Sgt Shultz II
Moderator
Here we have pictures of the real thing. Dragon came in second on this one but with some work it can be great and far better than imagined.
These are shots of the real radio. Notice there are no bezels around the frequency indicators and they have magnifying lenses on them. The lid for the battery compartment held the manual and the felt pading kept the battery from shorting out on the cover. Leather straps also held the batteries in place and are some of the details missed by Dragon.
Now we get into the conversion of the Dragon model compared to mine. This mod could not have been done without some help from Sixty Driver who did up the artwork.
This is the Dragon original.
This is what I ended up with. To do this mod I shaved off the lense bezels and drilled them out with a number 4 drill. I used real magnifying lenses from a model train hobby shop. All the info for them was lost in the original post and will take some time to find again. I also ground out the back of the meters with a dremel tool. This was perhaps the hardest part trying to keep from grinding right on through. The art work was placed behind the face plate and glued in place. The same for the frequency meters with the new magnifiying lenses installed. All the little labels and markings on the front were masked off with liquid mask and the front painted gray.
Side by side comparison, after and before if you want!
Here are the battery compartment mods, new batteries (actually cast resin blocks) and straps and the missing parts on the box cover. The manual was copied from the web and shrunk down to fit. I also replaced the plastic handles on both the radio and the battery box with wire for a better realistic effect.
These are shots of the real radio. Notice there are no bezels around the frequency indicators and they have magnifying lenses on them. The lid for the battery compartment held the manual and the felt pading kept the battery from shorting out on the cover. Leather straps also held the batteries in place and are some of the details missed by Dragon.
Now we get into the conversion of the Dragon model compared to mine. This mod could not have been done without some help from Sixty Driver who did up the artwork.
This is the Dragon original.
This is what I ended up with. To do this mod I shaved off the lense bezels and drilled them out with a number 4 drill. I used real magnifying lenses from a model train hobby shop. All the info for them was lost in the original post and will take some time to find again. I also ground out the back of the meters with a dremel tool. This was perhaps the hardest part trying to keep from grinding right on through. The art work was placed behind the face plate and glued in place. The same for the frequency meters with the new magnifiying lenses installed. All the little labels and markings on the front were masked off with liquid mask and the front painted gray.
Side by side comparison, after and before if you want!
Here are the battery compartment mods, new batteries (actually cast resin blocks) and straps and the missing parts on the box cover. The manual was copied from the web and shrunk down to fit. I also replaced the plastic handles on both the radio and the battery box with wire for a better realistic effect.
