As promised, I managed to get the MK tracks built for both sides between the last update and this one. I assembled 102 links per side and will wait until it's time for the installation to see exactly how many links I will need and add the extras then.
Returning today to the instructions, I picked up at Step 7 which starts work on the 8.8cm gun. Even though the Premium kit includes an aluminum barrel, the breech and first half of the gun are styrene and are a two-part assembly. I glued the two halves together with regular glue and then very carefully sanded the seam on either side with a sanding twig. The block itself required sanding as well to get a seamless look in several places and the semi-auto breech cylinder was added. I also assembled the breech and test fit it but didn't glue it into place since it will be easier to paint separately later on.
Step 8 assembles the recoil sled and tray I went ahead and attached the rear half of the gun to the sled before I added the barrel itself. This was to help insure that when I installed the barrel, I had the brake lined up properly. Most of the tray is hidden by the sled but the rear-most portion is exposed so I sanded that area to remove the join seam from the two tray halves. The undersides of the tray that are visible on the exterior of the vehicle as well as the interior fighting compartment were puttied and sanded smooth. A small amount of putty was needed at the front where the attachment point from the tray to the barrel meets up with the sled since DML designed this as a separate part vs. it being integrated with the sled on the real deal.
With all that taken care of, I assembled the slide-molded multi-part muzzle brake and sanded the join line at the top and bottom smooth with a sanding twig. The muzzle brake was installed to the aluminum barrel with CA gel and then the barrel itself installed to the rear half also with CA gel. The clamp for the travel lock was added after everything was set up with liquid glue and carefully adjusted so it lined up straight with the underside.
That led to Step 9 which added the two halves of the recoil cylinder. The join at the top of the cylinder was carefully sanded down with a sanding twig to create a seamless surface.
Step 10 assembles the equilibrator pistons and attaches them to the gun but there is a little bit of a head scratcher here since the lower arms of the pistons aren't supposed to be glued into position to allow the gun to properly elevate. The head scratcher is that the unglued lower portions don't have anything to hold on to until the side plates of the gun mount are added in the next step! I assembled the cylinders and added them but left the pistons off for the moment. The small curved portion of the splinter shield is also added to the top of the gun in this step however mine had a slight sink hole in the face that required some putty work and sanding to correct before it could be installed.
Step 11 adds the base and side plates for the gun mount. While the instructions don't indicate this, if you don't apply glue at the top points where it attaches to the swivel pins, the gun can be freely elevated instead of fixed in position. The lower portions of the equilibrator pistons were added as well now that they had a place to attach to.
Step 12 starts to add the details to the mount itself, dealing with the left side first. The front support plate for the curved splinter shield is installed along with the recoil guard for the gunner, the elevation and traverse wheels, and the gunner's seat and its mount. Many of these parts are delicate and I had to think through exactly how I wanted to install them since the photo shows many of them already in place. I opted to install the wheel mounts first, then add the wheels, then add the gunner's seat and mount to avoid running out of room to maneuver in the process.
Step 13 adds the details for the right side of the mount. The side plate for the splinter shield is added here also along with the auxiliary traverse wheel for the loader.
Step 14 is a delicate step in that it adds the supports for the curved splinter shield to the sides of the gun mount. I say delicate because the attachment points for the top and bottom supports on either side are small so until the glue sets they want to sag a bit under their own weight. I left the shield itself off for now to make it easier to get in and paint all the nooks and crannies.
Rounding out the gun construction was Step 15. This added the top crash bar to prevent the gun from being elevated too high as well as the gunner's sight. It took me a little while to figure out exactly how to assemble the 3 parts that make up the sight mount and base since the photo shows them already assembled but eventually I got it sorted out. I drilled out the top face of the sight with a drill bit and pin vise and also drilled out the eyepiece on the bottom with a #68 finger drill before adding the leather head pad.
Next up will start work on the fighting compartment!