Blackadder's Landkreuzer P500; Der Wühlmaus

[Blackadder]

Truncated Trunnion Mounts:

Or as I call it, "An exercise in perseverance."

[url]http://i.imgur.com/2xbwdq8.jpg[/url]


I started with five 1,0 MM discs (Same as the one pictured here) and glued them together with the plastic cement (red labeled tube above the disc.

When dried I rough sanded the edge of the stack round.

I then penciled a smaller circle so I had a line I could sand down to taking care not to cut into the larger diameter outer disc edge.

Progressing from rough sandpaper, to file, to diamond emery file, until the bevel is smooth; perhaps 10 to 15 minutes of filing.

I then gave the edge a coat of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement and set aside to dry.

[Blackadder]

I :Heart: My Demolisher Cannon

The basic Demolisher Cannon is done and all that's left to do is the peripheral detail

[url]http://i.imgur.com/ci0DW3x.jpg[/url]


I like the fact that it can be elevated............

[url]http://i.imgur.com/2KEo1zB.jpg[/url]


Next the sponsons.

[Psychosplodge]

That demolisher cannon is rather good.

[Blackadder]

"Rather good" indeed......

Sponsons:

First order of business is the sponsons and turrets are too small. When I first set up this model I had nothing but my unpracticed eye to rely on and my best guess was correct as far as an original Baneblade sponson housing and turret but woefully inadequate for the oversized beast this has become.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/pKTlc4e.jpg[/url]


My newest sized turret figures to 22 MM in height and 25 MM in diameter.

Never the less, the rotation mechanism remains the same starting with a fixed dowel secured with an axle screw, a piece of PVC tubing for the rotation sleeve and a styrene veneer for a base material to adhere the detail.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/VWhmWZZ.jpg[/url]

[Blackadder]

Cooling Exhaust Vents:

The muzzle brakes or cooling exhaust ports at the mouth of the cannon; 16 precise drilled holes about the periphery.

Somehow I managed this all those years ago but for the life of me I cannot remember how I did it?

[url]http://i.imgur.com/PqhyXfS.jpg[/url]


So I'm inventing a new procedure cutting a drilling the holes into 0.020 styrene sheeting.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/yfnZL2B.jpg[/url]


We'll see how this works out...........

[interrogator_chaplain]

That seems like it should suffice. I mean, if the shoe fits, right?

[Blackadder]

Thx,

Two Methods:

Drilling the holes in the muzzle ring is exacting work and if you use a pin drill bit there is a tendency that either the bit will break or it will walk to the edge and ruin the work.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/ITkzkj5.jpg[/url]


In my previous post I showed my first inclination on making these holes; i.e. marking the positions and drilling the holes with the tip of a # 11 Xacto knife blade used as an auger. This fulfills two purposes in that it give a very fine point pilot hole plus the stability of a much wider bit so there is less tendency for the tip to snap off. After augering the hole on the marked side I flipped the work and reamed the obverse side as well to give a more straight sided appearing hole.

The second method I came up with (The barrel on the left side of the picture) I marked and cut out the overlay disc and tack glued to a section of half inch 'Evergreen' tubing, drilled pilot holes with the Xacto blade as before, inserted a length of 7/16 inch tubing and trimmed the outer edge of the disc with a curved emery file. I then cut out the bore diameter from the disc and flied smooth with a curved needle file.

When completely shaped I sliced off the disc from the half inch tube and sanded the residual glue from the obverse side and reamed as before.

I then glued the finished work to the barrel muzzle.

Either way is equally simple and the result seems acceptable.

[Blackadder]

Keeping It Simple:

I have a miniature drill index and it's around here somewhere but I rarely these days have a use for it.

I find the #11 Xacto blade provides for almost all my fine drill hole needs. especially when as in this case you are working on a disc barely a half inch in diameter.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/xeDufhM.jpg[/url]


As stated above the fine point acts as an adequate pilot hole drill and the tapered tip enlarges the requisite hole to any reasonable diameter.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/usQGkXU.jpg[/url]


After that you can utilize the same blade to carve out larger holes as I shall be doing when I finish the bore on this, the Demolisher cannon.

The added beauty of using this blade is with a fine file it can be resharpened.

[Blackadder]

Preliminaries Dispensed with:

Okay so with the preliminaries dispensed with we can get to the actual plotting and boring of these holes finding the center, erecting the perpendicular axis by employing the arc and straightedge and compass technique and subdividing by eye the quarters into 16 more or less equal divisions which is the number of cooling ports in the typical Baneblade muzzle.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/n8VbksL.jpg[/url]


Below we see the 0.020 inch thick disc glued to the end of the muzzle slightly oversized to allow for the frail nature of the constructed holed disc.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/vnbzSVJ.jpg[/url]


Below the finished rim sanded and accented with graphite to show the relief of the 16 muzzle ports.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/eiObdYw.jpg[/url]


And finally the main armament in place on the hull displaying a nice added touch to the overall basic detail of the model.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/VWON0zj.jpg[/url]

[Blackadder]

Twice As Voluminous:

I held off as long as I could but ultimately I decided the side sponsons were just too small for a tank of this magnitude. What armament I choose is still in the idea stage but the sponsons will be twice as voluminous as those on the standard Baneblade.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/lCy1fF3.jpg[/url]