Kit Build/Review: Matchbox 1/76 Churchill AVRE Bridge-Layer, Pt. III

Making tubular bits of sprue for my scratch-built hinges.

This 1/76 Churchill AVRE is bound to take a bit longer than a normal build, on account of the bridge. Particularly so as I'm trying to make it deployable. To do this I decided to build two little hinges on the underside of the bridge. This has been both challenging and fun. I probably should've tried to rig some sort of reliably accurate vertically aligned drill-press. But I felt that'd be too time-consuming, so I just pressed on - boom, boom! - with freehand attempts. 

Parts prepped, ready for assembly. Note angled notches in bridge-ends

After a lot of fiddly freehand drilling, and many failed off-centre bits of sprue, I finally got six pieces I felt were good enough to use. Gluing these to the bridge required shaving off some bits of the structure where the hinges would sit. Then I had to glue them in place accurately positioned enough that the 0.6mm central hole would align through all the segments. This wasn't easy! Especially as the holes weren't perfectly central on any of the parts to start with.

Hinge elements being glued in place.

Another view.

I then made two pins, approx' 0.5mm in diameter, and roughly 6mm long. These go through the little tubular sprue sections, forming the hinges. Getting these in was tricky, as the central holes weren't perfectly aligned. But with a little gentle persuasion I managed it. This first attempt resulted in one fully functional hinge, and one which failed. 

Sliding the pins into the hinges.

The hinge that failed is on the right in the above picture (and is the upper hinge in the photo below). What happened was the central tubular piece got glued to the outer two pieces, resulting in one big block, which then sheared off from the bridge when I attempted to test the moving parts.

I decided to try and keep the successful hinge, and remove the central part of the failed one, and work on it - reducing the width a fraction and widening the central hole by 0.1mm - before re-assembling it. I also reinforced the central tubular parts on both sides of the bridge, as these are the weakest, and most likely to fail.

The hinges, glued, ready for testing.

Below is the dis-assembled hinging mechanism. The two hinges have been very slightly worked on, in particular the upper of the two, i.e. the one that failed. I'll give that a good few hours to cement. And then I'll re-insert the metal pins, and hope that the hinges won't break! I'm thinking I may add end-caps to either one or most likely both sides of the hinges as well, to prevent the pins from working their way out.

Dis-assembled, working on fixing the failed upper hinge.

Patience is paramount! I must give the repaired hinge time to really set. It's not easy to leave it alone! If I'm successful, the next thing is either mounting the whole bridge to the tank, or painting both tank and bridge before attempting to do so. Hmm!? I reckon the latter is probably the more sensible option... but... 

Kit Build/Review: Matchbox 1/76 Churchill AVRE Bridge-Layer, Pt. II

Prepping bridge parts.

The instructions for this venerable aulde Matchbox model start with assembling the bridge. I saved this part for after I'd made the tank. It's a rather lovely thing! You need to pay attention at this stage, as the components are quite siecifjc in how they go together. 

Oops! I forgot to add a weight to the inner rear of the tank.

Having assembled the bridge, whilst casting my eye over the instructions I spotted an important step in the construction of the tank that I'd omitted; adding a counterweight, so the attached bridge won't topple the model forwards! 

I used a hacksaw to remove the head of a latte heavy hex-headed bolt. I then had to bar God the resulting nut bybreming about 1mm from opposite sides, so it'd fit in the very narrow Churchill tank body. As ur forgotten to do thus at the construction stage, it meant I had to perform fairly drastic surgery to the rear underside of the rank body to get the weight in.

The instructions called for 20g of weight. Miraculously that's exactly what the nut weighed initially. It lost a gram in the process of dancing the two sides, winding up weighing 19 grams. I superglued it into the base of the tank, and 'stitched' the patient back up with surgical glue!

The nut part of a large bolt, sawn off by hand.

It also required a small amount of narrowing to fit...

... on two opposite facets.

Bridge and winch assembled.

By end of play last night I had all the kit assembled, bar actually attaching the bridge. Oh, and the mudguards (are these what Americans call the fenders?). The winch assembly is a fun thing to assemble. Fiddly but satisfying! 

I may be mad. And/or it may prove impossible. But I have a yen to build the bridge in such a way that it actually folds, so it can be shown both stowed and deployed. Hence saving this part of this build to the end. I'll need to fabricate some mini-moving joints!

Winch assembly in place.

So, that's it for part two of this very enjoyable build. Today is friday, the tubal teaching day of this half-term. Once the work's out of the way, I can return to the conundrum of building the bridge. I also need to source some crew figures, to populate my now open-hatched vehicle. What fun!

Kit Build/Review: Matchbox 1/76 Churchill AVRE Bridge-Layer, Pt. I

 

I recently built a 1/72 Churchill, which I wound up modifying with a scratch-built spigot mortar. I then read about and got interested in Churchill AVRE types of all sorts, including these bridge-layers. I posted about wanting this kit on a few sites, and a fellow member of Wisbech IPMS kindly got me one at a show. Thanks Darren!

Inside the box...

In the box, which was still wrapped in its original cellophane, was a kit potentially as old as me. The sprues are in three different colours, green, beige and brown. The decals, which I assumed would be fossilised, look like they might be ok. Which, in a kit of this vintage, is pretty amazing. There's even a tube of ancient glue!

The rubber-band tracks are of a more plastic than rubber material.

Beige and brown sprues... nice!

The instructions start with the bridge. I decided to skip that, and start with the turret. I'll probably do the bridge last. In part because I want to make the bridge workable. The petard mortar is not as nice, in mine 'umble opinion, as my scratch-built one. I've built it as is. But I might want to redo the gun at some stage.

Will the ancient glue still work?

Assembling the running gear, pt. I.

I like the running gear assembly on this kit. Having all the road wheels in a single piece makes it easier to assemble. And the rubber-band tracks in this kit seem to be more plastic than rubber, meaning they actually glue together! 

Running-gear, pt. II.

Tracks on, turret with modified hatches.

Tonight I'm stopping at this point, having assembled the bulk of the Churchill body. I already left the two stowed blankets, or tarpaulins , off the turret. I'm not sure whether or not to put the mudguards on over the tracks either. Quite a few AVRE I've seen don't have the upper track guards

Mostly assembled. Do I add the upper track-guards?