WWII Jeep

[ezdays]

Yeah, there's a lot of details, there's a good 100 more parts to go so it'll be interesting to see just how much more there'll be. I just put in another two hours and and up to step 22. Got the gearshift and brake handle, mounted the dashboard and added tires. One thing that still bothers me with this model is loose parts. I've had a couple of instances where parts have dropped off when I rotate the model and I have to go back to the instructions to find where that part goes, then glue it in so it won't fall out again. The whole dashboard wouldn't stay in place and is now glued as well. I hope the trolley car has better fitting parts.  So here we are at around 10 hours into it:

   
   
   

[tompm]

Wow. I skip a day or two and it is this far along. Great job, Don.

[ezdays]

Wow. I skip a day or two and it is this far along. Great job, Don.

Thanks, yeah, I have a bit of time right now, so it seems to go fast. I'm down to the last few steps and I'm right around 12-14 hours. Here are shots of the right front fender. There's 26 pieces that make it and the headlamp up and took a hour to assemble it. The left one has 27 pieces and took the same amount of time. The engine hood and radiator was a bit tricky, they say not to wet the parts, but I found it's a lot easier to work with those parts that are meant to bend if you do wet them.  Anyway, two more steps and it's done:

No fender:
   

Fender/headlamp ass'y:
   

Fender ass'y attached:
   

[Schraddel]

Don,

yeah it's done.    


Lutz


PS: To get it running, you have to fill the tank with vodka.

[ezdays]

Don,
yeah it's done.    
Lutz
PS: To get it running, you have to fill the tank with vodka.

Well, it is finished now, got all the little bells and whistles put on. Here it is in all it's glory, around 14 hours build time, just a few hours shy of my estimate.

Of all the models I've built so far, this was the most fragile and required more gluing. I did a search and found that others had the same issues with similar parts being loose and falling off while other parts had a tendency to break easily because of the design. It was difficult to put some tabs in some slots, and worse of all, I found one error in the assembly instructions, two where there were tabs that were too long and got in the way of other parts and needed to be trimmed, and one place where a tab was suppose to go into a slot that already had a part in it. I might have to glue this down to a base so no one picks it up, it's that fragile even with a lot of the parts being glued.

   
   
   
   

[Tyson Rayles]

[Charlie B]

Don, It is just plain impressive. 
I wonder if it would help to microwave the parts that need bending for a few seconds?  Just a thought. 
You are very talented. We are all lucky to have you as a mentor.
Charlie

[jim currie]

wow you going to strain it od green.
Jim

[ezdays]

Thank you everyone, I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun and rewarding. And to be frank, the cost of one is about the same as an N scale car, and a fraction of what an engine costs.

Don, It is just plain impressive. 
I wonder if it would help to microwave the parts that need bending for a few seconds?  Just a thought. 
You are very talented. We are all lucky to have you as a mentor.
Charlie

Thanks Charlie, I'm not sure about the microwave, I would think the part would cool off too fast to do much good, but Jim did suggest steaming, so I just tried spraying the bendable parts with water, and the results are more than acceptable with sufficient time to work with the parts before they dry out. The only negative is that some of the tabs expand when wet and present a challenge.

wow you going to strain it od green.
Jim

I am thinking about it, I wouldn't have to tape and mask off too much since everything except the mirrors, tires and dashboard can be OD green. A stain would work better than paint since I would want to maintain the burned-in details. I'm thinking about air-brushing some thinned acrylic, got lots of scrap and spare parts to experiment with.

[Tyson Rayles]

Have you considered using pieces of aluminum foil for the mirrors?

[ezdays]

Have you considered using pieces of aluminum foil for the mirrors?

I had not, I may try now that you suggest it. It's just that those mirrors are so fragile, they included two extras and I broke three during assembly. One broke off during the photo shoot and I didn't find it until a few days later. I did add clear plastic to the windshield though,and am working on improving the looks of the AK-47, but those are the only changes that I've made so far.

[tompm]

Super job, Don!

[ngauger]

That's great!!!!
Looks like you spent a lot of time on it.... LOL Too many detail parts...

[ezdays]

Thanks again everyone, it looks like a Jeep and kept me busy and that's what counts. I took Mike's idea and played around with the mirrors. I printed some and they looked OK but they were not reflective. So I tried his aluminum foil, and they look a lot better since they are somewhat reflective. I remember somewhere having a small sheet of reflective plastic. Not sure how thick it was or even where it is, but if I find it and it's thin enough, I'll give that a try. In the meantime, this is what it looks like now with the foil mirrors and the printed AK-47 (I'm not bragging about how that one turned out but it has broken once and I don't want to fool with it anymore.)

   

[Charlie B]

Don, these might come in handy for your projects markers
Charlie