Panzer II: Double Trouble - ICM Ausf D. and Hobby Boss Ausf. J - Aug. 6 Update

Man O Man its nice to be back home! 

Sorry all for falling behind on this blog; been mostly out of town for the last two weeks for work.  I'll only be home for a few days and then its back on the road for 2-3 more weeks.

I did manage to get some work done right before I hit the road and then back at it this weekend.  Here's an update:

Hobby Boss includes clear plastic for the front vision blocks, but I decided to paint the area first before installing them.  First I penciled in and taped off the area and sprayed on some white primer:

Then I hand painted the area with Panzer Aces Periscope Blue acrylic, removing the center area while still wet.  Hopefully this will look like light reflecting back off the bluish colored armored glass in the block...hopefully

Then the upper hull was assembled.   Looks like I forgot to take a pic of that...oops!

Following the kit instructions I moved on to assembling the fenders.  Added most of the small parts, but left off the headlights until the end of the assembly.  Not all the parts were installed, some of the parts are not supposed to be installed until the PE fender brackets are added after the fenders are installed onto the hull

Before I installed the fenders I figured that it would be best to tackle the tracks.  Because of the loose connection points for the idlers and roadwheels I felt it would be best to glue them in place.  I also decided to prepaint the areas where I might not be able to get to later.  Used Tamiya Nato Black thinned with their Lacquer Thinner.

Finally I installed the tracks.  OMG I had a devil of a time with these link&length tracks.  The instructions don't tell you how many indy links to use and with the loose fitting sprockets I nearly tore out the rest of my hair getting them to fit!!  What an ordeal!  Never had problems with L&L tracks before, but this set nearly defeated me!  In the end, I persevered and beat them into submission!  Whew!  Here they are with the fenders dry fitted on the hull:

The track assembly isn't a perfect fit.  If you look at the idler you can see the tracks aren't a tight fit, but that's the best I can do.  The idlers don't adjust, but maybe the glue will set and shrink a bit.  Probably wishful thinking!

Well that's it for now.  Before I hit the road again I'm hoping to complete the turret and post some pre painting pics.

Happy Modeling all!

Well Ernest, looks like you won the fight cuz those tracks look fantabulous!