Thanks once again guys and I'm now in a position to bring you the completed rear turret.
As you'll remember, I still had to work on repairing the turret canopy. This was more complicated than I'd originally thought and brought me slap bang against the law of unintended consequences!
First I had to do some work on the two sections of the canopy I had started on in my previous post.
These needed the two small angled top windows, above, added. I decided that it would be easier to paint all sections first rather than leaving the painting 'til the turret was complete. This was definitely the right decision in this case.
In the parts supplied, these pieces were solid but I assumed that, if I followed those as a template, I could make windows out of sheet acetate and that would be that. Unfortunately, this didn't work. The fit was appalling with gaps on all sides. In the end I had to split the angled section from the upright side wall and measure and trim until I got a good fit and then sealed any small gaps and reattached to the side sections with Glue 'n' Glaze.
The next task was to attach these to the assembled turret platform.
Here they are attached and this is where the law of unintended consequences kicked in. I had anticipated that the extra layers on the gun mount support frames might cause problems but not as much as they actually did. As you can see in the photo above, they are OK at the bottom but are forcing the two halves apart further up. The centre glazing should be approx 10mm wide all the way but here it's 13 – 14 mm wide at the top curve.
Another unforeseen consequence was caused by the backward-sloping small windows. These impeded the gunsight support arms and have stopped the gun mounts from deflecting downwards, past horizontal.
But now I needed to solve the problem of the centre section glazing.
I clamped the two sides together using a clamp cushioned by wooden pieces, so I wouldn't crack anything. This was successful for as long as the clamp was holding - but would spring back as soon as the clamp released.
I had originally thought that I could have positioned a piece of sheet acetate between the centre frames using Glue 'n' Glaze but the bond wouldn't be strong enough to hold everything together. My solution was to cut a new section of acetate for the centre section, so that it overlapped the frames, for support. Then I carefully set about using superglue to secure it but without fogging the acetate. I added tiny dots of glue at about 5 mm distance all the way up both frames to where it curved backwards, then carefully positioned the acetate and anchored it with the small pegs until that straight section had cured (overnight). Next day I repeated the procedure for the top curved section and, when dry, trimmed the excess acetate with a very sharp craft knife.
In the gaps, while waiting for things to set or dry, I had also done some work on the turret solid rear section.
As I had a spare back, I decided to do a partially open and a closed version, with the possibility of swapping them around, if they could be secured easily. This unfortunately proved unviable. The stresses on the main section of the turret had distorted the join somewhat and the rear section itself needed clamping to fit tightly and superglue to secure it. So I had to make a choice…
…So, let's cut to the chase and here's a walk around the finished product.
What I did here was to add painted strips of masking tape to give new central frames and disguise the join and, of course, scratch-built spent ammo chutes have been added to the base.
Continuing around…
… I'm sure you've already guessed which version of the turret I decided on!
Well, that's how it's turned out and just to finish off, here's a few final shots with the turret in position.
So this leaves only one more sub build – the exposed starboard outer engine.
I'll get cracking on that as soon as I can and hopefully finally complete the build before Christmas – but don't all hold your breaths…
Sláinte,
Gerry