And Now, the Much Anticipated Third Factory Tour! WARNING! Lots of Pics!

Greetings Ladies and Gents!
And now the event you've all been waiting for: The Third Factory Tour showing the assembly of my latest 1/72 scale armor!

Again, I apologize to those on slow connections. I have one myself and know how frustrating it can be to wait so long to see pics. Some of these are not the best quality, so I apologize for that as well. After all, if you are going to wait this long, they at least should be good pics! If you wish, I can break up these 'tours' into smaller sections, with more posts and less pics each. If that is easier, please let me know.

As you may remember, we had just started out with construction of a new 1/72 scale Russian 57mm AT Gun. That went so fast I didn't stop to get any pics till it was almost done! It is also quite a tiny gun, it was a bit challenging to put together, even though it went together fast. Just so you know, there wer 52 parts to this kit, as well as real rubber tires! [:0] Here are two shots of it with a Susan B. Anthony dollar for size reference. These were taken before painting and drilling out of the gun barrel:





Since that gun went together so well, I decided to start my Russion 152mm D-1 Howitzer. Here it is with the Gun assembly finished, and the main chassis assembled with the support arm pins in place:



Later, I got the support arms mounted, and the wheels assembled. This is what the three assemblies look like before they are put together:



Note that I mistakenly put the entrenching tool and other tools on the inside of the arms by mistake. This is because I built the arms seperately, then glued them onto the extensions that were attached to the pins on the main chassis assemly. I neglected to check to see if I was putting the correct arm on the correct side. Oh well, se la vie!

Now on to the heavy stuff you've all been anticipating! TANKS!

As you recall, I was finishing up the Merkava III as well as two Cromwells. Here is the British Cromwell in it's basecoat, ready to detail:



The Israeli Cromwell was coming along nicely with the British one. I still had a couple more parts to mount, then she was ready to detail as well:



Finally, here are two more shots of the Merkava III just before I clearcoted her for decals and detailing. This first one is a test fit of the turret on the main hull:



After which I assembled the machineguns, mounted them on the turret, and painted the details. She's almost ready to go!



Since I was almost done with these three, I decided I needed to start some more projects. The first new project was my new Revell/Germany Russain T-80 BV with reactive armor. Here is the lower hull ready for the tracks. Very clean!



The tracks went on quite well. as I expected from a Revell/Germany kit :



While the tracks were drying, I went ahead and assembled the turret:



Then I test fit the turret on the main hull after assembling the top and bottom hulls. Looking good:



Finally, I went through the tedious task of applying all the reactive armor on the turret and hull. That was a task! Still, she started looking really mean by this time! Here she is before the basecoat was applied:



While the reactive armor was drying, I started another kit to keep myself busy. This time, I decided to build a T-55 that will be painted as a Syrian, but captured by the Israelis and painted with Stars of David on them. This kit will depict a tank before it's conversion to Ti-67 upgrade. I'm still looking to get an ACE Ti-67 kit.

This is the 1/72 scale PST T-55 kit with the lower hull assembled, and then with the tracks applied:





Well, that concludes the Third Tour of my 1/72 scale 'Armor Factory'! I hope you all enjoyed your tour. Join me later as I line up all the finished tanks and artillery for another May Day-style Parade!

Thanks for checking this out, and for your patience with the many Photos in this post.