I'm not sure what you mean with the left part but looks like this is moving along.

"...like a M3 Lee/Grant in reverse to me:"

right, yeah, I don't know either

Well, not much work on the hull but I did finish up the road wheels and have only three return rollers to clean up now. 

I finished the tracks on one side and am working on the other. I was a bit duboius at first but love these now. You sandwich two parts together for each link, they capture the pins of the next link between them. If you're careful and keep the cement off the pins you're rewarded with workable flexible tracks! 

Not sure if you can tell from the photo but the piece the left is cemented to the other piece already in place on the end: 

Well, here's where I'm at now:

The kit comes with a complete 37mm gun for the hull front but no other interior details like seats etc. I think I'm going to mock up a simple interior just so it's not a big empty hole. I'm still working on the 75mm which again is a complete gun with the breach and interior parts replicated. Btw still not sure why they put a 37mm in hull when you've got a 75mm in the turret, sounds like a M3 Lee/Grant in reverse to me:

jibber

Is the Chi-Ri the one with tri-fold doors on the rear of the cupola?

Terry

 

There's nothing like that on the cupola or turret on this model. There's a three part door on the rear of the hull to access the engine though. 

Is the Chi-Ri the one with tri-fold doors on the rear of the cupola?

Terry

Thanks Qcarr! Actually this kit came out a couple years before WoT brought out the Japanese line. Dragon's T28 and M6 I wonder about though since they did come out after WoT made them much better known.

I've subscribed to this thread, Gamera, and will be following with great interest!  I "had" the Chi-Ri for a short period of time in World of Tanks and it was interesting.  Do you think FineMolds produced this because of WOT?

Thanks Terry, not sure what I'll do yet. I'll probably put an infantryman or tanker beside the vehicle to show the size of the thing. I'd like to do street scene of a bombed and wrecked Japanese city but not sure really how to pull it off. 

Gamera you have a nice grouping of figures to choose from, could easily turn into a larger dio and it's too bad we dont see much in the way of Japanese armor. They had more pieces than I ever thought. Nice choice.

Terry

Thanks Karl! 

Actually if you want to buy one, try Hobbylink Japan, their prices for Finemolds are about half to 2/3rds what everyone else's are. 

Wow, cool; I saw this kit on ebay and thought about getting it. It's defintely a cool looking tank!

Thanks guys!

SprueOne: The instructions just give a part number. It does have bolts in it and is underneath the ammo storage under the floor (so if you wanted to escape though it you've have to move a bunch of shells) so now I'm guessing it's to access the transmission from underneath. No big deal, it's just when I first saw it, 'hey they're still putting battery/motor mounting holes in there!?!'

Anyway I picked up some Silly Putty for the masking. The instructions show mosty single colour schemes which would make more sense this late in the war but I kinda like the three-colour one. More eye-catching and I like painting them if the Silly Putty works:

Pulled out my figures too, not sure what I'll use though:

Gamera

Main hull parts, hole I believe is the lower escape hatch and not a battery/motor mounting hole:

How does the I-Sheets describe this?

Following and subscribed. 

I haven't seen a BLOG of this kit yet so this will be interesting 

Oooo! NEAT!! [/following]