(After three days of fighting with this
![Censored [censored]](/emoticons/icon_smile_censored.gif)
computer I'm finaly able to post this) This is going to be one of two build's for the amps east prelude to war theme for this years show in Danbury.
First off the box art is very misleading.
It shows the car with all these rivets on it, which was one of the reasons that I wanted this kit. But when I opened the box and looked inside guess what? All the rivets on the sides and turret roof were missing! I had already planed on adding some extra detail to the kit so there was no way I was going to build it with out the rivets.
The first thing I did was find drawings of the vehicle. The ones I found are of the one on display at the Kubinka tank museum.
Now that I had the drawings I first marked all the rivet points using a fine tipped sharpie and drilled them out using a .47 micro drill. Once that was done it was on to the rivets themselves. These were made using sprue that was stretched out to about the thickness of 6lb test fishing line. Then cut into pieces about 1/2in. long the ends were very carefully mushroomed. I ended up making about three times more than I needed and separated out the ones that were close to the same size.
What they look like on the outside and the inside.
Here's a list of what I replaced and added so far' rear fenders, tie down brackets on the sides above the rear fenders, step below rear door, roof hatch above driver, drivers front visor hatch, mg mantel, turret periscope and lifting rings. All scratched using the following, brass sheet, evergreen plastic, sprue, Verlinden nuts and bolts, and some wire. The air vent door on the hood was molded on so I cut it out and scratched a new one in the open position. The same thing was done to the one's in the nose in front of the radiator.
The side engine access doors that came with the kits were not only wrong, they were supposed to be hinged in the middle, but also too small and had to go. New ones were made using evgrn plastic. Wire handles, rivets and the hinges I shaved off the old doors were also added after the door was attached and allowed to dry over night.
I'm still working on the two radiator doors and have started on the frame and running gear.
I also plan on scratching the tracks that mounted to the rear wheels I just need to find a couple of close ups of them. If anyone has a pic or two of them it would be a big help.
All comments suggestions and question are welcome ![Big Smile [:D]](/emoticons/icon_smile_big.gif)
Steve