Original title: Horribly Warped Kit Parts.--jjf
My infatuation with this vehicle started at a very early age thanks to the old U.S. Army propaganda series on television that I used to enjoy watching as a young kit while living in Panama back in the early sixties. I always thought the concept of such a versatile vehicle was a great idea that the Army managed to acquire and put to good use in helping the infantry move around while carrying the heavier loads and keeping everything "mobile" or so I thought. In later years and having discussions with people that used to operate these marvelous little vehicles I learned that they were a real maintenance nightmare and not something that could be relied upon to get your stuff from point A to point B. That being said, I still like the vehicle and the idea behind what it was supposed to do in helping the soldier carry the heavy things.
Wikipedia link: >
M274 ½-ton 4×4 Utility Platform Truck =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Original post:
I was on a quest some time ago for a 1:15th scale Glenco M274 Mechanical Mule kit. Found several at a reasonable price. Was not overly concerned with the accuracy as I wanted to experiment with a bit of kit-bashing and a dash of scale-o-rama. So the recoilless rifle bits and other parts not useful to the project were removed and I was left with the flat platform of the M274 Mule. Much to my dismay, every kit had the same problem, the platform was horribly warped and not just in one plane, it was as if the thing had been pulled from the molds, tossed at the wall before falling to the floor in a rather crumpled heap of green styrene.
Adding to this problem is that each of the M274 platforms had a guard rail molded to the platform that was also subjected to the deformities of the platform. I gave up on the whole thing for a time and put the parts away in a time-out as I focused on other more easily to keep my interest things to do.
This week I decided to revisit the project/problem. I decided to just cut away the guard railings on the M274 platform and be rid of it. It could easily be replaced with something else later if I were to have any success in fixing the multi-dimensional warping of the part.
My last foray into using thermal therapy to unwarp a part was an internal frame from a 1:48th scale C-130 Hercules. I had the good fortune of having a chunk of flat steel that was about 6.0" X 6.0" square that I heated up on a stove burner and then placed that warped C-130 part on top of it with a weight on top of that to hold it down. While that effort resulted in a part that was no longer warped the Glenco M274 Mule platform was a lot larger and solid unlike the Italeri C-130 part that had a framework to allow the heat to dissipate more thoroughly. Also the steel was not available this time so I opted to use a large Corning Ware pie/torte plate as the working surface with a bit of boiling water inside and the part placed under the plate on a glass cutting board. The effort was further enhanced with a pot of boiling water placed inside of the pie/torte plate to concentrate the heat directly over the M274 Mule platform to keep it warmer for a longer period of time before it cooled down to room temperature. I heat-treated two of the M274 platforms under the Corning Ware plate and had some success but it took three evolution's of boiling water to finally see a visible success to the point that the warpage is now minimized.
What little warpage that is left in the parts can hopefully be further minimized during assembly, otherwise it will mean more heat treatment until morale improves...
***Edit to change topic title--jjf
