well boys & girls, it's happened.
the irresistable pull of treaded thingies has drawn me in!
last night, sometimes by candlelight (power out for a while due to fringe or hurricane passing thru), i began assembly of my first AFV kit. it's a 1/35 Tamiya PzKpfw IV Ausf D.
i have assembled the 16 road wheels + the two spares, the drive and idler gears, mounted the idler arms and drive gear mounts to the lower hull.
(please excuse any mis-naming of the bits, it's my first tank!)
![Smile [:)]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile.gif)
and i have already lost a piece as one of the 'hub caps' for a road wheel leapt for freedom and is still at large.
![Evil [}:)]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile_evil.gif)
i substituted one of the hub pieces from the spare road wheels.
there seemed to be two extra hub caps. unless i am also supposed to put them on the 'back' of the spare wheels. then i'm still one short.
i also assembled the muffler, but did not add the smoke grenade piece as i feared it would not paint properly w/ that on.
which leads me to a question (first in a series, i bet!)
![Big Smile [:D]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile_big.gif)
should i put the rear plate on the lower hull w/o attaching muffler, etc ? i think that the muffler would go on after the hull is painted, but i don't know.
is there a standard list of stuff that you leave off until after painting? (aside from tools, jerry cans, cable, etc)
i plan to paint the road wheels and drive & idler gears off the hull and put them on after the hull is painted. and i figure the turret should be painted off the hull, but are there other pieces i should watch out for?
i am mainly watching for stuff that will create an unpaintable 'shadow' for the airbrush.
any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
ed.