More progress to report today in terms of work done on the lower hull.
Continuing on with Step 3, the rear hull plate is installed to the hull tub. I installed the plate first then added the rear lifting eyes, idler mount bracing bar, tow pintle, and crank starter cap as called for in the instructions.
Step 4 is a busy step as it deals with much of the interior of the open fighting compartment. Molded-in locater lines help with the placement of the bracing beams at the front and rear but you do have to be careful to get parts M35/36 aligned correctly at the front. One end is slightly lower than the other and the lower end goes at the rear. I installed the bases to the lower hull first and then added the cross beams instead of assembling it outside the hull as one unit as the instructions indicate. It's a good idea to install the bases, add the front cross beam, then install the drive shaft tunnel on the hull side, then add the 2nd cross beam to insure everything plays nice and sits correctly.
I also installed the base of the radio operator's seat and the rack mount for the radio transformer but left off the actual seats, the transformer, and the MP40 ammo pouches until after the interior is painted and ready for detailing. Last but not least the rear hull firewall and gun trail spike mount was added along with the rear hull bolt flange to round out the step.
Step 5 assembles the driver's armored box and the large fender/glacis stowage box as a single unit. The kit provides interior details for the side vision port and a pad for the top driver's hatch...but since the box mounts directly onto a solid glacis plate and there's no interior provided, these were left closed up and those details skipped.
Step 6 is an important, but slightly odd, step in the kit assembly. I say odd because it wants you to install the fenders directly to the glacis without using the lower hull to insure proper alignment. What is odder still is that the instructions don't actually have a step where you do install the fenders and glacis to the lower hull...they just magically show up that way in the final Step 21 of the instructions!
So, with that in mind, I first installed the glacis to the lower hull and let that set up. Then I added the fenders to either side and found it necessary to trim the front tab edges slightly to get them to line up properly with the glacis edge. The contact points with the lower hull aren't very wide so it's important to make sure each fender lines up flush and level on both sides.
Once the fenders were set, I added the angled braces and Bosch lights, using a #76 finger drill and 0.5mm diameter solder to add the missing conduit wiring. I also installed the front tow points from Step 21, the glacis access hatches, and the siren and hatch stop. The stowage box/driver's box combo from Step 5 was also installed to round things out.
Next up will be starting work on the fighting compartment upper sections.