After a little head scratching, I decided that there wasn't any way I could accurately reduce the width of the frame spacers fitted to the chassis, it would be a lot easier to make some new ones up from sheet nickel silver.
First job, remove the old ones - I could have attacked them with heat, but wary of disturbing the bearings, I opted to cut them in half with a piercing saw. This gave me much better access to the soldered joints, which were heated and the errant metal removed, followed by a good clean up with a file.
Then I cut some strips of nickel 10.5mm wide using an Olfa cutter and ruler. Even I can get things reasonably accurate with those tools.
Using the Hobby Holidays jig, the sides were lined up and the spacers fitted between them. I know the axles are in the right place relative to each other so the spacers don't need to slot into the chassis sides, I can pretty much fit them where I see fit.
This time the axles stick out both sides of the chassis. It even sits flat on a mirror when fitted with wheels. Success? Well they look like they are a bit proud of the sides. But I can shim this with some washers to reduce the side-play.
Except that the motor won't fit between the frames, and these are deep enough that this is precisely what it has to do. I did contemplate putting cut-outs in the frame sides to accommodate the motor, but there was really only one thing to do...
Spacers mark 3?
ReplyDeleteI salute your patience and tenacity to keep at it. As you say, this is the mark of an experienced modeller - and it's these experiences that make us better skilled as well as experienced - in future spotting where we may have gone wrong in the past. I think it's great to read your trials and tribulations - I hope it does encourage newcomers in a less obvious way than the 'how to' articles we seem to see in the mainstream modelling media.
The advantage I have here is infinite space - in fact, I often have to look for ways to fill it. On the page, there are physical limitations unless you want minuscule photos, although I've often slipped in mentions of when I get things wrong in the past.
ReplyDeleteOn here, I also get to build old kits I might have robbed bits from, and do projects only about 3 people will ever be interested in!