Wak - b1bis - 1.25

[dje]

Here my new build in progress. I was holding it for a while an I finally got my hands on some track : the B1 bis by Wak in 1.25

There is a few kits available as I know of. The philippe michaud in 1.72 peter is actually building, a 1:25 by orel, and the wak.

This one is probably the most detailed. For this build I have 2 issues - one for build second to keep or for spare - laser cut (by wak), resin track (yes !).
You can get the kit for around 14€, laser cut for 11€ and resin tracks for 30€ (! I know but worth it). Gpm also provide some laser cut track

1) the kit
Printed on 180g (0.22mm) A4 paper. As expected lot of parts :

* History and instruction : the kit provide them in both polish and english. To be honest, it's nice but so far this doesn't provide more ensign than just following the picture.
* Pictures : 1 A4 page with 8 pictures (by the way with the resin tracks) that's a little tiny.
* Drawing assembly : lot of them ! no less than 6 full pages.
* Frame : Quite detailed, 5 1/2 full A4 pages to glue on 1mm and 0.5mm cardboard. I will use laser cut. Note the frame and turret are complex
* Parts : 14 A4 pages, including 4 just for the tracks
* Spare ! : something special on this kit, close to a full page include spare parts (twice ! ) for some of the most difficult parts like the turret or the 75mm. Thumb up to wak, that a great addition any kit of this level of difficulty should provide .

First impression. Good paper, nice colours (maybe the sand colour is to yellow), mat, even with sharp details, thought I would have wished a little more contrast : French painting were more "psychedelic" (some even had purple !) anyway there was so many patterns it's not really that important.

2) laser cut
The cut is really nice. No less than 5 x A4 cardboard in 1mm and 2 in 0.5mm. As a can count right now this include any parts to be glued to such thickness.

3) tracks
Not easy to get but I finally got the resin tracks. Ok, using those looks lazy but the shape of the 140 links is quite complex with its rounded top and each is made of 20 parts ; consider the time needed, for me it would be months .
moulding is good, including detail. Still some sand paper to do.

4) comparison with the orel.
Both kit cannot be more different. First of course with detail, the orel is really minimalist (still 10 pages). Second the wak use a complex frame and the edge gluing technique when the orel rely on a minimalist frame (not easy to set up by the way) and box shaped "skin". You can still make something good about it but I not sure It worth the work, well that my point of view..

Let's start build something !
The frame is made of 34 parts. In the end you got a solid box whom you glue the hull over. Be careful, there's a side for part A to M (no info in the instruction ). Every thing fit well.
For the hull, nothing difficult to, just has to be careful with the parts order because there are designed to take the paper thickness into consideration, this require a lot of dry tests. Finally just a few trimming to do, nothing special for such kit.

That's all for now, bye.

[romanmodels]

making a good start.

[Tim Crowe]

Looking forward to this

Tim

[dje]

thanks all,

some more work.

Finished the main part of the hull, fit well ; top links to the side with a 45° angle, about 2mm. That the only part that's can be seen as technical (well kind of )

The mud scrappers (on each sides in front) is a different matters. First, part 18 and 18a must be inverted (18 in the inside),. Then after shaping the part (to fit exactly into the side hole on 14p 14l) you must slide them, from the inside, to fit perfectly between parts 6l, 6p and in the (top) hole of 15 . Mine don't exactly fit well Hopefully most of them will be hidden by the track and the idler gear. For once I followed the instruction and maybe it's better to do this part before entirely glueing the frame. paint helps a lot

I also did the driver hatch. lots of parts (around 30) but nothing difficult. Still have to correct the joint of the articulation as I preferred to reinforce with a copper wire.

Next will be the 75mm and the idler, drive gears but probably next year
bye

[Erik Zwaan]

Good ending of 2015 dje! Hopefully to be continued in 2016! Good luck and interesting build to follow along.

Regards,
Erik

[enrico63]

Good start with this model!

[Don Boose]

This clearly a major project! Looks great so far.

Interesting that we have had three B1 tank build in various scales over the past week, all good.

Don

[dje]

hi guys,
some update for this new year.
I was working on the drive sprocket and the idler gear. Thought there is nothing difficult it takes me days, something like more than 20h.
Bad news, laser cut doesn't include the 4 "teeth' gears, need to cut them myself. 10h and few blades later I was able to start the assembly. I also decided to paint the "running" path with xf56, original is mat light grey.
A tip for newbie , as you can see on the second picture my gears are always actually "full" I laminate then with cardboard and bristols.
It would be a shame not adding rivets, so I did/will. But on the b1 it's nuts, which I don't have enough !

I just realize I forgot to take picture of the sprocket assembling

[Tim Crowe]

Nice work on the wheels

Extra work looks good too

Tim

[Don Boose]

Excellent! Next to treads, wheels seem to be the second most tedious part of any large-scale tracked vehicle build.

Your wheels look very realistic.

Don