Although its not something I normally do this time I checked my stash of ref pics during assembly to make sure eveything got in the right place ...... :blink:
And a couple of minor issues. The elevation balance rams are too short, by about 2.5mm. If glued in place as is, the weapon will sit quite nose down. Its an issue because the shield rests on the top face of them. The shield should really be a little further forward, on the real thing when the gun is level the shield should be above the rams and not parallel, the gap has about a 10o difference to it. I think to make things easy and for a bit of extra strength they decided to use the rams for support.
Anyway I cut off the ram end connectors and added some pins of the right length. The detail isnt correct but it does the job and gives the weapon the right "sit" ...... no other issues at all with assembly on the PaK.
And did the OD base on the Americans. I dont do a lot of US stuff and so I must admit US OD is a bit of a mystery to me. It looks like so nondesript and can vary hugely in shade as it weathers. After much review of my "net" model pic collection and looking up some online discussions I decided on a shade I wanted to represent.
So I always prime with enamel, in this case ModelMaster OD. This is a bit grey and light for the top colour I had in mind but its really only for coverage so its not critical. I do all my top coats with Acrylics so this is a mix of Vallejo OD and GW Catachen Green. I intend to add a slightly brownish hue to it during the blending process.
And I guess I should make a brief mention of assembly on these guys too although this is probably more of a PLOG (painting log) than anything else.
The T28 needed a little care. The right hand outer track unit was a little lonnger than the main hull. Without seeing another kit its hard to tell whether its differential shrinkage or the master at fault. Anyway I had to even the difference out with a little overhang both front and back. The mountings used to bolt the two sections together then didn't line up either so I cut them and re-joined them. I replaced the legs on the cupola with brass rod for a bit of added strength, all else was fine.
The T29 only had a few minor breakages. Some of the very finely cast lifting rings and a few track duck-bills were shipping casualties. I replaced the track extenders and will do the lifting rings later. I also leave off most of the fiddly bits until the base colours are laid in. Because I brush it saves on breakages while handling .........
