Tuesday, 1 January 2013

Sdkfz 7/1 #7 / Front Suspension & Cargo Bed /


Application of cut out thread (what turned out to be real "surgical" job, I am glad there were only 2 to make this way) finished steering wheels. Despite my original plans to keep as much as possible in original colours,  I had to repaint both tires, otherwise covering all edges in very small grooves would take forever or even longer with no greater results. 

With steering wheels fully assembled I started working on front suspension. It's nothing really complex and assembly went quite quickly. It is possible to make wheels turning and steering working, but this model is  a static model from very start, so I stayed with steering only, what will be visible while model is on display. Front suspension framework is attached to the body only in 2 points - very rear of the frame (connects to mid, tubular section of the engine/gear box) and suspended by leaf spring. Leaf spring is to be bent to required "wave" like shape (what was achieved by shaping up each strip separately), but caution is required not to bend it too much for it may loose it's flexibility or layers of card may start cracking or peeling off. 

Few outstanding details were also applied. Assembly drawings for my model were very confusing for parts 31 and 33, as there seem to be some sort of (printing?) mistake, few details are obscured. Proper assembly diagram is pictured below, it comes from sdkfz 7/2 which is missing some drawings too... 




I could not really stop myself and put it all together (with no glue yet, clear access to framework may be required) - tracks (fully assembled now with teeth), road wheels etc. Suspension holds very well, at least for current weight. Model is already pretty heavy, there is a cargo bed to come and flak gun on top of it, what will only increase the pressure. From other building reports I know model may "sit" down because of it's own weight, solution seems to be simple - some kind of supporting stand. Will see to that when situation occurs. 

From now on model grows only up, with cargo bed as first section to build. Cargo bed is massive and dry - fitting starts showing true size of the model. Number of parts are not much relevant to order of the build in this case. Next should have been driver's section, but there was no base to put it on, plus I had not idea how these sections will go together. Decided to go with the basics and built cargo bed, very simple, with only few details for now. First trial proved that supports of cargo bed need to be shorter by 2 mm, parts 74 and 75 to slot properly with front horizontal panel, part 24.  There was a draft, shown below (white tabs behind wheels). I did not know how to proceed, so I checked other parts going with it for size comparison - steps and engine covers (which have got cut out section that is to be fixed on the curves). That set up suggested that cargo bed's supports should be shortened by 2 mm. If it was right I will know just after driver's section assembly with majority of other subcomponents already on right places. 


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