king derelict

Hi Kevin Thank you for the very informative comments. Very helpful and some useful new tip and ideas to try In response to your note. 1 - I calibrated the filament feed by just measuring the length consumed versus the amount commanded. That found the worn gear and the estep needed changing for the new gear. I just looked at pronterface. Thank you very much for that; I have made a note to use it for printer checks in the future. 2 -I have the coated Creality glass bed and it seems a little higher in the middle sloping to the edges 3 - I just received a length of Capricorn tubing so; after your comments I am very interested to see the improvement when its fitted. The OEM Bowden tube may be a big contributor to the under extrusion and gear damage 4 - Filament. I think there is quite a difference between PLA brands. I have used Overture brand mainly so far (As does Yves I believe) but the Creality sample that came with the printer seems much softer. I have just received a spool of their PLA to see if that is true of their filament in general. So far I have only used PLA 5 - Yes I think the drying helps with print quality. If I had more room I would like to try feeding directly from the dryer to the printer. 6 - I would like to see a better spool holder. There is quite high drag on the original set up sometimes and may explain a filament break I had. Many Thanks 7 - For levelling I tend to use the paper check as a rough start and then I run a print file that runs a series of layers around the edges of the bed and generates the square pads at corners and centre. While its running it is easy to see whether the nozzle is too near or too far from teh bed and adjust accordingly. It can actually be done while its running with care. I will try a new nozzle too. I bought a pack of ten recently. The wisp removal with a heat gun sounds good. I have been using a slow speed for the initial layer along with a hotter bed temperature and nozzle temperature. The speed is increased and the temperatures are reduced for subsequent layers. I think it helps bed adhesion and quality but it may just be my voodoo I routinely use a brim to prevent corners lifting and other warping. The change in temperature is also supposed to help there too. The mouse ear brims are a bit hit and miss. I tend to use them when its a big print and its going to use a lot of time and filament to run a full brim. Every now and then the mouse ear won't stick and the nozzle will push it around and ruin the print. The variability is a constant frustration. It irritates me to make a print and need a second, identical piece. Same file, same starting temperatures and same filament. The first print was perfect so start the second one. return an hour later to find the nozzle pushing a ball of filament around the bed. Arrgh. I think I am going to try new rollers. I feel a slight hesitation when I move the x axis by hand and I notice some bearing material furring up in the roller. Th etension seemed good but maybe I have too high. I just need to sort out a decent set of rollers. There are a lot out there with very mixed reviews. Any experience there? Thank you again for the very helpful comments. You have given me more solutions for the road to good prints. Have a great weekend Alan

Thanks for the nice comments Gregg. Thank you also for the filter suggestion. I need to get my photography brought up a level. What type of filter would you recommend Thanks again Alan

I didn't make as much progress as i hoped. I had to deal with the pre Christmas tradition of plugging in the tree lights and finding two strings didn't work. After trying to remember where the spare bulbs and mini-fuses were and it just seemed easier to go to Walmart. I started building up the assemblies that I plan to paint before putting them together. The wheels are a two part assembly which I was initially going to keep apart to paint but the inner includes some of the tyre so I put them together. The kit has six wheels, two spares which have different inners to mount on the car. The instructions need a little thought in places, the part numbering is off in several places but the shapes are hard to confuse. The underside is quite nice and went together well although cleaning up of most pieces is necessary. The fit is then good. The building of the rear lockers is interesting. The flat square, lower centre is scored underneath and then folded over the U shape piece to create a box as seen lowest centre. I've not seen that before. I have come across two curiosities so far. The running boards (the rectangles with brackets) if fitted where the instructions indicate will foul the rear wheels. They need to be installed to overlap the back of the front wheel arch and then they match the box art and old photos. The four wheels are all the same but if you look at the rear hubs they are bigger than the front ones and the wheels do not fit. I haven't thought my way through a solution yet. If I had discovered the issue before installing the rear axle, I could have got a bit rough with a file around the hub diameter. I may see if I can remove it again without too much distress. The SDF MMGB were at Kharkur Murr in 1934 as part of a British presence to stop the Italians from getting any ideas about encroaching into British controlled Egypt from Libya. Further down the wadi from the rock memorial are the remains of stone huts used by the troops. The MMGB were part of the force present during this period but mostly used Thorneycrofts The SDF were responsible for a huge but largely unknown logistics operation supplying Khufra oasis after the Free French captured it from the Italians. The Khufra convoys drove 1200 kms from Wadi Halfa on the Nile across the desert to Khufra. The convoy tracks are still visible in the sand today and a few abandoned trucks are still there too. This is the background I will be modelling my car to. The Rolls and Ford patrol cars were used as escorts to the trucks The single round petrol can provided by the kit will be discarded in favour of some home made square tins (flimsies) that were used extensively at that time and are still widely found in the area Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks Popeye, I have some of their WW1 aircraft in the pile. Alan

Thank you Edward. I hope you find this one interesting. Alan

Welcome Ken

Thanks Egilman - I'll probably be leaning on your research skills Alan

Thanks OC. I hope you enjoy it Alan

This is the first Roden kit I have attempted. I have read a lot of positive reviews and they have some wonderful subjects both armour and aircraft - especially aircraft. There is a respectable part count for a small model. The detail is quite nice. There is also a lot of flash on some parts and it looks like a file will be needed close to hand for this build. Limited decals and paint scheme for three different cars are provided. I don't plan to use the kit suggestions for teh subject car. I have a little personal interest in this model after finding this engraved on a rock in Birr Murr in northern Sudan a few years ago. Therefore the car will be a Sudan Defence Force vehicle of the Mobile Machine Gun Batteries of the 1930s and 1940s The Imperial War Museum has a photo of them on patrol It looks like a two colour paint scheme, from @Egilman research I am thinking it will be British Army Green and Sand The build is underway Thanks for looking in Alan

That looks very interesting Craig. Are you going to try it. I have a friend in Maryland building a huge A10 RC plane with 3D printed parts. This aspect of modelling is a huge adventure - its also a huge rabbit hole. Alan

Thanks Roger - its now in build - then back to 1/700 world and PE. You and OC are making me jealous Alan

Thank you Egilman for the great research - as always. Its very helpful. I'm planning to build it as a Sudan Defence Force vehicle from the 1930s. It looks like a two tone scheme. Alan

Thank you for the very kind comments OC. The twin turrets seem made for confusion and they went to a single turret in the later models I think. Then the crew would just have to resort to fisticuffs. I took advantage of a sale and thought I would try some bigger stuff at some point Your Challenger made me want to try one so I'll be going back over yout log and hoping I can do half as well. I want to try to develop my weathering techniques and I thought a Panzer IV on campaign might be a good subject Alan

Thank you Mike, I enjoyed the painting a lot. The torpedo nets are the thing that has put me off the Lutzow. It looks fearsome in 1/350 so I dread what it will be like in 1/700. Maybe stow the booms and leave it at that. Its next up after the armoured car. Alan

Thank You Mark. The twin turret design was new to me. They are nice little kits - I see some more in my future, First To Fight have quite a range Alan

You need lots of fine filament to print that one 😄. That is Gracie my Maine Coon mix adopted from the local shelter when she was four months old.

Thank you for the support Lou. I have found the process to be harder than I expected but I have learnt a lot as it progressed. Overall it is still enjoyable but there have been some frustrating moments with teh printer and working around the generic nature of the model. The next phase should be less fraught and thus more enjoyable as teh detail builds up. Alan

I have found the wooden decks to be quite nerve wracking to install. I have only installed them on bare plastic because I was worried they might lift off paint - I'm not sure how valid a concern that is. So far it has gone well. I tried to be careful fitting it over the deck fittings and using that to position the wooden deck and I found the deck settled down into the correct position - they are astonishingly well cut. Alan

I seem to have had a lot of distractions in the real world lately so although progress has been made here it has been in such small steps I would have been embarrassed to publish them. A lot of the issues have been with the impacts of Omichron on my trip to see my father in the UK. I should have been in transit right now but I could not get tested in time to meet the latest UK pre-departure test requirements, so I cancelled everything late last night. We last saw the Vickers in its base colour. Masks were added ready for the green sections of the paint scheme. Card and blue tack were used on the hull and blue tack alone on the turrets. I used a tip from @Landlubber Mike and drilled a small hole in the underside of the hull to receive a cocktail stick as a handle for painting. It worked so much better than a blob of blue tack which for me had a habit of falling off during air brushing. Thanks Mike. I forgot to photograph the application of the green paint, so we move straight onto more masking for the final colour. The results are shown below A gloss coat was applied and then black washes to bring up the panel lines and details of the running gear. Detail parts were painted and a buff coat was lightly air brushed, concentrating on the lower parts of the model to get a dusty effect. Finally a dull coat was sprayed on and the small amount of rust and parking lot damage was added. No decals supplied or shown on the box art so I think this is finished Hopefully this is not a huge fox paw but it didn't seem worth making a separate log for a related and also simple kit that followed exactly the same process. While waiting for paint to dry etc I built the First t Fight Panzer III. Again not a lot of parts - assembly took about two hours going slow. Instructions are on the bottom of the box but the box art is actually more useful. A set of (three) decals are supplied. Detail is very nice for a simple kit. The road wheels on the tracks have sprues joining them and I nearly missed them but once found they were easy to cut away and clean up Black primer added, grey coat and then a gloss coat. Decals applied, dust air brushed as with the Vickers and some minor wear and tear. I also drilled out the holes in the front sprocket wheel which I thought made it a bit nicer. So now I'm thinking about the next project; something a little more substantial while I take a rest from the Flower corvette. I'm thinking of another Flyhawk model With a wooden deck and some PE this appeals I'm also intrigued by this interesting model and haven't tried a Roden kit yet so would welcome any thoughts. Thanks for looking in and indulging me in these little tanks Alan

It has been a while since the last update. The real world has been intruding a bit and I've also been spending a lot of time working on teh final layout of the ship. I had decided earlier to move the funnel back to nearer its position on the real modified corvettes. This had the knock-on effect of shortening the distance between the funnel and the aft gun bandstand. The deck aft of the engine room is also too spacious. It was the only place on the ship where the whole crew could gather but it wasn't that big. So I felt that the only solution was to lengthen the engine room which would also address the other problems. I implemented this by cutting back into the aft deck and printing a second copy of the forward parts of the port and starboard engine room walls and cutting about one and a half panels from the new pieces and joining them to the front of the engine room walls. After cutting the parts I put the new port piece on the starboard wall and vice versa on the other side. This kept the flow of whole panels with the half panel out of sight under the upper deck. The engine room was reassembled The modified engine room was dry fitted to determine the make-up piece of decking forward of the bridge. The new deck piece was cut from a sheet of styrene (and I have to say it was pleasure to work with after the PLA parts) and is test fitted. The revised engine room has had the ventilators and the skylights added and then a first coat of primer. It now needs a little filler before moving on to the paint coats. The recessed area on the side decks will take the wooden decking. I think this is the end of the major decisions on the layout of the model and now each deck section can be worked on to add detail and paint. This should all be enjoyable after the rather unwieldy activity getting the elements of the model to come together. Much as I am continuing to be impressed by the potential of the concept of a printed ship there are a couple of issues that I find difficult. The PLA material is horrible to work with. It is very hard and cutting and sanding it is hard work. Filing seems to be a bit easier but modifying parts is tedious I find the epoxy glue is messy and difficult to use with precision. That probably mainly me being clumsy. It is also not a great choice for some of the thinner areas or where there is flexibility. The glue sets very rigid and if the part is flexed it just cracks back apart. I now roughen each part (the texture from the printing is not adequate and clean with alcohol before gluing and get rather better results. I would probably do better and get stronger and cleaner joints with the appropriate solvent, but the fumes worry me. Its all a learning experience. Thanks for looking in. I may take a break having reached what feels like a milestone to me and then come back to tackle the deck sections as mini kits after Christmas. Alan

I'm enjoying looking at the build on my big laptop screen. The detail is very good and your PE is very well done. Its starting to get busy and its going to be a spectacular model Alan

Great job Patrick Looks like a nice kit I added it to the "want" list Alan

I always loved that car. You did a great job of it Alan

Looks very nice, tidy work Alan

That is beautiful. The eyes are three dimensional. Great work Alan