Hi guys, I've been a long time frequenter of this site but only recently signed up for an account and thought I'd do my part and share what I'm working on. I've started in on the Dragon Panzer III L and intend to show this one on a base with most of the hatches open as an abandoned vehicle. That off course, would necessitate that I have some sort of interior so I opted for the old Verlinden offering. As you guys know, it's not the best or most accurate interior but it will suffice to add some interest to the finished model and with it being a Panzer III, much of it will be hidden once the hull is completed. The Verlinden kit was designed for the Tamiya hull and I've encountered quite a number of issues with getting it to fit into the Dragon kit. First, the fighting compartment and engine compartments both come with a firewall but they cannot be both fitted as there is not nearly enough room. As such, I used the fighting compartment firewall as it has the most detail on it, and skinned the back of it with sheet plastic and recreated some of the visible details for the engine compartment firewall. With that done, it became apparent that the engine was not going to fit. It sits way too high so the bottom has to be sanded down and much of the detail on the hull floor underneath it removed so that it can sit low enough for the upper hull to be attached. As you can imagine, this throws off the alignment of all the other parts so it was one minor issue after another but it's finally all in there and accounted for. I did scratch build the bracket for the exhaust that sits just behind the fan housing as the Verlinden one was too wide and didn't line up with the kit exhaust above the mufflers and the pipe diameter was much larger than the kit ones as well. Also had to scratch/modify the headers and exhaust on the front side of the fan housing since the engine was lowered. All the belts were redone as they are massively over-scalled in resin. Anyway, here is where I am at the moment. It's all decked out in primer red.
I am a slow worker but I'll keep you guys updated of my progress from here on out. Next step is to get working on the fighting compartment area. I've got it fitted and primed so when you guys see it, I'll have it base coated. All comments are welcome and thanks for looking.
