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Armor/AFV: Allied - WWII
Armor and ground forces of the Allied forces during World War II.
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1/35 Miniart AEC Mk.II
SHarjacek
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Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - 05:28 AM UTC
Hello Guys, in this thread I will post build process of the new Miniart AEC armored vehicle. For those of you who haven't seen Jim's In-box video - http://goo.gl/XTLhDD (If someone is interested in pictures of some detail Jim hasn't photographed feel free to ask). I will be doing the Yugoslav vehicle, there are some problems with decals so I decided to use paint masks for markings ( Thanks to Mal of Miracle Masks). I will also be trying out some new techniques and stuff I haven't done before. Apart from a usual build process I will describe all changes I made.

I usually don't follow the Instructions regarding the order of bigger sub-assemblies so I started with the wheels. They are very well molded with quite awesome detail, there are some smaller things that need to be sanded. The lettering is outstanding, It can't be read with naked eye. ( The wheel is about 3.5 cm tall)





After detaching the sprue joints I discovered some small leftovers that needed sanding



Here's a look after sanding I used some 600 grid sandpaper wrapped around my hobby knife for easier sanding ( Be careful not to sand 2 small bulges, you will need those to align other wheel parts).



Here's how the wheels are assembled, each front wheel is made out of 6 parts and the back ones of 8. Instructions are very clear and easy to follow.



Front wheel assembly parts;



After cleaning the parts and some dry fitting I discovered a problem. When you insert both parts in the main wheel part, one is sticking out. So here's a simple solution to fix that ( Don't sand too much, go slowly and test fit as much as you can).

(The pictures show front wheels assembly fix)





And finally, two finished wheels. It took me around 40 minutes with taking photos, the detail is really great after assembly and it's worth the time. Personally i like these wheels much more than ones molded in rubber.






That's part 1, I hope you liked it. All suggestion, comments and critiques are more than welcome. Also I'd be grateful if someone has some detail or general shots of the vehicle.


Kind regards, Sven.
staff_Jim
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Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - 11:00 AM UTC
Excellent start Sven! Keep up the good work.

Cheers,
Jim
Hisham
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Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - 01:00 PM UTC
Good start, Sven, and good advice. I'll be watching closely as I'm really interested in this vehicle, but I plan to get the MKI.. I just like the way it looks better!

Keep it up

Hisham
SHarjacek
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Posted: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 01:03 AM UTC
Thanks Guys!


I've managed to complete all 4 wheels , there were no other problems except for the one described in the last post. I'm trying out different ways of photographing and please tell me which ones do you like more ( black or white background). I'm searching for interior references,but I can't find anything. Has anyone got any pictures or info regarding the interior (I guess the interior would be white, but not sure).



Kind regards,Sven.
tankmodeler
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Posted: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 03:58 PM UTC

Quoted Text

(I guess the interior would be white, but not sure).


Yes, by the time the AECs were being built thei interiors would be white.

As for other interior stuff, I have the Stowage diagrams plus a number of pages of info from the illustrated parts manuals and the operators manuals. Probably 30-40 pages for all three marks. I'm going to try to scan them and then I'll up load them to Dropbox or something.

Stay tuned.

Paul
sdk10159
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Posted: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 05:31 PM UTC
Hi Sven,

Good work so far.

I'm blogging this kit over on modelarmour and I thought you might like to follow along. I finished the chassis/hull and have just started work on the turret.

http://www.modelarmour.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=81&jfile=viewtopic.php&f=14&t=8990&sid=b958384b4fdc7d044fc607982eef531c

Steve
Dangeroo
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Posted: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 06:30 PM UTC
Great start Sven! I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one of these too. Will be watchin your progress. Hopefully there won't have to be so much sanding with the rest of the parts...

Cheers!
Stefan
SHarjacek
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Posted: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 11:18 PM UTC
Thanks for the comments guys!

Paul - Thank you very much for the answer, If you have time please scan those Manuals, could be very useful .


Steve - Thanks for the link, your build is looking very good, I'm still figuring out how to paint my interior so I can easily access as much detail as possible for detail painting and weathering, but I have an idea.


Stefan - It's a really good kit with alot of parts, you will enjoy it. I too hope that there won't be much more adjusting and sanding .


Ok, so here's update 3.


After I was done with the wheels, I decided to start following the instructions. First was the Interior and ammo racks ( or holders, not sure how to call these). They are unfortunately very over complicated and the work to make them fit is really tedious. Intructions say that there is a total of 44 shells to be sanded and adjusted, but from what I know you should make only 38 ( 11x2 + 8x2). I even decided to leave some shells out for more variation. Next on were three tanks ( One is for fuel I assume, not a clue for others). The biggest one needed a support rod inside because it got a little warped on the sprue, also some filler was required after assembly, rest were completed with no problem.
Step 6 tells you where to glue the tanks and some other detail. After you are done with that comes the firewall and my problems. There is PE required to build the firewall, here's the thing. I don't really like PE, I try to avoid it as much as I can. Here It wasn't possible and I actually wanted to retry doing work with photoetch. So first thing to do was make it as easy as possible. Since the PE fret was a little hard to bend, I heated it up and put in cold water. I'm not sure how you call this reaction but it makes the PE much easier to fold and work with ( Watch out for your fingers). After that was done I went on and made myself a very handy tool for applying thin CA, you need some wire and a pinvise. You take a longer piece of wire and bend it in half, insert the part with two ends and secure it in place. I put a cocktail stick on the upper end and start turning the pinvise, you should get something like this in the end ;



Okay, so let's get to the pictures;


Steps 1-5 :



Steps 6-9



As you can see on the picture below, on part F24 you need to lightly sand part of the pinmarks, don't worry about the recessed part. People at Miniart were very smart and designed most of the pinmarks to be just under the parts so you won't see them.




As I've mentioned before, the work needed on ammo case is really tedious. I haven't taken any pictures of it since it isn't anything special. Only one tip. In order to cut all of the parts easier and with more precision do the following. Clean 9 ammo shells, take a piece of double sided tape and glue it on your work space ( be careful, some of these tapes leave sticky residue). Take a metal ruler or something study and straight were you can align parts. Put it down just so a tiny part touches the tape and secures it in place. Now you are ready to put down and align your parts. After you've done that you only need a long blade to cut them, use a ruler to see where to cut.




Here's the rod I mentioned earlier ;



And completed tanks ;



And here's where I'm currently, waiting for additional references and finishing other interior parts. I'm going away to Switzerland with my dad over the weekend. To see a Hockey tournament in Biasca and visit our friends in Zurich. I will try to prepare another update to be posted on Saturday, but I can't promise anything. Luckily that means I have more time to think how manage assembly's before painting and fixing mistakes if anyone spots some.








In the end I have a question, I want to leave this hatch open to display the interior, but there are no pictures of It open so I'm not sure how to set up the hinges and other stuff (Picture for discussion purpose only) ;




Kind regards and hope you enjoyed, Sven.


:-H
darreng
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Posted: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 11:32 PM UTC
Excellent work so far Sven.
tankmodeler
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Posted: Thursday, August 22, 2013 - 12:48 PM UTC
Here are links to my AEC documents that I've posted to Scribd.com:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/162365175/AEC-Mk-I
http://www.scribd.com/doc/162365241/AEC-Mk-II
http://www.scribd.com/doc/162365339/AEC-Mk-III

Some of the structural drawings are common to more than one Mark, but close examination in one mark will reveal information common to other marks, so look at all the drawings.

Enjoy!
SHarjacek
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Posted: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - 06:35 AM UTC
Hey Guys, thanks for responses!

Paul, thanks alot mate! Those manuals will be very useful for rest of interior.


I will prepare an update over the weekend, unfortunately I haven't had time to work on it.


Kind regards, Sven.
Charleygnarlyp290
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Posted: Monday, September 02, 2013 - 05:14 AM UTC
Sven, looking good.
I think I am with you on liking the plastic wheels better than the vinyl. The ones you did look really good. And the photos look good with either the black or white background, although the last photo you posted of the wheels look especially good.
One last thing, I really like the CA glue loop you did with the pin vise. Thanks for that tip as I will be building my first kit with PE real soon.
SHarjacek
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Posted: Monday, September 02, 2013 - 06:26 AM UTC
Brett - Thanks for the comment. I agree on the wheels. These are very well engineered and looks as good as vinyl tires. Since I'm just an newbie working on PE I can't give you any tips apart from going slowly and having patience.


Ok, Here's the next update. I decided to take pictures on white surface for this update and the reason is that I just came home from first day of school and there isn't any sunlight out. I figured that pictures taken on white surface are much easier to edit on the computer ( Pictures were taken under my daylight bulb). Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of the instructions because of the shine I got from the glossy paper.


So I present you the drivers "compartment", I'v had quite some problems with these parts. All of the smaller parts are really really easy to brake and I managed to brake most of them . Luckily these very all just round beams and were easily glued back together or replaced with evergreen beam. The seat was very complicated to build and hard to make it fit properly. Be sure to do multiple dry fits or you will end up having some big gaps. I also added some texture to the cushions by dabbing on some Mr.Surfacer 500 from Gunze. After I finished all the internal components I started working on the right panel, unfortunately I can't find any pictures of that side "hatch" open so it remains unglued until I find some pictures. After dryfitting the panel it was clear to me that some tweaking would be needed. These tweaks are described on the pictures. Again the most important part of working on this model so far was proven to be Dryfitting.












Hope you enjoyed this update, kind regards Sven.
SHarjacek
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Posted: Friday, September 06, 2013 - 08:42 AM UTC
Hi guys, I figured out how to paint the interior, but I'm stuck because I can't find any info on the engine bay color. Is it white as the interior, or some other color? Any info is very helpful to me.


Kind regards,Sven
CMOT
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Posted: Friday, September 06, 2013 - 04:22 PM UTC
I have seen a number of British Army engines painted green, the main bobdy of the engine anyway, the head tends to be black. I cannot say if this is a hard and fast rule or just something that happened.
sdk10159
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Posted: Friday, September 06, 2013 - 04:58 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi guys, I figured out how to paint the interior, but I'm stuck because I can't find any info on the engine bay color. Is it white as the interior, or some other color? Any info is very helpful to me.


Kind regards,Sven



Sven,

Not to sound like a smart a$$, but take a look at the engine bay of your car. Wht color is it? Odds are, it's a mixture of dirt, grease, oil, and more dirt.

Same goes with the AEC. The bottom of the engine bay is not sealed from the elements, so unless your modeling the AEC as having just been driven out of the factory, the engine bay is going to be, well, filty. I wouldn't worry about what color the paint is/was. I'd be more concerned with how dirty it is.

Steve
SHarjacek
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Posted: Friday, September 06, 2013 - 07:56 PM UTC
Thanks guys, I'll paint the engine bay White and weather it. I would have looked in my car's engine bay If I had one .


Kind regards, Sven.
Plasticbattle
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Posted: Friday, September 06, 2013 - 08:51 PM UTC
Nice build so far Sven ... looks like a very busy interior.
Thanks to Paul R for the drawings ... very handy references.
SHarjacek
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Posted: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - 08:12 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Nice build so far Sven ... looks like a very busy interior.
Thanks to Paul R for the drawings ... very handy references.





Thanks for the comment Frank!

I agree, they will be helpful for anyone building an AEC.


Kind regards, Sven.
SHarjacek
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Posted: Saturday, September 21, 2013 - 08:39 PM UTC
Here's the next update, sorry for not making an update earlier but I'm really busy with school. I decided to paint what Iv'e constructed so far, usually I would wait until I have assembled all of the interior parts but with the little time for modelling I decided to go this way. First I masked of the glue mating areas so I don't have to scrape off paint later in order to glue them. I cleaned the surfaces with some alcohol ( especially the photo etched parts) and started to apply Vallejo white with my airbrush ( I decided to use no primer, since the one I had was darker than the original plastic and there won't be a lot of touching the paint so I hope it will stay on). After 5 hours of drying I decided to add the gloss coat so I can start with the weathering. My gloss coat of choice is the Alclad aqua gloss which is perfect for this. I let it dry overnight and started with the weathering.

I'm not sure If this is only my problem, but I had hard time finding inspiration how to weather white surfaces. I went online and just searched for some old white vans and trucks. The process was started with a home made filter and AK Interactive's interior streaking. It was applied as a filter and then removed with a brush dampened in white spirit until I was happy with how it turned out. I didn't want to weather it too much, just as a vehicle that has been used by the crew for some time. Next came washes, I used AK Interactive's dark brown and interior wash ( first I applied interior wash to all details and later dark brown was applied to the parts I wanted to make more noticeable). After everything dried for around 10 hours I started with detail painting as per instructions. I chose Lifecolor US tank brown for the cushions and Vallejo black for the shells and steering wheel.
In the end I drybrushed everything with a lighter tone of the color.

I'm not sure if I've painted all the details, but this is all that the instructions mention. If anyone knows if I should paint any other detail please tell me before I glue the parts togethers. I suspect the pedals and levers are in another color but I'm not sure.














Hope you enjoyed the update.

Kind regards, Sven.
Bodeen
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Posted: Saturday, September 28, 2013 - 04:10 PM UTC
Very nice build so far Sven. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished. I like these British built Armored Cars. Nice work.

Jeff
SHarjacek
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Posted: Friday, November 29, 2013 - 08:43 PM UTC
Hey Jeff, I'm glad you like it!

Here' an update after quite a while, I had some health issues and was forced to spend some time in hospital to recover. Here's where I left off before I went to hospital ( unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the construction part, but the new ones will have those).







When I came home, It was time to start on the engine, I decided to paint the lower part of the car before installing the engine and other bits and pieces that will be painted in various metal shades. The engine itself is a really pleasant 1-1.5 hour build without any fit issues and problems apart from the usual parts clean up. In the end it looks really good to me and we can say Miniart did a great job here!













There are no detail paint instructions for the engine whatsoever. Could anyone help me out here? If not I'll just paint the engine block in darker metal shade, the transmission part in lighter shade and weather it all together.

Kind regards, Sven.

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