Re: 1/16 Takom Pz.Kpfw.1 Ausf B (Panzer 1)
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 12:58 pm
Good morning all
Hope you, you’re families and loved ones are keeping well in these weird and perilous times we live in.
So the weekend came and went in a haze, as all weekends do for some unexplained reason, known only to God and the Universes Timekeeper. The week drags through work, then spins by in a jiffy at weekend and along comes Monday morning again
.
Friday, as part of Mrs DW and Mr DW wanting to stay healthy and fit, we went for our routine daily ramble around our local area.
Mrs DW at 10 years younger, is fitter and walks a hell of a lot faster than this Arthritic Dinosaur, but the 3 or 4 miles we do, certainly blows the Cobwebs out of our brains. Working from home, it helps with our Mental Health and Wellbeing
.
I have lived in this area for a few years, and was married in 1999 at the Church that sits on the highest Hill in our area. The Church has a grave belonging to a William Coltman, VC, DCM and Bar and MM, the most decorated Non-Commissioned Officer of the First War. He was from this area. What a story and he survived WW1 and without picking up a rifle. Absolutely mindblowing.
Some 500 yards from our house, is an area that has 31 Trees planted to commemorate the 31 Men and Women who gave their lives in all wars. Its called Coltman Wood. It’s a very quiet and reflective area, and very well set up. The trees are Hornbeams, and they have set up large Plaques around this area that describe each Year of the First World War, and specifically how it effected the local area. Very well done and poignant. We spent some time that morning reflecting and reading the moving tributes, before walking back home.
I had an unusual one off session on Saturday afternoon in M/C, after a bit of Six Nations Rugby, and on top of my usual session on Sunday (I’ll elaborate on that later).
Mrs DW went out on Saturday, looking particularly well.
She’s lost weight (due to her Running every day, and following the NHS Couch to 5k programme), which has given her new vim and vigour . She looked good. I laughed, because she was banking money from the sale of our old Ford Focus and some additional cash from a 5 year Legal contest, where she was hit from behind in a car whilst parked at Traffic Lights. I joked with her, “Was she coming back”? 
You know, Money in hand, looking Glamorous, Old Begger at home, falling apart and hands covered in C/A and Model Paint………..
On her return, she came back with this little group of my favourite things. Trifle, Root Beer, Flowers and a Good Book. She’s a good woman
Saturday, I decided to crack on with the tracks. Big Fingers and tiny tracks, what could go wrong .
I had separated the 200 Track Links into Glass Tubs that formerly contained a particular favourite relish of mine. Kimchi.
100 links in one Kimchi pot and a 100 in another. I thought the Glass Pots would be great storage, as they have screw top lids and so loss of Track Links by toppling them or ham-fisted moves would be minimised. The problem is, the odour of Kimchi lingers longer than envisaged. The smell after a week when I took the lids off, has left the Tracks quite pongy
I initially started to bore the connection holes out with a Pin Drill (as per Fruil tracks), but deduced that over 200 tracks was going to take up all weekend and more, just drilling them out. After drilling ten or 15 Track Links, I started to insert the supplied Takom Pins into said holes, to see if they would just “Wiggle” in.
Some wiggling and moving of Track Link, up and down facilitated entry of pin and after much cussing and swearing
. Some went straight in without resistance. Some took an eon to locate all the way through.
Some snapped. I expected some to give way as thin plastic, but no problem really. Very few snapped and they only failed due to vigorous manipulation. Simple case of poking Pin Drill down hole to push Pin through and then poking in broken end. I did at first play a little TET into hole (especially on broken Pins), but the fit was pretty damn good.
The call out in instructions was 97 per side (this I have read is touch and go, as one builder had had to put in 98 Track Links on one side and 97 the other side). Anyway I have 6 spare Track Links and Pins. The numbers on cardboard are my notes on how many links were in each length constructed at that point.
They look very good. I gave the Pins a rub with a Sander to take off any burrs from cutting them off Sprues. The Tracks once built articulate and bend beautifully and no pins are falling out, well done Takom.
I forgot to add an image of the built Tow Rope mentioned in last weeks post, so here it is.
Then, this is a big THEN, things went seriously downhill.
Sunday, I had a several poor nights sleep due to pain from Osteoarthritis and nasty Ulcer on the back of my left leg, that I have had since July of last year, that had sealed up before Christmas, but broke out again.
Lack of sleep and pain equals poor judgement and poor planning and direction. I cocked up significantly.
Its not the end of the World or that, its not even serious, but to a perfectionist and bit of a OCD Nut, its really mucked me up on this build.
Having completed all of the Lower Hull, Running Gear and Tracks, then set them aside, the Instructions move on to the Upper Hull.
The Fenders and top of the Hull come as a super large piece of plastic (P35). Beautifully detailed and really nice moulding detail.
Section 12 of instructions, first call out is for part P45, no probs.
Next, bear in mind, still 1/16 scale, tiny pieces of plastic in the shape of two ovals (A27) with a clasp of some sort through them (A26). Seriously fiddly . All my references were pretty sketchy, and the instructions even magnified were a bit hit and miss.
Parts P27 & P31 (Crowbars), were easy to clean up of a Mould Seam Line and fit perfectly.
I will explain that the Instruction book is A4 Landscape sized and, I tend to fold it in half along seam. So next section of build after 12 is of course 13 (under booklet and out of view), except, as I have folded page over, and am devoid of sleep and mind is not on job, I did not read on to Section 13
.
Rooky mistake, and a salutary reminder to beginners to read instructions thoroughly. I didn’t, that’s why I fecked up .
Section 12 also has you build Lifting Jack, comprising of 9 parts. A beautiful and very detailed Jack.
I ploughed on putting the Jack together and then realised my mistake in horror in Section 13, when I realised that the Jack did not fit in to its prescribed area between parts E45 and a small recess in Fender. Not even close.
“£!%$^&*()?@“£!%$^&*()?@“£!%$^&*()?@!
I tried to take it apart gingerly but the Glue was curing faster and faster.
In a Nutshell, cocked up completely.
Best thing to do then is Stop!
Clean off tools, tidy up and come out of Man-Cave.
I stormed off for a walk on my own, and after 3 miles in brisk cold, returning to house and loving wife, I explained my conundrum and mistake.
We had a look on the Worldwide Web for spares. None. Luckily the parts required for Jack are all on one Sprue E.
I have contacted www.emodels.co.uk as a first resort and suppler of kit, who I buy most of if not all of my Modelling Kit off, and asked them for a contact at Takom for a E Sprue. Also contacted Takom direct, but have read they can be hit and miss on Customer Care.
A disappointing end to a weekend. Monday brought a more philosophical mindset, but still super sad at my mistake. Even at my age, one has to learn from mistakes and it was a classic rookie mistake.
We’ll see what a reach out to Modelling Brotherhood will return.
As always, best wishes to you all and stay safe and take care,
DW
Hope you, you’re families and loved ones are keeping well in these weird and perilous times we live in.
So the weekend came and went in a haze, as all weekends do for some unexplained reason, known only to God and the Universes Timekeeper. The week drags through work, then spins by in a jiffy at weekend and along comes Monday morning again
.Friday, as part of Mrs DW and Mr DW wanting to stay healthy and fit, we went for our routine daily ramble around our local area.
Mrs DW at 10 years younger, is fitter and walks a hell of a lot faster than this Arthritic Dinosaur, but the 3 or 4 miles we do, certainly blows the Cobwebs out of our brains. Working from home, it helps with our Mental Health and Wellbeing
. I have lived in this area for a few years, and was married in 1999 at the Church that sits on the highest Hill in our area. The Church has a grave belonging to a William Coltman, VC, DCM and Bar and MM, the most decorated Non-Commissioned Officer of the First War. He was from this area. What a story and he survived WW1 and without picking up a rifle. Absolutely mindblowing.
Some 500 yards from our house, is an area that has 31 Trees planted to commemorate the 31 Men and Women who gave their lives in all wars. Its called Coltman Wood. It’s a very quiet and reflective area, and very well set up. The trees are Hornbeams, and they have set up large Plaques around this area that describe each Year of the First World War, and specifically how it effected the local area. Very well done and poignant. We spent some time that morning reflecting and reading the moving tributes, before walking back home.
I had an unusual one off session on Saturday afternoon in M/C, after a bit of Six Nations Rugby, and on top of my usual session on Sunday (I’ll elaborate on that later).
Mrs DW went out on Saturday, looking particularly well.
She’s lost weight (due to her Running every day, and following the NHS Couch to 5k programme), which has given her new vim and vigour
. She looked good. I laughed, because she was banking money from the sale of our old Ford Focus and some additional cash from a 5 year Legal contest, where she was hit from behind in a car whilst parked at Traffic Lights. I joked with her, “Was she coming back”? You know, Money in hand, looking Glamorous, Old Begger at home, falling apart and hands covered in C/A and Model Paint………..
On her return, she came back with this little group of my favourite things. Trifle, Root Beer, Flowers and a Good Book. She’s a good woman
Saturday, I decided to crack on with the tracks. Big Fingers and tiny tracks, what could go wrong
. I had separated the 200 Track Links into Glass Tubs that formerly contained a particular favourite relish of mine. Kimchi.
100 links in one Kimchi pot and a 100 in another. I thought the Glass Pots would be great storage, as they have screw top lids and so loss of Track Links by toppling them or ham-fisted moves would be minimised. The problem is, the odour of Kimchi lingers longer than envisaged. The smell after a week when I took the lids off, has left the Tracks quite pongy
I initially started to bore the connection holes out with a Pin Drill (as per Fruil tracks), but deduced that over 200 tracks was going to take up all weekend and more, just drilling them out. After drilling ten or 15 Track Links, I started to insert the supplied Takom Pins into said holes, to see if they would just “Wiggle” in.
Some wiggling and moving of Track Link, up and down facilitated entry of pin and after much cussing and swearing
. Some went straight in without resistance. Some took an eon to locate all the way through. Some snapped. I expected some to give way as thin plastic, but no problem really. Very few snapped and they only failed due to vigorous manipulation. Simple case of poking Pin Drill down hole to push Pin through and then poking in broken end. I did at first play a little TET into hole (especially on broken Pins), but the fit was pretty damn good.
The call out in instructions was 97 per side (this I have read is touch and go, as one builder had had to put in 98 Track Links on one side and 97 the other side). Anyway I have 6 spare Track Links and Pins. The numbers on cardboard are my notes on how many links were in each length constructed at that point.
They look very good. I gave the Pins a rub with a Sander to take off any burrs from cutting them off Sprues. The Tracks once built articulate and bend beautifully and no pins are falling out, well done Takom.
I forgot to add an image of the built Tow Rope mentioned in last weeks post, so here it is.
Then, this is a big THEN, things went seriously downhill.
Sunday, I had a several poor nights sleep due to pain from Osteoarthritis and nasty Ulcer on the back of my left leg, that I have had since July of last year, that had sealed up before Christmas, but broke out again.
Lack of sleep and pain equals poor judgement and poor planning and direction. I cocked up significantly.
Its not the end of the World or that, its not even serious, but to a perfectionist and bit of a OCD Nut, its really mucked me up on this build.
Having completed all of the Lower Hull, Running Gear and Tracks, then set them aside, the Instructions move on to the Upper Hull.
The Fenders and top of the Hull come as a super large piece of plastic (P35). Beautifully detailed and really nice moulding detail.
Section 12 of instructions, first call out is for part P45, no probs.
Next, bear in mind, still 1/16 scale, tiny pieces of plastic in the shape of two ovals (A27) with a clasp of some sort through them (A26). Seriously fiddly
. All my references were pretty sketchy, and the instructions even magnified were a bit hit and miss.Parts P27 & P31 (Crowbars), were easy to clean up of a Mould Seam Line and fit perfectly.
I will explain that the Instruction book is A4 Landscape sized and, I tend to fold it in half along seam. So next section of build after 12 is of course 13 (under booklet and out of view), except, as I have folded page over, and am devoid of sleep and mind is not on job, I did not read on to Section 13
. Rooky mistake, and a salutary reminder to beginners to read instructions thoroughly. I didn’t, that’s why I fecked up
.Section 12 also has you build Lifting Jack, comprising of 9 parts. A beautiful and very detailed Jack.
I ploughed on putting the Jack together and then realised my mistake in horror in Section 13, when I realised that the Jack did not fit in to its prescribed area between parts E45 and a small recess in Fender. Not even close.
“£!%$^&*()?@“£!%$^&*()?@“£!%$^&*()?@!
I tried to take it apart gingerly but the Glue was curing faster and faster.
In a Nutshell, cocked up completely.
Best thing to do then is Stop!
Clean off tools, tidy up and come out of Man-Cave.
I stormed off for a walk on my own, and after 3 miles in brisk cold, returning to house and loving wife, I explained my conundrum and mistake.
We had a look on the Worldwide Web for spares. None. Luckily the parts required for Jack are all on one Sprue E.
I have contacted www.emodels.co.uk as a first resort and suppler of kit, who I buy most of if not all of my Modelling Kit off, and asked them for a contact at Takom for a E Sprue. Also contacted Takom direct, but have read they can be hit and miss on Customer Care.
A disappointing end to a weekend. Monday brought a more philosophical mindset, but still super sad at my mistake. Even at my age, one has to learn from mistakes and it was a classic rookie mistake.
We’ll see what a reach out to Modelling Brotherhood will return.
As always, best wishes to you all and stay safe and take care,
DW
.
)
caught her checking out my paints the other day..
