Post by beekster on Mar 1, 2017 16:04:25 GMT -5
I've decided to pull this Shelf Queen back out and work on it when the Madill project allows (like when paint or glue is drying on various elements). I bought the Legends conversion several years ago, and that's an Academy M3 Lee. I always planned to do it as a bridgelayer, but ran into several problems. First was the too-tall Academy suspension. That will be solved by an Asuka VVSS Suspension Set C (initial), just ordered from Japan. Second, the Treadway bridge I had in mind back then was a solid hunk of resin; quite heavy and very expensive. I never did order one. In the meantime, Hephaestus Design Studio came out with a bridge section and an adapter for the Tasca/Asuka M32 (which will require some alteration to fit the M31 differential). We've got a review of those here from when he had a Click2Detail shop, but now all of his creations are with Shapeways. I just ordered both of those elements, too. You can see that I didn't get too far before putting this one aside. The Z-stiffeners on the crane boom were too badly warped to use, so I replaced them with styrene strip. The crane arms were a little warped too, but I got that mostly cured with a hot hair dryer. Any remaining warp won't really be apparent when it's done. There is other sheet plastic on there too, replacing parts which arrived broken or were too fragile to survive. At the bottom, you can see that I started the pair of boom supports using brass rod and styrene. The idea is to use Legends' other ends in resin and have them telescope into the brass. We'll see; I may have to fabricate those parts, too. Oh, and there's a little piece of real threaded steel rod for the screw jack, since the resin part was warped and too fragile for what I have in mind.
