Israeli M247 DIVAD

[PR19_Kit]

It's difficult to do 'research' on Whiffed models, by definition.................

[Rick Lowe]

We tend to do our own 'Research'. It always helps when we can write our own back stories (Rule #2) - things can be cut and shut to fit.

[Jakko]

It's difficult to do 'research' on Whiffed models, by definition.................

The "what-if" bits are usually hard to research. The real-world bits are generally not. The infantry telephone box on this vehicle is a good example: it's a standard item that was used on the later M48 and all M60 tanks, so it would be highly unlikely for a fictional variant of the M247 to have it the wrong way round, for instance — even if you could argue that "it's a different model of infantry telephone that looked like that," I would consider it a cop-out for not wanting to go to the trouble of fixing the thing you (or in this case, I) put on the wrong way round.

Actual what-if is the Stinger launcher, which I took from the Italeri LAV-AD kit and added a bit of detail to:

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The transverse bits of strip are 1 × 0.5 mm glued "flat" on top of the nodules Italeri has moulded into the sides, and 1 × 0.25 mm glued "upright" in two spots where I saw thin bits in a photograph of a real one of these launchers on an Israeli M163 VADS (research again ). I also cut and filed away the ridges Italeri moulded along the long sides of the two cover plates, because pictures of the real launchers show you can see through them, which those ridges prevented.

Then I needed to add a pivot:

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Made from the end of an assembly jig you get in RFM's set of T80 Sherman tracks and some 2 × 2 mm strip, then glued over the hole in the side of the launcher.

To mount this to the turret side is a little tricky, because that slopes in two directions, but I would expect the launcher to be parallel to the turret centreline. I also felt there would probably be some kind of box mounted on the turret side to hold the elevating mechanism and perhaps some electronics associated with the launcher. Rummaging around my generic spares box, I found the section of roof plate I had cut out of Takom's VT 1-2 to turn it into a what-if JPK 120, and discovered that the angled bit on it would sit just about vertical and parallel with a bit of plastic card around the edges:

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Then all I needed to do was make a hole in it for the launcher's pivot:

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Still loose, as it will probably remain until after painting.

[Rick Lowe]

Nice! The spares/bits bin can come up with some very useful stuff - even years down the track.

[buzzbomb]

Still loving what you are doing... nice work

[Jakko]

Nice! The spares/bits bin can come up with some very useful stuff - even years down the track.

Definitely But going through the huge amounts of spare parts I have, to find useful bits, is getting a bit of a chore these days. And that's after sorting them into a number of boxes for specific subjects plus some with generic parts ...

Still loving what you are doing... nice work

Thanks At this point, it's mainly a matter of adding Israeli-specific bits, most of which will simply come from AFV Club sprues. Still debating whether or not to add a square box on the right rear mudguard, like later models of Magach tank have, though.

[zenrat]

Maybe you could sort your parts by shape?  After all you usually know what the thing you need looks like but you might not make the connection that a grommet flange bracket (for example) would do the job.

Where did the 90º elbows on the air filter box come from?  Those are real buggers to make from rod or tube but extremely usefull.
I'm having to fabricate some (admittedly larger) examples for a car model and it's taking ages sanding and filling to a neat bend.

[Rick Lowe]

Fred, would some of the elbows in or corners of the runner frames work? I've found sometimes those have exactly what I'm looking for.

Jakko - yeah, the hunting through boxes can be more frustrating than it's worth - plus I always come across stuff I had been wanting for other things and not found and wound up making... 
Sorting by shape is an interesting idea, though. Hmm.

[zenrat]

Hmmm, yes.  Possibly.  I hadn't thought of that.   
As long as they are actually round in section.  Annoyingly some manufacturers don't seem to take all that much effort making nice round cross section sprue.

[Jakko]

Maybe you could sort your parts by shape?  After all you usually know what the thing you need looks like but you might not make the connection that a grommet flange bracket (for example) would do the job.

Good idea, but it would need a ton more space, not to mention boxes and things, than I already use ... I've mostly sorted my spares by subject: a box with German WWII parts, a box with Sherman spares (two, actually: one for suspension parts and another with the rest), a box with M113 parts, a box with M26–M60 parts, two boxes with only suspension parts, and so on. These are all boxes that kits came in, BTW. And then there's a number of other containers for various smaller subjects, including plastic boxes divided into compartments with a lid that closes securely, and those little sets of drawers ...

Where did the 90º elbows on the air filter box come from?  Those are real buggers to make from rod or tube but extremely usefull.
I'm having to fabricate some (admittedly larger) examples for a car model and it's taking ages sanding and filling to a neat bend.

They're 2 mm plastic rod from Evergreen. I cut eight pieces with a 45° angle on one side, glued two together, and when the glue dried, filed them to an approximate bend and cut them to length. Aside from the filing, this was made very, very much easier by owning an RP Toolz miter cutter:

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the hunting through boxes can be more frustrating than it's worth - plus I always come across stuff I had been wanting for other things and not found and wound up making... 

I have that much of the time when a part goes flying and I have to search for it ... Yesterday, for example, when looking for part of the machine-gun mount for the M247 that dropped to the floor, I found a Panzer IV track link that I didn't even know was missing from the last model I finished

Annoyingly some manufacturers don't seem to make all that much effort  to make nice round cross section sprue.

To be honest, the Evergreen 2 mm rod also isn't as nicely round as you would expect. Roll it between your fingers and you can feel it's slightly elliptical in cross-section, and that's proved if you actually measure it. IIRC it varies between about 1.9 and 2.1 mm depending on which direction you measure in, and though that seems very little, it can definitely be visible if you stick two pieces together end-on without trying to align them correctly.

[zenrat]

I do have a small aluminium mitre box.  Current need for elbows has been due to making a 1/25 four wheel drive snorkel out of 5mm dia tube.  Only one angle was 90º and being tube I broke through when I sanded it round (as I knew I would).  Using rod would have avoided this problem.  I didn't have any this big.

ISTR seeing someone offering collections of resin elbows for sale some time back.  Sold out when I went to buy them and now I have no idea where they were being offered.  Isn't that always the way.   

[Jakko]

I take it you also don't have smaller diameter tube that fits inside the 5 mm? I know Evergreen tube comes in series with each fitting neatly into the next-bigger size, for example. This would let you make a tube with enough wall thickness to make the bend round, and you would only have to do that at the bend rather than for the full length of the snorkel.

[zenrat]

I do.  I didn't think of that.

[Rick Lowe]

A section of sprue/runner in the pipe at the appropriate point would work also... and be cheaper (read: Free!)
Or knitting needles... some can be pretty large diameter, and if you find some of the solid plastic ones and not the hollow aluminum, well - "The world is your bi-valve mollusk!"

[Jakko]

On the back of the turret, I made a stowage bin from a piece of thin plastic card and 0.5 mm brass rod:

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And the front now has smoke grenade launchers, as well as a mounting and three ammo boxes for a MAG at the commander's hatch, all from AFV Club:

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To build the mounting for the MAG, I had to look up the instructions for AFV Club's Magach 6 on Scalemates, though, as it's not very self-explanatory from just looking at the parts. The MAG and everything else above the swivel arm are still loose. I put that arm on top of the swivel arm that the M247 has as standard, even though my initial idea was to replace the latter by the former instead of sticking them together. However, because the commander's viewer is very much in the way for using the MAG, I think that in the real world, it would have been preferable to do it like I made it here

And then the track ...

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In future, I will not be buying any more Meng Magachs for their tracks, I know that much ... To build it, you get a jig that holds seven links (or the end of the track you've already built, plus six more links), and then insert a little "comb" with six track pins. Those pins only go into one side of the track, as the links click together on the other side.

This all works well enough: the links fit together nicely and the pins are easy to insert. But the trouble starts at this point. You now need to detach the pins from the comb, but if you do that with a knife, you'll almost certainly cut into the link, because the bits protruding to the sides stick out further than the pins do. But you can't get cutters in, because there's only about 2.5 mm of room between the two links, and the head of the pin takes up 0.8 mm of that.

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What does work, a bit, is to hold down the links firmly and then swivel the comb up and down until fatigue in the plastic breaks the pins off, but that runs the risk that one or more of the pins will still be attached to the comb — or worse, that they come out of the track after breaking off. You have to pay close attention that all of them are in, only then throw away the comb, and then push the pins in deeper with a suitable tool. And even then, pins regularly come out. If you're lucky you'll find them again so you can re-insert them with tweezers — assuming they don't go flying from the tweezers, anyway.

Add to this that the hole for the pin is moulded slightly short on a couple of links:

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See the bit pointed out by the arrow. Inspect each link before using it, to see if it has a notch in it like that, because if it does, it won't hold the pin at all.

101 links per side, says Meng. I'm now at fifty, and trying to think of a way to do it better. Right now I'm thinking that it may be a good idea to try and retain the pins with a drop of thick glue on top of the heads. You can't use thin glue because that will run down inside and glue the links together.