Slow and steady progress on the rest of the plow. I’ve got the “frames” for the larger plows done for this step as the blades will need to go on to finish them any further and there’s quite a few ejector pin marks to clean up on the teeth of the blades. Will anyone see the ejector pin marks? Probably not. Will anyone see the ejector pin marks once the blade is in the dirt or sand? Definitely not. I’m still waffling with whether or not I want to do the plow in the earth or not, so this way I’ll cover my bases (pun not intended). I’ve also got the “fingers” of the plow ready to go once the main section of the plow is together as one of the mounting brackets for the foot interfaces into the frame and that bracket needs the plow to be in place in order to keep everything workable.
In my quest for references I came across this and I quite like the idea of having the plow stuck out, especially as I’ve fixed one the “doors” for the M58 in the up position.
Here’s how the frames are turning out so far. They needed some TLC in order to keep them workable, so keep that in mind if you do plan on building this kit. One half mounting point for the hydraulic cylinder has pins that go through the frame and the hydraulic cylinder, but the other half didn’t have corresponding divots. You would’ve needed to glue this half to the frame in order to keep the hydraulic cylinder in place which would’ve prevented any adjustment. Nothing some styrene rod couldn’t fix.
Many thanks again to Rob for his great reference photos allowing me to work out what needs to be workable and what can be left fixed in place. The instructions for building the plow itself are lacking unfortunately and feel like an afterthought.
Coming this far along I couldn’t resist doing another mock-up and see how it’s turning out. This is definitely going to be a long base! Can’t wait to get paint on this.
Do you plan to use 20 l yellow palm oil jugs in your scene? They liked to stack them. We had an RG31 hit a stack of an estimated 10 back in 2009, 6 KIA and threw the vehicle 100m.
Seems like you’re coming up with some good solutions for less than thought out engineering on hte mounting points.
So - now that you have interior photos, will there be an interior? Inquiring minds want to know.
Maybe on the next one…and speaking of building another ABV (I know, I haven’t even finished this one yet!). You couldn’t have had better timing with your comment haha!
I finished up one side of the plow (for now) and couldn’t resist another quick-mock up to test the range of motion of the workable parts and I can’t help but think how neat this would be with the “normal” Abrams turret. Kitbash of an M1A2 and an ABV may be in order. With some interior bits of course! Ooo and in woodland camo…ok better not get too far ahead of myself.
If you don’t plan on using them, that would be great! Do you happen to have the mounting bits for the plow to the hull? I’m thinking you may have used them on your dozer blade.
Whelp, the somewhat inevitable happened. I finished up the blade this afternoon and now there’s not really much more that can be done before I receive the copper wire, ETA is March 6th. If everything goes well, I’ll have the copper wire in hand and can get going on this again before the aftermarket for my 1/48th F-35A show up. In the meantime, here’s how it sits.
With all my fettling on the plow, I’ve managed to keep everything workable once it gets attached to the hull. Really just a party trick, but a nice-to-have at this point with me being indecisive on my eventual scene for this. I’ve left the plow off for now as well as it will be much easier to paint and do some of the weathering while it’s off the hull.
The ABV was supposed to be the perfect in-between project. Now to find an in-between for the in-between; the more I look at the He 219, the more I realize that project will be biting off way more than I can chew before the F-35 aftermarket shows up. Time to rummage back through the stash.
Yeah, you’re right. I used the hull mount and headlamp mounts and headlamps from the kit, I think. It’s been awhile. Now I have to remember where I hid it.
