CHURCHILL A.V.RE / S.B.G Assault Bridge - 1/76 Matchbox WIP BLOG Finished

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

The SBG Bridge and Churchill AVRE is ready for a primer coat.

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

Thanks fellas! 

GarzonH, it's not my usual scale to build

Wow, 1/76, that's an unusual scale...too small for comfort.

Nice build and skills for such small size.

Good recovery lol. Been there, done that. lol

M. Brindos, RX7850, DM, Doog, Thanks for looking in.

 All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

I filled in and sanded smooth the two gaps on the front of the lower hull (arrows). That was a mistake for this variant kit. 

^ Those are the mounting points for the Bridge Carrier [parts 3 and 4].

^ See the little tabs that stick out and insert into those gaps, that I filled?  

v So I dug the putty back out with the tip of my knife and glued in the Bridge Carrier parts.

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

Looking like she should...!

Puttin' a shine on this old brick, eh?

It's coming along quite nicely.

Coming along nicely. Makes me want to break out one of the kits from the Matchbox stash.

I miss those old matchbox kits. This brings back memories lol.

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

The cement has cured and the rear plate is in final position. 

I used the two positioning tabs molded into the rear plate [part 40] pictured in the i-sheet,several posts above.

 All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

 yup, those nutty islands 

AH HA! I thought that was editing tags. I'm used to it being on the bottom right side because of Genessis lol. They're in England, so it must be backwards, right? lol

Yeah, it looks high. 

You can edit your own posts by clicking on the little icon of a pencil at the bottom in the gray area.

There doesn't seem to be an edit option. I guess double posting must be allowed?

I was just thinking... that is an unusual place for a tow hook. It looks far too high to me. Kit? or were they really up that high?

Yep, the library, and if you were lucky you could find a book with good pictures in it for reference. Most of the history books I had available were not really concentrated on the details of such things. lol

Hah, true that! If one of your buddies didn't know, then you had to go to the library. What library, what's that?  

Yeah that was a good catch there. That's a tough one to figure out. There was no internet when this was released, right? lol

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

The i-sheet is not clear on the exact position of the 'rear plate'. It could fit on the model in two different ways based on the parts angles. I web searched and found several 1/35 build pictures. This helped with final placement.

This is too low but fits perfectly.

This will be final position.

 All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

thanks for looking ...

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

Ballast weight needs to be added to the interior rear area so the completed model, with the bridge attached, does not unrealistically 'endo' .

The i-Sheet suggests 20 grams of weight that is not included in the box.

I find a 25 gram, automobile wheel balance weight, in the recycle bin at work. Perfect shape to fit into this little guy.

Each section was a little wide so I ground away some of the material (dotted lines). This brought down the weight to an exact 20g.

These were glued in using white glue (PVA).

 All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

Thanks for looking...

M. Brindos, cool

Doog, ouch, that must have been harsh 

Don't feel bad, SPrue--I put the suspension bogeys on backward for my DML Ferdinand. Coulda kicked myself right in the head...THAT was a HUGE pita to undo and correct!

I understand 100%.

It is not very clear in the above photos. I hope I can cover it up with weathering. It might be a "I know it's there and it's killin me, even if no one else can see it, I know it's there"

I'm not sure that I see what you are referring to. It looks good so far. Is it something you can hide with weathering effects do you think?

All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

I glued together the one piece road wheels / suspension part(s) with the outer and inner side parts. Then the fenders on top.

After the cement cured, I masked off the painted the base coat color on the under and back side of this sub-assembly. I did this because it would be difficult to get the paint there after complete assembly and I didn't want bare plastic spots to show.

M. Brindos, this is where I put the tracks on the wrong sides of the model. The tracks were attached to a central sprue section. This section of material had to be cut off of the LEFT side of one and the RIGHT side of the other.

The side that was cut off from every approx. 5th link or so now look ugly. I should have positioned these respective side to the inside and under and not seen ever again place. No, I glued them on so that this ugly side is on the outside to be seen by all who view this forever  

A clear example of the clever design of this kit. All of the puttied and sanded spots will not show after final assembly so none of that work was needed anyway.

 All WIP and finished pictures for this BLOG is here: https://imgur.com/a/T9zbg

RX7850, Awesome, thanks for checking in and welcome to hang out during the whole thing

Robin, interesting. Some contemporary snap-kit automobile models are designed like this too 

All right,  great choice I will be watching this.

Also the use of multiple colors made it so you didn't feel the need to paint the kit, something that was optional back in the day.

Karl, Are you referring to this kit? Very Cool indeed. I bought this one because it had a bridge laying element to it on the box art !

Robin, They also seem to be well designed to hide all of the ejector marks after assembly. I've only found a couple sink marks (illustrated in above post) on the think parts

I still have a good number of old Matchbox armor kits, built and unbuilt. They were very well done for the time. My personal favorites were the M40 SPG and the Firefly.