Doser Blade

Captain MAGpie's Doser-Blade.

A tutorial on how to make your own scratch built doser-blade.

Doser-blades are very popular and they do look very cool on a lot of different armoured vehicles. And as it was, I was tempted to make my own doser-blade some time ago but put on the back burner as I had no need for it. Along came Redditor  Ikarosswings and the burner lit up again. 

The original tank.

Considering it all, I though it should not take that long, and I was right. This is a simple and very easy build, and if you are just getting into scratch building, something like this is a good place to start.

So lets start.

What you will need

Short list today. As I said, easy build.

STC - Doser-Blade

You will need:

• 0.5mm flat Styrene Platsticard sheet
• 1mm or 1.5mm flat Styrene Plasticard sheet
• 2mm flat Styrene Plasticard sheet OR 2x2mm rod
• Putty such as Green Stuff or Milliput (Optional, but I advise using this. So much easier to hide bloopers)
• A VERY sharp hobby knife
• Scribing tool. (Optional, but very useful for thick cutting. I use the Tamiya scriber, and its pretty good.)
• A fine-point marker
• Metal Ruler
• Glue (I'll level with you. Use an extra thin solvent type glue here. It just makes life so much simpler. I use Tamiya Extra Thin, and believe me, you will have a hard time convincing me to use anything else. I almost feel that I should be wearing welding goggles when I use this stuff with ABS/Styrene.)
• Sharp Cutters
• Files and sanding paper (Fine)
• Patience and a first aid kit... (just trust me -_- )

Step 1 - Template

Print the template onto cardboard and cut it out with scissors or a knife. Now, usually I would recommend sticking to the template, but in this case... well, this build is VERY forgiving, so go ape. You will see in the tutorial that I actually winged it a few times.

Step 2 - Transfer and cut

Transfer the shapes to your plasticard using a fine-point marker and cut them out using a knife. This time I will judge if you still have the scissors with you.

Yeah, I scribed once... now I cant go back...

Important! Remember to cut the green parts from 0.5mm sheet, the orangy parts, 1.5mm (you can use 1mm as well), and the red parts 2mm.

And some more template cutting. This is 1.5mm rough-cut

And final product. Now rinse and repeat.

Step 3 - Curvature

To create the required thickness of the blade, AND give it a curve, I used thin card that is easy to manipulate (0.5mm), and glued thick strips at intervals inside it. This gave the blade pliability and thickness, without me trying to manipulate 3mm card into a curve. Of course, if you want to do that, you don't have to do this step.

So, here is what I did:

Step 3.1 - Strips

You can either use 2mm strips, or just cut strips from a 2mm sheet which is what I did. You can do 3mm as well, if you want a very thick looking blade. Not sure how that will look though.

4 strips cut. Don't worry too much about how they look. You wont see these. Ever.

Step 3.2 - Glue

Glue the four strips to one of the blade-faces, spreading them roughly evenly. Try and keep them as parallel as possible. It may cause some weird warping if you glue them at angles.

Large scale corrugation 

Step 3.3 - File flat

File the strips flat so that they do not overhang the blade face. 

IMPORTANT! Make sure that they are not shorter than the blade face. Especially the top and bottom one as they will be visible.

IMPORTANT 2! Don't glue the other face yet! 

Step 3.4 - Glue the curve

Now, find an object with roughly the same curvature as your blade, and stick the blade to is with tape so that is curves.

Now, glue the side-plated in place.

You may have to do them one at a time, as the object you are bending it around may get in the way. That's ok. BUT IT IS VITAL, that you allow the glue to fully cure on both sides before trying to manipulate it further as to make sure that curve is locking in. 

At this point, remember that the tension in the materiel will resist the curve. In time, this tension will easy off, but right now, the blade will resist your curve. SO LET THAT SH... STUFF CURE!

Both sides glued. I left it like this over night.

 Step 3.5 - Glue the second face-plate

Simple enough... well, it sound simple. It was a bit of a time consuming job, as, well, the material was resisting the curve again. Was fine though, and I basically did it one strip at a time, and again allowed it to cure for some time. Just a few hours this time. 

Curve locked in!

NOTE! the extra material at the bottom. Its ok, its on purpose

Step 3.6 - Finishing

Well, now just file it smooth. You will see that there should be some extra material at the bottom end. This is ok. This is deliberate so that you can play with the curve. The deeper the curve, the more material will be required and visa-versa. Just cut it of and file smooth.

Step 4 - Finishing

The finishing touches are easy. I cut the various shaped from nice and easy to use 0.5mm sheets, and winged it for the most part. Yeah, its roughly based on the design, but I was not exact here. At this point, you can do the same.

The bottom plate, I wanted double the thickness, so I cut 2 and glued them together.

Yeah... its roughly the same.

Cutting 0.5mm is really easy. Try it.

I wanted this part to be double thickness, so I cut a second one.

Both done. Next step was to glue them together and start on the rest.

While I waited for the glue to cure on the lower-plate, I started working on the frilly bits on the top. Was all made from thin 0.5mm strips I cut from the 0.5mm sheet I sued.

Top strip cut and glued in place, and enough left over for the side parts. But not until the lower plate was in place.

Lower plate glued in place. Against the curve, so was a bit of sitting there holding it down until cured... but ok. Now I have the lengths required for the side frillies. 

Side frilly marked.

Side frillies in place, corners cut.

Corners glued in place, now just file and clean up.

For the teeth, I just used old sprues.

I choose you!

Cut them roughly the right size and angle.

 After the initial cut, I glued them and allowed them ample time to cure.

Cut them all to the same angle and size

All the angles. Just showing the cut from the bottom.

Cut done, time to clean up.

And done.

At this point, I applied rivets. For my tutorial to how I apply rivets, clicky!

Rivets done, time top paint. 

Now, as I don't know what to mount this to yet, I did not work on mounting arms. But thats fairly simple and will leave it up to you guys to have fun with.

And thats that. Did not spend time on this as I still don't know what I am going to do with it. But here it is! Hope you guys enjoyed that and find it useful!

Size comparrison

Hope that helps!

Captain MAGpie,

Styrene Addict