Moving right along, work continued today with Step 2. This step has 2 sub-assemblies which deal with the bow and rear hull plates. The bow plate received the tow bracket mounts and hooks while the rear plate was assembled from 3 parts.
These were then installed along with the front halves of the final drive mount plates to the lower hull.
Step 3 addresses more elements of the suspension and also has 2 sub-assemblies, one for the final drive housings and one for the two-part assembles for the 10 bump stops. The armored housing for the front of the final drive is actually 3 parts that assemble smoothly, just a little bit of sanding required where the top and bottom halves meet on the outer surface.
The rest of the step installs the previous sub-assemblies along with the mounts for the suspension elements and the rear tow hooks. The side fuel filler caps are also installed.
Step 4 addresses the details for the rear hull plate and, you guessed it!, has two sub-assembly steps which deal with the multi-part muffler/exhaust and the idler mounts. The muffler consists of 7 parts and goes together well, the only modification I made was to widen the hollow opening for the exhaust pipe a bit with a drill bit and round needle file.
I also assembled the two-part turret traverse motor exhaust and drilled out it's molded solid exhaust pipe with a #80 micro-drill bit.
One thing I should've paid a bit more attention to was the "handed" nature of the idler mounts...they are designed to only fit one side or the other and when I installed the small angled pieces I didn't check that first and so installed them upside down in the previous photo. That was fixed before installation and the hollow lower hole re-drilled out a bit to repair some of the slight glue damage that resulted.
I installed the main and auxiliary exhausts along with the cooling filler pipe and cap and chose the middle version of the tow pintle as a compromise between the three versions offered.
Step 5 is a fairly simple step, it assembles the glacis plate out of two parts and the option is presented to open up the holes for the spare track run. Photos of F2s show some had it, some didn't...and the two reference photos I'm using split the difference between have/have not so I decided to go ahead and fit it. The track run itself will be fitted later after painting. The brake access hatches had their armored covers added and the hatches installed to complete the step.
Step 6 is a busy step...it essentially installs all of the suspension and running gear. I only installed the suspension elements but left off the road wheels, sprockets, and idlers for later. Since the sprue here is a common one with this kit and the G, make sure you choose the right circular caps by following the call-out in the instructions as the two types are side-by-side and it's easy to clip off the wrong ones if you aren't paying attention.
The glacis plate was also installed in this step to round things out.
Next up will be fitting the fenders and then on to the upper hull!
Total session time: 5.25 hours
Total time to date: 8.50 hours