What could be harder than building a photo etch work ladder in 1/72? Only eleven (11) steps plus platform, a couple of wheels, braces. Just looking at the photo etch fret and you knew it would go together tickety-boo.
Allow me to quote from Flightpath’s web site:
An ideal user of Flightpath sets and kits is, we feel, the kind of person who likes to choose a project, do his own additional research on the subject, and get right inside the construction process, with no thought of how long it might take, or when it might be finished. He takes the view that the longer it takes him, the more value he’s had from his purchase.
Think about it – you need to build a 3D ladder from entirely flat parts. Four legs have to be touching the ground. The steps all have to be parallel to the ground. The ladder sides need to slope inwards as the lower steps are wider than the top steps. The side braces need to fit the two legs at the same angle to the ground. One piece out of alignment and the whole ladder would be balanced on three legs , slope sideways and be damned dangerous for a 1/72 scale guy to climb in anything but the driest weather!
This called for a jig.
Eleven steps later, I had a ladder that tilted sideways, with non-parallel steps and balanced on three legs.
This called for a different jig.
Jig #2 was superior in that I could more -or-less assure myself that all four legs touched the surface while I gently inserted one step at a time and affixed with 5 minute epoxy. I bought a second ladder to experiment with soldering in lieu of epoxy but it was hard not to unsolder a step or other piece while soldering the next piece. Flightpath pointed out to me later that better results would accrue from a 1/64″ soldering tip (rather than the 1/32″ tip that I used). Flightpath also suggested that I should have used model engineering techniques rather than adapted plastic model techniques for the photo-etch. Much later, I discovered this useful set of suggestions.
Finished effort (before painting). You can see the epoxy in the background.
A bit crooked and the steps aren’t perfectly parallel but I had spent 4 weeks on this ladder including investments in soldering irons and the magnetic gluing jig tool from Micromark. Time to move onto even smaller ladders.
We start with a new jig so I could solder the the top piece to the sides. This little ladder needed strength to prevent the insertion of the brass rungs from bursting the sides. My technique squeezed the rungs (held by pliers) inside tiny circular indents within the inside of the legs. Somewhere in here, I left my nice Xuron pliers next to the magnets – leaving them, guess what? magnetized forever. New Xuron pliers were purchased after repeated failed demagnetization attempts.
You can see the rungs being added. The kit doesn’t come with rungs; you have to chop them yourself and the length and diameter has to be just right. I probably chopped 2X the rungs that I needed as I couldn’t always get the lengths correct down to the half millimeter. Strong lighting and my friend the Optivisor were employed to useful effect. The side braces took a couple of attempts. I realized they needed to be installed early because otherwise the whole assembly was too weak for rung insertion. The side braces fit over tiny pins you have to make from wire rod. My work area has a large collection of Nitinol wire rods in various diameters, courtesy of Small Parts (now part of Amazon ).
Not your neighborhood trolley park is next.
Cropredy Albemarle Project 