Hi guys,
I haven't been around for a while; I got totally immersed in a frustrating slog of a recent build doing three Indy 500 cars that took me way longer than I had hoped, but now I'm ready for some more armor!
I saw this strange beast in Aberdeen in 1986. Back then, the museum and famous "Mile of Tanks" was still basically intact; even all of the heavy German tanks were still there. Some of the massive tanks in the middle of the road going in have now thankfully caught the eyes of some major model manufacturers (LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL M55 SPH, GUYS!! ) and this baby is REAL, not just a "World of Tanks" fantasy creation (a sad trend, in my opinion )
Ironically, that photo credit goes to the "World of Tanks forum" lol. Anyhoo...
So I'm starting this big sucker.
Here's what you get in the box. In addition to the sprues, you get a small PE fret and of course those dreadful DS tracks. (I'm SO Over DS tracks!--I have some indy-link M48 style tracks on the way).
The build starts with suspension and wheels. I don't understand the rationale behind using seperate wheel/rubber pieces (see left side of instructions). The inner metal part of the wheel is still molded onto the rubber part so you can't just spray the wheel one color and then reduce your labor. All it does is make for double the parts that you have to laboriously clean up. Annoying.
Here you can see the wheel rims and the wheel parts. Four attachment points on EACH part. Two parts per rim...LOTS of clean-up.
Interestingly, the smaller road wheels attach to the top of the hull, not the bottom like you wold expect.
Where I am now. Thanks for looking in, all!