V2 - Vengeance From Above

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Good Folks,

I don't have any new pics to post, but I have been busy. I have taken a few days off from work to try to drive on with this. Our weather has cooled down and I want to make good use of it. More news to follow below, but first...

Paul - Thanks Buddy, you can't kill Rock 'n Roll, I'm here to stay and I have crazy news about my missing parts. See below!

Fernando - Thanks Sir. I love this kit and I have been working all day on the Steyr. I also have hotel reservations for the SMC. I forgot to make them earlier in the year, so now my room is 7 kms from Veldhoven. Please slap me so I remember to make the reservation for next year while I'm there. I hope you are not working too hard either my friend.

Stevie - Hey Bro, I will have the same amount of time either way. Yea, we blew it, but my favorite team is also out and on the way home. Iceland has a big place in my heart and it's a shame they didn't do better. As for the build, It is moving forward and tomorrow I hope to show it.

Si - Wow Sir, I didn't know you lived in New jersey!!! I was born in south Sussex in the hospital there and in 1960 we moved to New York. Small world huh??? On another note, I think my probs with Azimut are over and thanks for checking in Si...

NOW,

Tonight at around 1800 my handy telephone rang. The number was odd as it started with 331 as the area code followed by 44. Huh!!!...…….I answered it and on the other end was the president of Azimut Productions in Paris. He explained the whole situation and apologised for why I haven't received my missing parts. It has to do with the casting of the trailer which is not done in Paris. To make a long story short, He promised I will get my parts ASAP and he also wants to meet me at the SMC in October. Azimut will be in attendance there this year. He seems like a very nice person and a man of his word. I look forward to meeting him in October. I just hope I have the parts by then...

Tomorrow I will post a real update with piccies too!!! Have a good night and stay sober...Or not!!!...

Prost
Allen

 

[Mini Me]

Allen,
Great updates, breathlessly awaiting new pics. Good to know somebody at Azimut woke up and your relationship with them is on the mend...sort of. I really like the build so far.
Rick H.

 

[scottie3158]

Lets hope there is a nice freebie from them as a way of an apologie

 

[Mickc1440]

Great updates Allen and hopefully positive news from Azimut.

 

[JR]

Dude 1
Thought I would make an appearance ! That's a great result.
Thought the Gen set is great, looks better moulded than the 65 Engine you've got in the stash.
Keep going, the filler suggestion worked, of course. I had every confidence in your technical ability.
Dude 2

 

[Jim R]

Hi Allen
Generator looks superb.
Great news from Azimut. A bit late but welcome. They could have avoided all the bad feelings if they had just kept you informed from the start. I am sure it will all be fine now.
Jim

 

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Once Again Rocketeers,

Well I Didn't manage an update last night, so I'll try it now. I also received an email earlier today that the parts have been shipped from Paris. So much to do and so little time to do it. Anywho,

Rick, Paul, Mick, Dzhon and Jim - Thank you all very much for your kind comments and support for my endeavor, with all it's ups and downs. Things are looking better, but the going is a bit slow at the moment. Even with the few days off our weather has once again turned tropical with temps over 30° C and high humidity. It makes working at the table tough and wearing the optivisor too...

With a big Thanks to our own Paul Scott I assembled the reels that he kindly sent me. I then went to fill one with wire and found that the reel took almost 2 meters of wire to fill it. I also modified the storage box under the passenger side and began scratching the two steps on the rear of the Steyr...

I decided to add some tubing to the reels as I didn't have enough wire for all 4 reels. I kinda knew I had more wire somewhere and went off for a 3 hour search through my stuff. Low and behold, I found some packed with some old model railroad track in a box...

I used to have an extremely large collection of TT (1/120) model railroad from East Germany that I bought in Berlin in the 80's. The wire was used for the switches, accessories and all things electric. Works great for moggelling too. Time to try the reels again...

We have an empty reel followed by one with the stripped wire. With the modified reel it still took over a meter of wire. The third reel was my brainstorm idea to start with the coated wire and finished with stripped wire. That looked bad and was a pain to strip the wire to finish it. The last reel actually looks good, but doesn't have the minimum of 10 rows of wire across. It only has 8. We'll go with it.

Scratched up 4 base feet for the Zündapp and did another check as to how it sits in place. Not too bad really. I also had to move the front seat forward as they were in the way of the Zündapp frame rails. No biggie, I just drilled new mount holes a pair millimeters in front of the original holes...

I then started on the construction of the first cabinet used for the electric connection between the V2 and the Feuerleitwagen (launch control Sd Kfz 7). The hardest thing was keeping all the angles square while cutting the sheet plastic. I don't have any high speed tools other than a steel ruler and bad eyes. I also don't have any real plans of the vehicle, just pics from 1944. So, a test fit was in order...

The cabinet is sitting in its place and looks ok. I still have to make the base for it. The back plate has only connections and should be easy to scratch up. It looks like this. The small roof is also in the works...

The front plate will be a bit more difficult. I left it off so I can build it. It has plugs, gauges, fuses, switches and whatnot along with a drawer on the bottom and looks like this…

Up next will be the battery storage and accessory cabinet on the left in the pic, This will be a pretty straight forward job with etch latches and a few gizmos to top it off. I have to make sure that everything sits in it's proper place before I can start slinging the glue around. Tons of test fits and nipping and trimming here and there. Sorry there's not more done yet. This vehicle is rather difficult as everything has to be built and then installed in a certain way/order. Painting will also be a bear and most will be done with a hairy stick.

More to follow. Thanks for looking in and have a great weekend one and all!!!

Prost
Allen

 

[Mini Me]

I'm with you Allen,
The eight rows of insulated wire does in my humble opinion look the best. Moggle on!
Rick H.

 

[minitnkr]

Great stuff. You're flying now. PaulE

 

[scottie3158]

Allen,
This continues to get better, following along.

 

[Si Benson]

West Sussex is in the UK bud....a fair distance from New Jersey

Nice of Scottie to assist with parts Don’t worry about slow progress, this is quite an involved build so worth taking your time to get it how you want it.
Keep rolling
Si

 

[Allen Dewire]

Evening Again One and All,

Still really warm here, but the show must go on or I'll never finish this darn project. So,

Rick - Thank you Sir! I still have a couple of options to fill the reels and maybe get my 10 rows. I'm in no way a rivet counter, but I do like to make it look like the picture I'm working from or at least close, to a blind man that is!

Paul E - Thanks too my friend! It's a bad case of no time due to work. It's tough when the Mojovation is so high. I'm glad to see yours is on the rise again or have you finally gotten the Vette out of the garage and onto the street to burn some rubber??? Hope it's not too hot in your neck of the woods...

Paul S - I'm doing my best Buddy and thanks again for the reels Mr. Bling-Bling. (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one Paul!)

Mr. Benson - I understand that you don't want anyone to know you are actually a Colonist and from New Jersey. All these years you've led folks to believe you live on the Insel. It's all good my Man!!! Kidding aside, Thanks too for being here and your support. Paul is a truly fine person. I think we as glue slingers and hissy stick users are a unique group of people and there is a special bond between us!!! If we can help one another in any way, we will...

When I got up this morning, I made the decision to tackle the front panel with all the do-dads for the Steyr. I noticed a little cleanup was in order as I use 3 wooden plates for my work. Most people use modelling mats on their benches. I am not a fan of these and have never used them. They remind me of Star Trek because when you cut a piece of etch or plastic on them, the part takes off and goes where no man has gone before...And you spend the next 5 years looking for the part to finish the mission...

My plates are from a CD/DVD rack that were leftovers. They do get filled up rather quickly with pieces and parts. I took the one with less junk on it, sorted the stuff out and trashed what wasn't needed. With a clean wood plate, I broke out the Punch and die set and went crazy...

I also use Pringles lids to hold little parts while I'm working. With the bottom wood plate free and my little hammer in hand, I began my mission to create the front of the cabinet. I didn't take pics along the way and the work was a bit tedious and tiny. After a few hours and a few more, we came up with this…

It's not done yet, needs some cleanup and it's not 100% perfect to scale (looks good using the 100 meter rule). I took the pic and the next one as I always forget to take them before it gets too dark...

Here is a test fit on the cabinet face. The gap at the bottom is for the mounting frame to the floor. I still need to drill out the 4 fuses to the right of the 2 big ones, add some things to it such as the meters on top, the switches to the left of them (punched out, on the right), an oval plug on the bottom left and the 3 round plugs on the bottom middle, an etch handle on the drawer and a few other dings-bumms. I will give a light coat of TET over the whole affair to make sure pieces don't fall or ping off while handling it.
I should have this finished tomorrow and then start the other cabinet. Wish me luck! Monday is back to the salt mine and very little time for fun and scratchy. Have a great night and please send Renaldo a box of tissues for his whining and crying!!! Thanks...

Prost
Allen

 

[Mini Me]

Allen,
Cabinet looks good...I'm thinking how many of these bits and pieces are going to escape my build in 1-87 scale. LOL
Rick H.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Well that’s nice work and no error.... very clean scratchery ......interesting idea ref boards. Do you find they blunt blades rather quickly? I used to use melamine off cuts and moved to a cutting board for that very reason....
By the way, the special bond between modellers is probably spilled cyanoacrylate...
Cheers
Tim

 

[JR]

Yo Dude 1
Think you've done extremely well with the weather in getting so much very small fiddly scatchery done. Looks good from here !
Seriously the Zundapp frame has fitted it really well, and good to read the the parts are on their way . Much rejoiceing in Bamberg this week then . Cables drums with the wire .
All coming together slowly and more importantly well.
Dude 2

 

[SimonT]

Nice

 

[Jim R]

Hi Allen
Cabinet and the reels look great. Moggle on through the heat.
Jim

 

[Steve Jones]

The guys have said it all. Some of your finest work. Looks like you are having a great deal of fun

 

[minitnkr]

Too, too hot to work outside so the vette sits idle. Mid 90s F in the shade. At least the patio furnature is off it. My man cave is a comfy 71F, but no natural light. Love your scratchery. PaulE

 

[Allen Dewire]

Late Afternoon Rocketeer's and Sweating Folks Around The Insel and Colonies Too,

Damn, where does the time go and why are weekends so short? I guess these are some of life's little mysteries (what in the hell am I talking about)!!!!!! Must be heat stroke or something…………...

Rick - Hey, In your scale there is always the electron microscope to add those fine details. Don't be sad Buddy, you can do it. I got faith in ya!!!

Tim - Thanks man, There are now 10,005 comedians out of work! That was a good bonding joke. As for the wood boards, I never have really noticed that they dull the blades quicker, but sometimes you have to clean the wood bits off of parts before gluing them. I don't work on the other side of them very often as it's laminated. To me, they beat the mat hands down.

Dude 2 - You are much to kind Sir! I told you to stop nipping the sherry before commenting. Bamberg is definitely on a roll here and even with the heat we are having a blast. See below Dzhon...

Simon - Thanks my friend. It keeps me going!

Jim - Thanks too Sir! I'm glad you like it so far and we can only hope it cools down soon.

Stevie - I don't know about 'finest' work so far, but I think my painting the dash gages in 1/72 was better along with making windshield wipers. Just me though (and the heat stroke too). I am having maybe too much fun!!! Thanks my friend...

Paul - Wow, sorry to hear about the heat. You're better off in the cave where it's cooler for sure. Good to hear that at least you cleaned your baby off. The first step is always the hardest. Thanks and when you build your Steyr (one day), you can scratch all the knobs and bobs too. Just use mine as a reference!!!...

So, a little update is in order and I promise not to bore you. Yesterday, I finished the front panel with all the crap nice stuff on it. I have realized I suffer from crooked disease. Anyhow, it looks like this...

On the way to the completion, I had to make the voltage meters on the top middle (see reference pic above). I kicked around a few ideas as I needed bigger dial bases for the meters than my punch set could make. Cutting thin sheet with a scissor was a no-go, so I punched a 1mm hole in the sheet and the placed it on top of the punch block and punched out 2 disks. I then took the 3 mm disks that I had earlier punched out and centered them as best I could over the 2.5 mm hole and punched them out. Took the punched out disks and cut one in half. I then trimmed the 2 pieces down a bit. So if you are confused as much as I am, you end up with this. (the blade was not harmed in any way in these actions)...

You can also see the two switches on top of the blade that are on the left of the gages and the big connector socket for the lower left of the panel. As blindness set in, it was time for a cold one, but before I popped the cap, I took one more pic to show the panel as it will sit on the cabinet...

A little bit of cleanup is still in order. I also started modifying the the cable connections for the backside of the cabinet as well as a switch box for the right side of it. It should look pretty cool when it's painted up. The only prob I see will be painting the needle and voltage marks on the gages. I am also thinking about sanding down the bolts around the outside of the panel as they are too thick. Yesterday, I also found a brand new package of evergreen sheet and some really thin stuff in it...Hmmmm...

Thank you all for looking and I hope it has cooled down a bit on the Insel. More to come when I have the time this week. (good time to go on holidays, huh)...

Prost
Allen