Getting Real Column - 7
I used a razor saw for each cut through the berm, and simply
scribed and snapped the cuts through the flat portions.
These cuts were chosen to permit reassembly of the cut pieces
into a three-tank arrangement, including the use of the entire
berm of the original base. Just one piece is left over in this pro-
cess. The rearranged pieces are shown in (12).
The simplest reassembly is to use styrene solvent cement and
butt-joint all the pieces together, without adding a base under-
neath. That’s what I did, adding some reinforcement strips of
styrene inside the
joints in the berm.
But partly in the
interests of getting
everything square,
and partly to facili-
tate filling of any
gaps, I also cemented
the assembly to a
base of manila file-
folder stock. Gaps
due to saw kerf were
filled with modeling
putty. The completed
base is shown in (13).
Berms like these
are often made of
asphalt or oiled
earth. Either way,
they are a dark color,
for which I chose
Southern Pacific Lark
11: Here are the cuts I made in the
Walthers tank base. There are six
of them, and the long horizontal
cut along the bottom berm, and
the vertical cut in the center, are
easiest to do first.
11
MRH-Mar 2013
