NWarty

Mokei is also looking around at his place (or his parents) for his 1984 German catalog that has a similar build article about the canvas top.

LOL! No worries! I PM'd him but didn't get a response.

BGH, It's in the thread "All Weather Willy" in the vintage section. Using the two photos, I was able to get the measurements for both the canvas top and the wire support. My top and support are based on those official Tamiya measurements. Really, I should scan in the darned thing as I kept it. I won't be using the tacks as they suggest, or the rope pull-downs, but I'll use self-tapping screws and paint them in olive drab to blend in. Three screws for the front roll cage support, two screws for the middle roll cage section and two screws for the rear flap. [EDIT] Yep! That's the thread you linked!

Bumpety bump

The canvas itself is pretty thin, but once the edges are folded, it seems to look a lot thicker. Hmmmm, XR311 mirrors? Excellent idea!!!! Rob and Jenny and Crispy, Many thanks guys on the advice/info to run those wheels. Much appreciated!

Crispy, That looks absolutely fantastic! Do I need adapters or do any modifications to make them fit? The 96mm wheels are the ones I'm looking to get

Thanks VR, I finally think I got it right after hours of fiddling with the darned thing. Adjust, step back, adjust, step back, adjust, step back. Arrrrggghhhh! Yeah, those wheels look REALLY nice and play the part pretty well. At $25 USD (14.95 pounds) for a pair, it's not a bad deal, but shipping from the UK to here in the States may take a bit. Usually takes about 12 days as a ton of stuff for my USS Nimitz build came from the UK. They'll be one of the last things I get. All new electronic guts will be going in this week in addition to wrapping up the body, so these may have to wait until next month as I already blew my toy budget for February SRB, I'll finalize the top this week and look at doing that. Will have to make my own templates, but it shouldn't be too difficult.

Zomboided, Don't know just yet. I'm looking at a set of wheels, specifically these: If I was going to bling Willy out, I would have given him a black, nylon jacket with a Golden Dragon sewn onto the back (running joke about gawdy things US Soldiers wore in Korea in the 80's and 90's)

Looking a bit better this time around after some adjustment and pulling the rear flap downward. Again, nothing is glued at this point and the seams are not glued either. I got all the self tapping screws together so I should be putting it on permanently later this week. Oh yeah, I took my Prismacolor pencils to the body to do a little scratchin' up after it got a bath in a black acrylic wash. Only a little work going on tomorrow, GO SEAHAWKS!

I got plenty of canvas and clear sheet styrene SRB. And I'm looking at possibly doing it Yeah, this part has been tough as I keep pulling and stretching it and realigning. It'll get there, I just took some new pics so we'll see

VR, Understood and you're right. The issue is that the back flap isn't pulled all the way down due to the spare and jerry can. I have to loosen those two to get it to sit flush. Hence that's why it's bunching up causing that weird peak as it's not resting against the support wire like it's supposed to. Once the front is screwed down and pulled taut with the rear, it should look much better. Many thanks for the feedback

Whoa, changes the whole look! For a first test fitting, it's not bad. Got to let out the slack a bit on some edges (they're taped down at the moment) and cut the rear window. Will loosen up the spare tire and jerry can so that the rear flap gets secured snugly.

Mike, Awesome to hear and I can't wait for this thing to get here Jenny, Thanks! Zomboided, I think I got a fix. It's a clear pen cap for a ball point pen. Perfect size, thickness, just need to get another one. Mocked up the support bar for the canvas light night. I used a wire coat hanger (insert Joan Crawford meme here) 150mm wide x 96mm tall. Just needed to bend the wire a smidgen to adjust it. Primed it black with several coats and voila! Now it's time to start cutting the top out.

LOL! And many thanks

Just ordered a ton of stuff, time to start ripping out the MSC, antenna and Rx The Convoy sign was pricey but hopefully worth it. This is my first 2.4ghz surface radio so I'm excited. Ordered a Skyfly FS-GT3C in silver. Wow the prices on these radios are fantastic! The roll cage just had its fog lights removed, primed and painted. Working on the wire support for the canvas this evening.

Thanks Crispy! I didn't want to steal the one off of my HL Tiger But this may be a better option due to the smaller base and whip length! -Blake

You ain't the only one Inde! Hefeweizen + Buy-it-now = Very bad things I can't tell you how many times I 've had the "Sonuva...please out bid me, please out bid me, please out bid me. YES!!! They out bid me!" moments. And I'm 38, my wife thinks I'm a dork.

Didn't know that! Thanks bud! Another on the "to purchase list today"! Oh yeah, forgot to mention I'm cutting the canvas top wire and the canvas itself this weekend also. I was able to just barely make out the measurements from the "All weather Willy" thread in the vintage section.

SRB, Yeah, I do need to make something up as far as a photo booth. My photography skills are suspect But at the end of this project, will get some good, clear shots of the finished WW2 against a screen and outdoor photos. You make a great point about the antenna, and it's bugging me too. That's why I'm buying a SkyFly GT3C and Rx today! I would have to move the antenna anyways since it would interfere with the top. But with the new rx, that won't be a problem. What I am going to do though is make a scale static antenna from piano wire and mount it right near the "Whoopie Light". That antenna will be held in the down position by a "tie down" affixed just in front of the windshield. An antenna cap will be made from Games Workshop "Green stuff". And the tie down bracket from wire. The "Convoy Follows" decal was ordered last night and that will get affixed to a piece of sheet styrene in front of the windscreen. I'm still debating on painting the ladder chassis. But it might look pretty darned good. Stuff to order today: SkyFly radio, TEU-105BK ESC, Hilux lenses, new decals, shovel and axe. A lot more left to do. This weekend, while I'm awaiting parts will see the body get an acrylic wash and the weathering done.

Was finally able to make a template too

Mocked up but not glued on. Will be located a little bit higher on the fender.

Not yet Mongoose, weather has been crummy here

LED Orange Beacon came today, so I used some Evergreen Sheet styrene to fabricate a mount. Also utilized solder for ring braces. This is getting fun Filled in the ejector mark holes in the rear spare. Going to use a small removal cap to cover the screw hole and get it prepped for the Tiger mural. Installed the NOS Bottle, Willy, steering column and painted his seat Olive Drab. Waiting on a new decal sheet to arrive for the instrument panel and then glue it in place. Also, it looks like I can start on the template for the canvas top tonight. I have an extra US Army issue shelter half that is the perfect material.

I refrained from poo jokes Oh wait...

The one on the right Mongoose, the tan color. The other choice looks like a giant Hershey bar or something the Easter Bunny dropped off. Watching this one as I've always been curious to the body stripping methods shown around here.