castelnuovo, very nice 38(t) in dunkelgelb that you finished earlier!! You say that's a Dragon kit? I didn't know they released any 38(t) kits prior to the Ausf.G Smart Kit a couple of years ago, but I wouldn't be surprised if I just never noticed it! Anyway thanks for the Ausf.D update. I did a little research and I have to agree that it appears to be an Ausf.D. BTW, is this new build above a Marder III?
As for my Italeri 38(t) Ausf D?? I actually made some progress over the last couple of weeks! As usual construction began with the suspension and I immediately ran into some problems. First, all the leaf springs in the kit had terrible sink marks on them.
I couldn’t figure out how to fix them so in the end I decided to scratchbuild new ones! Of course I copied the kit parts nearly exactly except for some bolt detail on the bottom:
After a few nights just building one I wasn’t keen to make 3 more sets, but instead came up with the bright idea of just molding new ones from resin! I don’t have a lot of experience making my own resin parts, but I do have all the necessary components so I gave it a try. The first attempt had a lot of air bubbles, but the second came out better. However as I was looking inside the DML Pz.38(t) Ausf. G kit I discovered that the kit has TWO sets of leaf springs!! One set has an oval cutout and the other doesn’t…turns on the oval ones were more appropriate for earlier Ausf.A-F AND they fit the Italeri kit parts nicely! All I had to do to make them fit was fill the holes in the hull and redrill smaller holes for some 3/64 OD brass tubing. These served as “axles” for the leaf springs so they can be mounted.
After that mounting the roadwheels, sprockets and idlers was easy.
However, now I had to decide if the roadwheels that came with the DML indy link track set could be used, so I fit them on. These roadwheels have much better detail and have the correct number of rivets/bolts around the rim, 32 instead of Italeri’s 16.
So here’s the crazy thing: The diameter of the DML roadwheels matches those of the new DML Ausf.G kit and the Tristar Ausf.E/F kit, whereas the Italeri roadwheels are quite a bit larger. However, when fitted on the hull, the Italeri wheels seem to space out correctly while the DML wheels seem to spaced too far apart! I suspect this is an issue with the kit swingarms being incorrect. ANYHOO, I decided I could live with the inaccurate number of bolts and will stick with the kit wheels.
As you can see I tested some of the DML indy links on the sprocket to make sure they fit. Teeth pitch was spot on, but the width was off. Easy enough to fix with a spacer inserted between the sprocket halfs (which I haven't done yet as you can see in the photo).
The idler needs the same easy fix and it turns out the kit wheels seem to be already properly centered to accommodate the new tracks…go figure!
Lastly I was dry fitting all the upper hull panels and decided to open up the air intake on the rear and add some photoetch mesh to spruce it up a bit. Turns out there are some slats of some type under the mesh so I added them too. I messed up the spacing a little but I don’t think anyone will notice once the mesh is on.
I may get a little more done tonight, but I’m going on a business trip tomorrow and won’t be back until late this week. Probably won’t get back to the bench until next weekend!