M4a1 Walker Bulldog Progress, Part 4

Having the day off today, I worked up the ethic to work on some models. I decided to do a lot of work today on the Walker Bulldog. I started off by cutting the holes to the upper parascope windows. *smack head* I screwed up on the very first window, so I shaped it a bit more so that it looks nice, but is not accurate (which is fine). I slitted the other windows with a sharp x-acto knife and I will install glass tomorrow (clear polystyrene).


I did add glass to the driver's parascopes. I then decided today that once and for all I would finish the LED system. I also decided that the push button switch was too much of a hassle, so I chucked it (put it in a bin!) and bought a simpler switch at radioshack that works great. I routed all of the fiber optic I wanted and cut them all even lengths. I then drilled out the headlights carefully and cemented them to the upper hull. I fit the fiber optic through the searchlights and then had the fiber optic ends put over a soldering iron- this "mushrooms" them out and makes the viewing angle larger (kudos to my roommate who used this technique on his HO trains).


I then carefully painted the exterior fiber optic black. Next I bunched all the F.O. together with tape. To reflect light back into the space and out the headlights, I wrapped the F.O. and LED together, then wrapped both in aluminum foil (or a pop-tart wrapper, which I used in my Missouri). I taped everything down to secure it then super glued the switch to the bottom of the hull, using a battery opening to allow the switch to poke through; so now I can switch the lights on and off with the press of a switch at the bottom of the tank. The 9v battery should last 30 hours on continuous shine before needing replacement. I was worried that you could see into the tank through the driver parascopes, and I got the opposite effect- instead you get this cool green ambiance from the green tape I am using.


The upper parascope windows need sanding (rough plastic from grinding) and I am doing my best there to clean them up. Other than that, tomorrow I will install the headlight guards and hopefully the handrails. I need to find my box of paints gosh darnit! I can't remember where I put them when I came back from college. *sigh*, gotta clean the closet, I think the box was in there? Anywhoo, I need the paint to paint the shovels and picks that are in the front section of the tank, and I am debating muffler-section covers. Pics to follow soon; lost the camera again and will borrow Mom's.