Thanks guys, It has been awhile since I made any updates on this build, but I have made lots of progress on the model which is now ready for painting.
The model's sprocket details were completed. The Kit supplied sprockets have very basic fastener detailing on the tooth ring and the main hub.
On the tooth ring the panzer II sprocket had many mounting holes, which are absent on the kit. these holes were added via a drill press. The holes are only present on the tooth ring, not on the sprocket itself, so when drilling these holes only make an indention with the bit and not to drill all the way through.
The kit sprocket's ring fasteners are only small plastic nubs, which were frilled out and were replaced with real brass hex bolts and nuts.
On the sprocket hub the kit has molded in castle nuts. The nuts themselves are detailed. To enhance them I drilled out a small hole in each of the castle nuts and inserted a small wire cotter pin that was scratch built out of wire. The pins are simply inserted in and the ends are bent.
The completed sprockets are now ready for installation. The sprockets themselves will be added after the tank is painted.
From what I have seen from my reference images the sprocket's fasteners are reversed, leaving the nuts on the exterior of the sprocket and the bolt head facing towards the sprocket's hull. Also as of note the kit sprocket has a hollow area behind the teeth, and the tooth ring. These areas were filled in with resin and were sanded flush.
The sprockets fit very well with the tank's tracks.
All of the tank's front hull detailing was also completed.
The DML kit omitted the tank's front tow shackle and tow cable mounts. For these part I used the white metal set from Sixth scale icons. The parts are very nice and assemble easy
The kit also omitted the final drive oil drains/ fillers. These two fittings were fabricated out of a Hex bolt and a turned resin cone.
For the tank's head lights the kit supplies you with a basic set. The lights are hollow, but have a closed off black out face plate.
Since the lights were hollow I decided to open up the face plate and to add the detail of the head light lens. The face plates are hollowed out on the lathe
For the lenses I used two of my own clear resin headlight lenses. These lenses are off casts that were in the junk bin. These off casts were used because when the blackout lenses will be mounted the whole lens will not be visible so rather than using a perfect lens I recycled these ones.
For the tank's siren the kit supplies you with a basic siren. The kit siren is composed of a faceplate and a dish back. The kit face plate has the perforations present, but are not all the way through. Instead of using the kit siren I replaced the kit face plate with an old Pazerwerk resin siren faceplate that I had floating around.
The panzerwerk faceplate features hollow slits which will add to the look of the siren.
The back portion of the siren mount is hollow, epoxy was placed into the cavity and the lines were sculpted in. This was done before the siren was mounted.
Small tweaks were also made to the kit notek light.
The last bit of detailing the was added to the lights was the addition of the power cables.
The tank's front mud flaps were also added. The mudflaps are included withy the kit and are designed to be non functional.
To make the mudflaps functional the molded in hinges were drilled out and pins were added.
Like the front mud flaps the rear mud flaps were added, and were also made functional.
The rear flaps required more work, The kit is designed for the flaps to get inserted into small pegs on the fenders.
These pegs were deleted and the hinges were again drilled out.
Pins were inserted into the new holes making the flaps functional.
I decided to add an extension spring to the fenders. The spring is fully functional and keeps the mudflap in both the retracted and the open state.
One other mod that was made to the tank's running gear was the modification of the molded in letters. To avoid any legal issues DML fudged the lettering on the tires. Spelling out the continental company name as CONTINENTAU. To fix a simple pass with an exacto turns the U into an L. This was done both to the road wheels and the return rollers.
The rest of the fender detailing has been added, this would include the tool posts, storage boxes, and riveting.
The fender's themselves are missing the seem line that separates the top fender diamond plate surface from the angle iron that would be running along the fender.
The way I added the seam line was I first tapped up the fender side, leaving only a small sliver towards the top of the fender.
Black paint was then brushed onto the fender.
Once the paint dries the tape is removed leaving a strip of paint that creats the missing seam.
The kit supplies you with two large storage boxes.
The large box is hollow, and is missing the seam where the lid meets the box's body.
To add the missing seam tape was used to mark the area where the lid is separate from the body. The seam line itself was added via the multimax
small mods were also made to the box's latch details.
Because the bottom portion of this box is visible a styrene floor was fabricated and mounted.
The smaller box was missing it's strap detail. A new strap and latch detail was fabricated.
A Armorpax resin MG barrel storage tube was added as is with no needed mods.
The tank's jack mounts were also used. The kit jack mounts have most of their detail, but can be enhanced a bit. To enhance them I added the slit lines on the molded hinges and separated the latch.
The kit does supply you with a jack block. The Jack block will not be used. A new jackblock will be fabricated out of wood, and new jackblock mounts were added and fabricated out of brass.
The kit also supplies you with the tools. The kit tools have molded in handles, and molded in latches. Because I will be replacing the handles with wooden ones new brass latches were added and bolted to the fenders.
The kit also supplies you with the antenna retract channel. On the real vehicle this part is made from wood. So rather than using the kit supplied version a wooden version was fabricated.
The channel itself has also been added to the part listings. http://eastcoastarmory.com/pzii.htm
One part of the kit that needed improvement was the way the tank's turret mounts to the hull. The hull has several bulges that grip the turret to the lower hull.
This system is not very effective, and is quite flimsy.
To make the turret lock on I used the same system that is found on 1/35th scale tanks. Two locks were added to the bottom portion of the turret, and two keys were cut out of the hull's roof.
The turret simply slips into the keys and locks on securely.
One change that I had to make to the model involved the welds that I added previously. The upper hull plate welds interfered with the turret and were in the wrong place. These welds were moved to the corners where are where they are on the real vehicle...and were out of the turret's way.
Another change that was made was upon further research I found that the top plate splash guard was not welded to the top deck, rather it was bolted from the inside . Because all of my welds connecting the rails to the plate were removed.
the model will be heading into painting tomorrow. Also I'm editing several update videos that will be added to youtube once ready. More progress to follow.