Chris ITA
02-27-2011, 07:28 PM
One of the best things about the AFV Club Churchills is the suspension. This can be fully articulated and works about as closely as you can get to the real thing in plastic
Unfortunately though, AFV Club don't make it easy to assemble, as they'd have you assemble 26 parts of it all at once!
Forget that, there is a much easier way....
Firstly stick the panniers together with the springs in place like so:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2711-1.jpg
Next take all the parts from the sprues and lay them out in order. This means they are all ready to hand, and you won't get the various types of similar looking parts mixed up
when that lot is ready, take the two parts that form one side of a suspension and stick them together, then stick on the supporting cross parts:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2712-1.jpg
Wait till this is pretty set
Then take the two parts that for the other outer wall, and lining up the supporting cross parts, stick them on:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2713-1.jpg
Now, leave this for a few hours to fully cure If you don't, things start to fall apart during the next stage and it all gets very frustrating!
Once that has fully cured, you can insert the swing arms. This can be easily done, even with the rest set, as there is plenty of spring in the assembled parts. Simply take a swing arm popping it over a location pin on one side, then gently flex the other side until it 'pops' in:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2714-1.jpg
You don't glue these in, once they're in place, the rest of the assembly holds it together
You end up with this:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2715-1.jpg
Which can then be easily gued as one unit to the pannier:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2716-1.jpg
Hope that is of assistance to some of the churchill builders out there
Chris
Unfortunately though, AFV Club don't make it easy to assemble, as they'd have you assemble 26 parts of it all at once!
Forget that, there is a much easier way....
Firstly stick the panniers together with the springs in place like so:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2711-1.jpg
Next take all the parts from the sprues and lay them out in order. This means they are all ready to hand, and you won't get the various types of similar looking parts mixed up
when that lot is ready, take the two parts that form one side of a suspension and stick them together, then stick on the supporting cross parts:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2712-1.jpg
Wait till this is pretty set
Then take the two parts that for the other outer wall, and lining up the supporting cross parts, stick them on:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2713-1.jpg
Now, leave this for a few hours to fully cure If you don't, things start to fall apart during the next stage and it all gets very frustrating!
Once that has fully cured, you can insert the swing arms. This can be easily done, even with the rest set, as there is plenty of spring in the assembled parts. Simply take a swing arm popping it over a location pin on one side, then gently flex the other side until it 'pops' in:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2714-1.jpg
You don't glue these in, once they're in place, the rest of the assembly holds it together
You end up with this:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2715-1.jpg
Which can then be easily gued as one unit to the pannier:
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/cmarmour/IMG_2716-1.jpg
Hope that is of assistance to some of the churchill builders out there
Chris