The turret is resting peacefully on it's work stand (yoghurt cup) and I've dug in to the hull. I had the molded-on details already cut off, so I began by smoothing and puttying the sides, adding welds, and lots of MrSurfacer500, which BTW I now need more of......
I used plastic screen for the engine deck air grills, and have added stands for the shrapnel covers, cut and ready to go on. Grab handles are replaced with either steel .025" welding wire or core tag wire (I have a lot of both laying around) and kit parts either smoothed or painted with my old buddy MrSurfacer, more for variety than anything else. Tamiya had a very fine pebbly texture on every part, probably intended to be a representation of actual cast and rolled parts, but it was on EVERYTHING, and, in my opinion, did nothing more than date the kit.
Hull side detail is started, cable brackets, fender mounts, etc. I made up a starter crank from wire and plastic rod, a tad overscale but better than what was in the kit. Front fenders are from the kit with added stiffeners. Rear hull detail is largely from the kit, with added texture. Final drive housings, largely hidded by the drive sprockets, are from Trump's T55. The inner faces will get some more bolt and fill-plug detail. The hull MG port was open, so I boxed it in and used a spare Sherman part for the ball mount. It's a little deep, but will work, I think.
Today, I'm going to try and get the brackets for the gun-cleaning rods made up, and the rods themselves. I may have to hit the Hobby Town for some tube here, as the three I made yesterday are a bit large, and these need to be in-scale, since a specigfic number need to fit in a specific space. I have not decided yet whether or not to actually put the various cables on the hull sides. What's in the kit has poorly done ends, not to mention the the rest......
Anyway, the pics:
As always, thanks for looking! I'm having a blast, hope you are too.......