OK....been away for a while....I was finishing up some other builds for the Japanese GB ( take a peek...nice stuff over there)....now on to my III...heres the kit laid out...
Tamiya's 1/48 Panzer III Ausf L with Verlinden resin interior.
nice kit....great detail and I like that the scale is the same as my planes...they display well together. I like the detail of the Verlinden set but have one complain....nice detail in the drivers compartment but only in the rear. Theres no detail up front except for a lone seat and just one...I dont get it....you can see the front thru the hatch and if you take the turret off, so why not add those parts too AT LEAST THE SECOND SEAT!!! So scratchbuilding time....too lazy to go to my LHS I started to look around for spares and "raw material". I researched a bit the compartment and found some pics of the front compartment....seats, levers the transmission and assorted fiddly bits.
so using the plastic my insurance card came in I made the transmission housing
and an old piece of the engine front from a Nichimo Kate I am shaping to form the shaft housing...you can see the outline I drew of the housing front on the plastic....I know its not true in shape but hey...I couldnt get it right so...close enough for gov't work....(artistic liberty)
so on to the seat..here you see the resin seat and what I used to make the other one...same card plastic and the wire from a thick twist tie
from some pics, I saw it has a tube frame and lightening holes in the back
and here are the two...now I need to find something to make the seat padding
here they are with the compartment ...I just fixed them with white glue for now...and you can also see the transmission...I still need to sand and shape it some more and add some bolts and maybe some more fiddly bits,,
and as you can see...like I said..you can see the compartment from through the top..
so..Im having fun.....and happy so far,,,,wadda'ya think.....I'm not a big armour builder so any suggestions are VERY welcomed.
Carlos