¹⁄35

A39 Tortoise

Stage Thirteen

Now you start adding detail to the rear of the Tortoise such as the rear towing points, lifting points and fire extinguishers. Start with the towing hitches, each consisting of five nicely detailed parts, noting that they are for the front of the vehicle; before adding them you will need to add some texture to hide the join between the lower hull and the glacis plate. A nice aspect of the tow hitches is that they are detailed and assembled in such a way that it is easy to depict the Tortoise either towing or being towed. The two lifting points suffer from ejector pin marks on the inner face, but they are easily corrected. I don’t know the purpose of the tray that is added to the rear of the fighting compartment in this stage as the size doesn’t readily suggest any uses; my best guess is that it is for a fuel can, but then again, one fuel can on a Tortoise seems pointless.

Stage Fourteen

Here are made up three sub-assemblies in the form of the rear centre towing coupling, the exhaust, and the travel lock for the main gun. The rear towing eye is assembled over two small steps, which results in a universal coupling with movement in all planes; the only issue I encountered was gluing the whole thing together while retaining the free movement of these parts. The exhaust is nicely detailed and goes together fairly well, the exception being the couplings between the exhaust and the body of the vehicle. Here I found it awkward to get the couplings to sit flush against the exhaust, as they tended to rock about at the joint, rather than seating firmly to create a good stable bond. The travel lock, consisting of only five parts, looks good, but I have two areas of concern: the first is the sprue connection points for parts D20 and 21, which result in damage to the area where the bolt locks the collar together; the second is the mating surfaces of the collar, which require care if movement is to be retained in the assembled travel lock.