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  #1  
Old 09-01-2018, 07:27 PM
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1:25 Modelik Saint-Chamond

This model and the accompanying laser cut frames have been in my stash for ages. It's time to build it.

And there are problems even before the blade hits the card. The colours the model is printed in are just wrong. Or rather two of the colours are very wrong and the rest surprisingly accurate. Before WW1 most French Army equipment was painted a neutral grey colour known as "gris artillerie" (trans. - artillery grey). In the early part of WW1 it was realised that a single colour tended to stand out and did nothing to hide the outline of the equipment. Based on the artistic theories of the cubists and other modern painting schools a system of colour blocks painted over the gris artillerie base was adopted to try to simultaneously hide the equipment by blending with the background and disrupt the outline.

By 1915 various camouflage schemes were adopted which used a fairly standard set of colours - these were:

vert olive - (olive green)
terre d'ombre - (brown earth - red-brown but biased towards brown)
jaune ocre - (yellow ochre - clay yellow is a close match)
gris artillerie - (noted earlier)

Often the blocks of colour were marked off by black lines - whether this was an attempt to further disrupt the outlines or was simply a method to mark out the blocks of colour so multiple people could paint the equipment simultaneously isn't known.

Modelik has substituted black for gris artillerie on the hull and the grey colour they have used on the suspension is much too dark. The lines separating the colour blocks on the hull seem to be grey rather than black. However, the Modelik green, ochre and brown look pretty good. The model is of #706 at the Saint-Chamond works before delivery.

Step one is fix the colours - which might take a while.

Regards,

Charlie
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1:25 Modelik Saint-Chamond-saint-chamond_modelik_cover.jpg  
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  #2  
Old 09-02-2018, 12:50 AM
rifleman rifleman is offline
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wish you well on this build sir will be keeping an eye on this build
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  #3  
Old 09-04-2018, 05:54 PM
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I think I had a rush of blood....

The Modelik frame design can best be described as "primitive". Whereas most publishers produce well engineered interlocking frame pieces which although painful to cut out are easy to put together and produce (usually) a square, accurate frame. Modelik chose to give you a bunch of parts which have to be butt jointed together. The whole frame is a pain to put together even using lasercut parts and needs lots of gussets to try to keep everything aligned. There are indications where the parts should go which helps somewhat. The central spine of the frame is about 0.5mm too short which was easy to fix with some packing.

There are two long parts which make up the roof which I haven't added yet since the MG mounts have got to be built before closing up the hull. The gun mount similarly must be built on the front plate before gluing this to the hull frame.

Regards,

Charlie
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1:25 Modelik Saint-Chamond-st_c_build_1.jpg   1:25 Modelik Saint-Chamond-st_c_build_2.jpg  
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Old 09-05-2018, 09:26 AM
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looks to be a good start sir
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Old 09-07-2018, 01:38 AM
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Small update - the MG positions in the hull sides are done and the roof plates are on. The frame will need a bit of sanding to fit the outer cover but that doesn't look like a showstopper. I think I'll tackle the tracks next - only 15 parts per link...

Regards,

Charlie
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1:25 Modelik Saint-Chamond-st_c_build_3.jpg  

Last edited by CharlieC; 09-07-2018 at 02:22 AM.
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Old 09-07-2018, 06:18 AM
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The frame is coming along nicely. The more solid plates under the skin, the better. Are you planning on filling the voids in the chin? I've always had a problem with the paper stretching and sagging from handling in large open areas like that.
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Old 09-07-2018, 03:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rockpaperscissor View Post
The frame is coming along nicely. The more solid plates under the skin, the better. Are you planning on filling the voids in the chin? I've always had a problem with the paper stretching and sagging from handling in large open areas like that.
There's a similar and larger void at the rear of the model. I hadn't thought about filling the spaces in. The original printed model is printed on quite heavy card - I'd guess about 240gsm. I have some card about that weight so I had thought to use that and give the back of the card a decent coat of acrylic varnish. This stiffens the card without running into the problems you get with CA glue stiffening.

I've been tinkering with improving the colours of the model. I've attached a sample of the original colours and what I think it should look like. I've also been reminded that gris artillerie is a colour which has lots of interpretations - the modern standardised colour seems too dark when you compare it to WW1 artefacts.

Regards,

Charlie
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1:25 Modelik Saint-Chamond-hull_sides_trial.jpg  
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  #8  
Old 09-08-2018, 12:13 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rockpaperscissor View Post
The frame is coming along nicely. The more solid plates under the skin, the better. Are you planning on filling the voids in the chin? I've always had a problem with the paper stretching and sagging from handling in large open areas like that.
Oh - you mean like the attached?

A few minutes of reflection convinced me that your approach was the right one. Although getting the weird rhomboid 1mm card shapes right wasn't a trivial exercise.

Regards,

Charlie
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1:25 Modelik Saint-Chamond-frame_complete_rear.jpg   1:25 Modelik Saint-Chamond-frame_complete_front.jpg  
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  #9  
Old 09-08-2018, 05:49 AM
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Exactly. I imagine getting the shape of each piece right was a pain in the butt, but I'm confident that the time you spent will be well worth the effort. I'm not a fan of open ended egg crate sub-frames, although they've been the standard for decades.
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Old 09-11-2018, 03:09 PM
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interesting model there Charlie!!
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