OK folks, the tracks have been assembled, painted and installed.
I was a bit surprised how easily they went together; the links and pads are small. It took a few attempts to figure out that there was a right and wrong orientation for the pads, but once that was determined, things went smoothly. However, they did require some clean up of sprue attachment points. A base coat of burnt sienna, an oil wash of burnt umber and a little black, then the pads were dry brushed with MM grimy black. Weathering was done with Migs desert sand pigment.
Then back to the radios. I picked up some lead wire in small diameters from 0.01 - 0.035" from a trout fly tying catalog. Figured the soft, pliable metal would make for great in scale wires that could easily be bent and draped like the real thing. First thing was to add power line to the Fu19, Torn.Eb and transmitter. This was done by drilling a hole in the center of 0,06 diam. plastic rod, then cutting off thin slices to depict plug-in sockts. The wire was glued in the hole and the assembly glued to the radio. The patch cord from the Torn.Eb receiver and the transmitter was also added. Just for fun, I draped that over the radio rack and included a loop laying on top of an accessory box.
On the back side, lines were run from the battery to the two dynarotors.
And finally, here are Willi and Fritz; our radio ops guys. All wired up.
These figures were molded from soft plastic and were provided in the 251/6 kit. But I liked the detail and decided to use them. Willi (on the left) is using a hand held mic while Fritz has a throat mic.
Two other figs will be included; I'm still thinking about how to best integrate these guys into the build. The ranking officer will most likely be examining a map on the /18 map table. The other guy, I'm not so sure yet.
That's it for now. Soon Willi and Fritz will be seated and then its time to seal her up.
Don