. There's lots of stuff from that line that could be used as slap togethers for AQ.
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Post by loyalist on Oct 2, 2016 11:05:28 GMT
My memory was incorrect - it was a Vindicator tank cannon I was thinking of. None for sale in the various bits stores at the moment. I used them to build 2 copies of the Forge World Thunderer tank, a model which has the top of a Chimera APC on a Leman Russ tank hull and a big gun in the glacis.
Before the new Vindicator cannon became available I'd scratch built a gun for the first Thunderer from styrene tubing and still have that somewhere in a parts box - could use it for the 24" bombard.
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Post by loyalist on Oct 2, 2016 13:18:15 GMT
Here are some photos of the Land Ironclad project. Heavy overcast today so the photos are dark. The first photo shows the 2 ship's ventilators added behind the second turret - a bit out of focus. This photo shows the added detail on one of the tracks. The vent is made by S2G for their Mk II British 'Dark WWI' tank and the hatches flanking it are old H&R Products 1/144 scale American naval deck hatches. Overall view of the project. Funnel has been shortened by 3/4".
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Post by loyalist on Oct 2, 2016 22:48:51 GMT
This afternoon and evening I've been working on the new catwalks, which are wider and longer than the metal ones. They're the same width as the planked deck below and have 6 'steel' plate supports which line up with the 3 short riveted strips on each deck edge. Each support is detailed and has 13 parts made of various thicknesses and widths of styrene. A larger support will go under the front of the catwalk, sitting on the material between the turret and the superstructure. It'll look similar to the bridge supporting plate on the Bellerophon Class dreadnoughts, which had 4 large holes in it to reduce weight.
The large stairs at the back of the original catwalks have been replaced by ladders located between the door and the first porthole aft on the sides of the superstructure. The LI will almost certainly get a British style spotting top on a tripod - have to decide whether it goes on the aft cabin with the struts going forward or on the front cabin with them going aft. I haven't decided whether to fill in the gap between the 5" gun sponsons. I did a mock up this afternoon in styrene but found the sponsons are not level with each other and project outward slightly different distances from the hull. At the very least there will be supports bridging the gap between them to hold up the searchlight platforms.
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Post by boxholder on Oct 4, 2016 11:52:07 GMT
I would suggest that the spotting tops should be forward with the bracing aft. This would tend to keep it well forward and out of the smoke. That is the way the navies did it. If there were a secondary spotting top, it would occupy the aft position. Of course, the ships' secondary spotting tower was behind the stack(s) and that is clearly not the case here.
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