It is just a case of getting on with it!

Well my thoughts that the track links to the MENG A39 Tortoise kit would swallow up a lot of time were correct!

So far I have managed to detach and clean up 36 of the 144 links. That has taken a couple of hours and I am not even going to do the maths to determine how much time these will take as I think it would be depressing! It is just a case of getting on with it!

To try and remain positive I have actually started to glue together some of the links. I cannot do them all as I need to have the running gear on the hull so that I can drape semi glued tracks over it to take the necessary shape. The joys of model making!

Three sprues of 48 track links means a total of 144 links to cut out, clean up and assemble!

 Whilst I wait for primer to dry on the Meng A39 Tortoise kit I decided to look at the tracks.

Three sprues of 48 track links means a total of 144 links to cut out, clean up and assemble! 

I managed to cut out and clean up 6 links and just from that I can tell that I will be spending a lot of time on these! That will certainly fill in the time I am waiting for the primer to dry. 

That means cleaning the airbrush will be a regular occurrence too!

 The painting process on the Meng A39 Tortoise kit has started with a start being made on applying a Vallejo grey primer.

The cooler weather, the nature of the primer and the complexity of the parts to be painted means this will be a process spread over several days! That means cleaning the airbrush will be a regular occurrence too! Oh joy! 

I recalled that the WMD Stores also had some Maskol in stock!

It is now time to think a bit more about the painting stages of the A39 Tortoise and it will be stages as there are complexities in being able to get to what will be difficult to access areas if the whole kit is put together and then painted. As I highlighted in previous posts the running wheels, drive wheels and tracks need to be painted separately. I cannot make the tracks until the wheels are in place and they need to be painted first so I think that makes the 'stages' process a bit clearer!

To ensure that the wheel mounts can be attached to the hull after painting I need to mask the gluing areas as paint will not stick once glue is applied! The WMD Stores had some nice Tamiya 2mm masking tape in stock - handy!

Careful application was slow and then I recalled that the WMD Stores also had some Maskol in stock - even more handy! Maskol is a rubberised paint that is applied to mask surfaces and once painted it can be stripped off just like masking tape.

It was certainly a quicker process! Now I can think about the paint!

Maybe I should not be surprised that there is still much to do!

Well, I surprised myself in that the main parts of the A39 Tortoise are now together!

It is now at a stage where there are some parts that still need to be added such as the side skirts, towing cables, spare track links and fire extinguishers but these are best left off to paint separately. As I posted earlier in the build, the running gear still needs adding but again it needs to be painted separately before being put in place. And then of course there are the tracks which are individual links that need cutting off the sprue, cleaning and gluing together! Maybe I should not be surprised that there is still much to do! 

More parts added to the Tortoise!

 More parts added to this beast of a machine! 

The rear end is getting towards being finished with the final towing arrangement fitted in the middle. There were 13 parts to this and yes it does move and rotate as MENG intended it to which caused me some headaches to achieve though! The exhaust which is to the left on the cutting mat, need a bit more work as I literally sanded parts of it so thin to get rid of a joint that it almost collapsed! However, once done, that should really add to the rear end.

A few other parts to the sides and front have also been fitted but those 6 large holes are for the spare track links which were carried on the side of the body. To make painting easier I will be adding those after the painting is done.

Right! back to the slow slog of adding all those small parts!

Slowly this kit comes together!

 Slowly this kit comes together. 

The various holes in the body are being filled in by hatches and other parts. Still more to go - ibn fact surprisingly more than I though when I first opened the kit box!

That is where the machine gun turret that I posted about yesterday fits. It looks tiny in comparison to its surroundings.

The towing points are massive in relation to any other I have dealt with on a model but I guess with a weight of 78 tons for the real tanks they had to be massive. The three on the front are finished.

The two on the back however do need to be finished and there are still more holes to be filled with parts! They will eventually!

Almost a kit on its own!

For an assault gun, the A39 Tortoise had a fair amount of defensive armament including a small, rotating secondary machine gun turret mounted on the roof of its casemate superstructure, alongside a third machine gun mounted in the front hull plate. The crew of seven included two machine gunners to operate them. Unusual but the turret does make a nice model in its own right! There are about 30 parts to make this!

The turret also features a 6-barrel smoke discharger cluster (or smoke bomb launcher bank) directly attached to its side.  Alongside this smoke grenade unit, the secondary turret houses twin 7.92mm BESA machine guns. Because this small turret is capable of 360-degree rotation, the attached smoke discharger unit could pop smoke screen cover in any direction the machine gunner or commander faced, adding vital tactical flexibility to an otherwise slow, 78-ton vehicle!

It should look good once added to the main part of the body!

Why, as modellers do we do this?

Why, as modellers do we do this? What's that Woody, you may ask, or maybe not! However, the answer is to put ourselves through all sorts of tiny manipulations involving magnification aids that then result in parts flying off over the floor requiring on the knee searching or failing to fit as planned as the glue melts the wrong part of the piece gluing it to your finger and all of this then adds significant quantities to the swear jar! The end result is this in the case of the MENG A39 Tortoise!

Great, Woody! What's so hard about that? Well maybe look at this...

Yes! This travel support for the gun barrel can be opened or closed and the locking bolt works!

It may have taken two hours to get this together and it will probably lie on the model unused until the landfill site takes delivery in years to come but I know it is constructed and works like the tool maker envisaged!

Aat the moment it feels a bit....well tortoise in progress!

More small parts added to the A39 Tortoise although on a model like this the details seem to fade into the enormity of the vehicle!

Todays progress has seen various periscopes fitted to the upper part of the body along with various parts of towing eyes to the rear of the body as well as a few other unknown parts to the upper side of the main body.

It will eventually all go together ti make a great overall model but at the moment it feels a bit....well tortoise in progress!

Open the hatch! But why?

 

This is the commanders hatch to the A39 Tortoise Assault Gun. It may look fairly simple in nature but it took me two hours to build the 17, many tiny, parts that go together to form this simplistic looking part! I am not even sure why it is designed to open as there is no interior detail to this kit and more over, with reflection, why I took so much time and effort to ensure that it would open? Probably best not to ponder on that thought!

Adding it to the upper body does feel good as it brings the model that bit closer to being finished although there are still a number of large holes that will need something building to fill them! No doubt more multi part assemblies that will take hours to build. Tortoise by name, tortoise speed of build!

The gun is fitted!

 Like the tortoise this beast of a machine is named after my progress building the kit of it is slow! I have to admit that upon opening the box I did not think there were too many parts but there are more than I first thought! However, with the running gear constructed I can begin the perhaps speedier in terms of visual changes, build of the upper hull. With respect to the running gear, I have decided to leave it unattached to the lower hull for the moment which will make painting the eight running and return wheel structures along with the drive and idle wheels a much easier task. Careful masking of the lower hull where the running gear structures attach should mean a strong paint free gluing surface as I intend to paint that too before any gluing takes place. The irony is that most of the detail will be covered by the side skirts that attach to the hull! However, not being too sure at this stage as to how much these skirts will cover or not means that I am playing safe and painting everything!

Progress so far sees the front plate of the upper hull detailed with various lifting points and the gun has been constructed and fitted to the body.

I just need to fit the muzzle to the gun barrel but I need the glue to set that joins the two parts together before I can sand them smooth. A job for tomorrow!

I do believe that if you saw that coming in anger towards you a clean change of underwear would be advisable!

Moving on from the running gear of the MENG A39 Tortoise kit, I find myself taken aback by the sheer size of this beast of a machine. 

In real life 78 tons of weight, 32 feet of length, 12 feet of width and 10 feet of height meant that this was not an easy item to transport! Originally the 25 ordered were due to come into service in September 1945 and be used to destroy enemy fortified defences. However the end of the war reduced the order to 6 with one being sent to Germany were successful trials showed that the design was manufacturing matched expectations. Never the less the end of the war and the difficulty in transporting it resulted in no further vehicles being constructed. One remains at Bovington Tank Museum where it was overhauled in 2011 and now runs under its own power. Here is video on YouTube of it running at one of the Museums Tankfest events.

I do believe that if you saw that coming in anger towards you a clean change of underwear would be advisable! 

In the meantime I will carry on bullding this beast!

Sandwich Artist???

Now whilst I do not see myself as an artist there have been occasions when I have been referred to being one by others but not necessarily with reference to anything creative that I have done! Whilst this may demonstrate that the term 'artist' can have a wide meaning I was still somewhat taken aback to see this sign in a local SubWay (usual disclaimer - other sandwich making establishments are available!) where Mrs. Woody and myself were treating ourselves to the culinary delights of a footlong!

Sandwich Artist? Well I guess it is an artistic way to describe the job. Which then got me to thinking (always a dangerous activity as Mrs. Woody will tell you) about what do you term someone who professionally makes sandwiches? Google tells me that: -

A professional sandwich maker can refer to either a person who prepares sandwiches or the heavy-duty commercial equipment used in restaurants.

The Person

Sandwich Maker or Sandwich Hand: The general culinary title for a kitchen worker focused on prepping and assembling sandwiches.

Garde Manger: A traditional French kitchen brigade station (and the chef running it) responsible for cold food items, including salads, appetizers, and cold sandwiches.

Delicatessen/Deliman: A person who works in or runs a deli specializing in sliced meats and classic stacked sandwiches.

Sandwich Artist: A corporate term popularized by chains like Subway. 

The Equipment

Commercial Panini Press / Panini Grill: A heavy-duty, restaurant-grade electrical appliance featuring ridged or flat cast-iron/aluminum plates designed to press and toast sandwiches rapidly.

Commercial Sandwich Press or Contact Grill: A high-wattage professional unit used to heat sandwiches evenly from top and bottom. You can explore options and details in guides like the Commercial Panini Press Guide. 

So there you have it - as many terms as I have had sandwiches! My favourite though is Delicatessen as it implies a gentleness to the art of sandwich making. Did someone mention art? Then maybe we need an artist!

Meanwhile back to the artistry of model making and the Tortoise Assault Gun moves on well almost as the wheel and tracks are not yet mounted to the hull but they are now just about complete.

There are nearly 250 parts just to make the running gear! That does not include the tracks which in this kit are individual links which probably means another 200 parts! And I though that this would be a quick, non etched brass build!

Now armed with my new metrology, the other side should be quicker to build!

 Now its coming together! Having developed my own method for putting the running wheel assemblies together they suddenly come together.

There were still more parts to add!

Return rollers and suspension dampers make up the rest of the parts. So far, what you see in the above picture is made up of 123 parts! And that is only one side of the running gear! However, now armed with my new metrology, the other side should be quicker to build!

Instructions are there for when you can't get the thing to go together or work!

 

I thought about it! That is, following on from yesterdays post, I have found a better way of putting the running wheel assembly together than the instructions instruct! 

I have, in this blog before, berated myself for not following the instructions but in this case I initially did but found an alternative better way! As I have carefully explained to Mrs. Woody on many occasions, instructions are there for when you can't get the thing to go together or work and then they are only for guidance!

Tortoise by name, tortoise progress!

I have started gluing and my initial impressions are: -

1. The plastic that MENG have used is like nothing I have come across before. A seemingly hard plastic that sands easily! not the easiest to cut cleanly either.

2. The tank is a Tortoise and I am guessing my progress will, as I previously joked, be tortoise like given the complexity of the running wheel s and their carriers!

Having tried to put one of the set of eight together I am not convinced that the instructions actually show the best way to do this so as so far I have spent about two hours trying to get the part of the first carrier together. One to put down and have a think about!

Well the box is open so time to start gluing!

After several months of railway modelling I have a need to do something different and glue some plastic together in the form of building a kit and this is it!

Tortoise is probably apt in that I will no doubt build it at a rate comparable with the progress a tortoise makes in traversing a garden or similar!

There are not as many parts as in some of the kits I have built and no etched brass! Fantastic! Just look at the size of the hull and upper body. This is a beast and one of these assault gun tanks is in full working order at the Bovington Tank Museum. Well the box is open so time to start gluing!

My purchase from a model railway show was this 1/35 scale A38 Tortoise tank kit by Meng!

As is usual, I had to take Mrs. Woody to the Market Deeping Model Railway Club Exhibition. She didn't know she wanted to go but I knew she would be upset if she did not attend. Well that is my version of reality! Mrs. w. did indeed come along to the show which to be truthful was not the best show by the club that I have attended. Some great layouts and good traders but there was just not that WOW moment for me or Mrs. W. I did have the chance to chat with some friends and exhibitors and I'll talk about the layouts tomorrow.

As I have always informed Mrs. W, it is the law that you have to make at least one purchase from an exhibition or model shop so my purchase from a model railway show was this 1/35 scale A38 Tortoise tank kit by Meng! 

I have been after one of these for years so was pleased to get hold of it and as a major plus point it has no etched brass parts - oh joy!

Normally I balance out my purchases by getting Mrs. W some cookies from the cookie lady. However, this year she was not there for some reason so I had to take Mrs. W out for something to eat! We stopped at a nearby Ok Diner where they always have a great display of American memorabilia.

Great burgers too followed by for Mrs. W a banana split....

and for me a toffee waffle sundae!

The meal actually cost me more than I spent on the tank kit! I must be loosing it!