Tuesday, July 3, 2012

UMMT 1931 Air Defence Station

UMMT kit 635, 1931 Air Defense Station model 1931. (Quad maxim machineguns on mount)

Hello. This kit piqued my interest. It has lots of possibilities - mounted on the ground, on trucks, trains, and on roof tops as seen in pictures of the air defence of Moscow in 1941.

Kit Construction comments. This kit comprises two small sprues of polystyrene and 1 of metal etch. All parts are fairly well cast. Carefully removing the parts from the sprues has to be done with care as they are small and fragile. I find the best way to cut metal etch is to lay the etch flat on a vegetable cutting board, and press down with an exacto blade as close to the part as possible. Sometimes a light file is needed where the cut has been made. After cutting out the etch the blade is ruined, but its a small cost to get the parts neatly removed without having distorted or bent them.

The instruction diagrams and the box illustrations have to be checked carefully to ensure you join the parts in the right place, I also googled the web for photos and diagrams of this gun to be sure of correct placement of parts. I used liquid super glue in a bottle, to affix etch to plastic. either using a fine brush or a toothpick to get small amounts of  glue to the right spots.

Hardest part of the build, is affixing all 4 gun barrels parallel. This is important as failure will detract from the finished model's appearance. The gun can be made to hinge up and down and swivel, if care is taken. Brass wire is supplied for the  3 support rods for the base - I preferred to use stretched sprue for this, or brass rod could be used. Also the etch maxim gun handles are a bit wide, I squeezed mine closer together, otherwise they prevent the maxim gun barrels from being affixed as close together as they need to be.

Required for assembly - liquid superglue, fine 000 paintbrush, toothpicks, tweezers, fresh exacto blade and knife, file, stretched sprue or fine brass rod, polystyrene cement (I used Humbrol Precision Poly).






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