Decided to get started on this one tonight, just couldn't wait for tomorrow! #96 is Tamiya's Pz II C Polish Campaign and I will be doing this one largely OOB with the exception of a Lionmarc turned brass KwK 30 2cm barrel and maybe a tool clamp or two. Whole kit is only about 220 parts so I expect this will be a relatively quick build project especially in comparison to some of the more reccent efforts. ![Wink [;)]](/emoticons/icon_smile_wink.gif)
Things began where they usually do in Step 1 with the road wheels and running gear. The drive sprockets had their 4 shallow ejector marks carefully sanded down on the inner face and then the mount posts added. The road wheels were removed from the sprues and the mold seam on the rubber portion sanded down with a sanding twig, then the polycaps and rear inserts added. The idlers were also assembled with the outer rim carefully removed from the sprue to avoid warping/distorting it and glued to the hub using very careful applications of liquid glue around the perimeter to get it to sit nice and even in terms of diameter. It too received a poly cap and styrene cap on the inner side. Last but not least the return rollers were removed and their slight seams also sanded down.
Step 2 started in with the lower hull, adding the suspension arms for each side. Care has to be taken to keep the parts separate as they are not only handed but the final 5th suspension element is subtly different in terms of the spring angle, so I made sure to attach the first four then the final fifth separately to avoid any accidental mix-ups. The slight mold seam on the suspension springs was carefully removed with a sharp #11 blade. The idler mounts were also installed in their fixed position on both sides. The rounded hull nose plate was then installed and it fit perfectly in with the lower hull. Once the glue had set, I installed the final drive housings along with their trapped poly caps for the sprockets.
I went ahead and skipped Step 3 except for the installation of the rear hull plate since the rest of that step installs the various items from Step 1 to the hull.
Step 4 deals with the installation of the link-and-length tracks so was temporarily skipped...I'm going to see if I can still fit the track lengths in with the upper hull installed or not before committing to doing that...more on that later.
Step 5 begins the work with the upper hull. There are a number of holes that need to be opened up from the underside and, using the kit diagram to insure I only opened the ones needed for this variant, this was easily done using a #68 finger drill. Holes needed to be opened on only one fender side but also the underside of the superstructure roof to take the splash guards in Step 6. The inserts for the side air intake as well as the angled hull sponson were added without issue.
Step 6 adds all the panels to the superstructure as well as the splash guards and fender extensions. I removed all the panels and carefully cleaned up their sprue attachment points and opened up the two holes needed on the driver's side panel to take the splash guard for the view port using the same finger drill from before. A test fit of the panels showed that the panels fit well together but that the driver's plate had a slight gap on the superstructure roof as well as the angled butt joint where it mated up with the rear portion of the hull. This gap was small but noticeable, so some very careful use of Squadron white putty was called for along with strategic sanding to avoid damaging the nicely molded on weld bead detail on the edge of the plates. The other plates didn't need any putty work, only some light sanding to blend in their edges to create the seamless look needed.
The splash guards came next and these presented an unexpected problem during clean-up. Due to the way they are attached to the sprue, the attachment point is actually on the base of the part via a little tab. This works well to preserve the fine angled detail but when I removed the tab with sprue cutters, the slight stress was enough to take part of the edge of the delicate angled portion with it...creating a slight gouge in the process. These were repaired with same targeted putty work once the guards were installed to the hull. Finally, the rear fender extensions were added to complete this step.
Step 7 calls for the upper and lower hulls to be joined, so before I commit to that I'm going to have to do some tests with the link-and-length segments first to see what my options are. If the tracks have to fitted now, then some paint work will be required first before I can proceed to that step.