Great kit, great detail, good fit. And some insanely thin parts with huge (and I mean HUGE) sprue attachments. Some of the thinner parts had to be changed to wire, as the plastic broke apart.
The transmission cover is as smooth as a baby's skin, and it needed some texturing.
The suspension is workable, and the model comes with a plastic track. I'll probably change it later to a workable indi one -unless I can use the M48 (? gotta check?) early type Fruil tracks I have somewhere.
The real issue is going to be the paintjob: to create a nice, interesting olive drab finish, with slight rusting, dust, and grime.
Comments, suggestions are welcome.

Looking good so far. Here is mine that I finished earlier this year. A couple things you may want to consider is that the barrel, at the breech end, is 8mm too short. I explain how to fix it in my post. The kit tracks are only good for an early, WWII, vehicle. T80 (steel) or T84 (rubber) tracks are more accurate for a post-WWII howitzer. I used a set of T80 indi-link tracks from DML. The M48 tracks look similar, but are too wide for an M40 series howitzer.

Good job and keep us posted.

Looks good To me also have the kit but to many things going on for now.

Sweet Build.

Can't wait to see it done.

Andras -

Nice looking model, thanks for the pics! Not sure of the tracks issue, I mainly build German things (although do have a DML M4 Halftrack in the pile!)

Looking forward to the next update! Cheers!

Tim

Thank you for the comments.
I think I'll use the kit tracks for the time being, but I'm definitely getting the indi ones from AFV.
Too bad I didn't know about the length of the gun. The whole thing is finished; there is no way I'm taking it apart
As soon as I have some time I'll get spraying and weathering.

Some update.
I actually lost one of the shovels... I sure hope I did not recycle it along with the remaining sprues. The gun is not elevated as high as I wanted it to -my bad. I fixed it, because it moved too easily, and later on during transport it might damage the kit.
It needs some detail-painting, weathering, some dust and tracks.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Looking pretty good. One note though. On the first pic of the crew area, you have the cylinders on the back wall rusty. They shouldn't be. They are the air cleaners for the engine intakes, not the exhausts. The exhaust exits through the grills in front of the gun on the top deck.

looking good so far!

Shoot.
I was thinking about having the exhaust gases discharged into the crew compartment. I knew something was fishy... (What do you know? The designers weren't inconsiderate morons, after all.)
Thanks... I'll try to repaint it -the problem is that it has a distinct rusty texture already.

by the way: what's the best way to remove those insanely thin plastic parts from the sprues? Half of them had to be replaced by wire. (One is still missing from the back.)

I use a fresh #11 xacto blade and patience. Sorry I can't offer any other suggestions, but that is what works for me.

I clip them well away from the part with the cutters, then go back and trim them on a flat surface with a straight single edge blade, and shave off the last of it. If it looks like it will break the part to cut it off with clippers, or even once trimmed off because of the thickness of the sprue tab remaining, try some scrap balsa wood under the sprue joint and cut them off with razor/exacto to keep the stresses of the part from being thinner then the sprue. Works well for 1/350 antenna masts as well as grab handles on tanks.

It typically breaks the part because of the stress released when pushing down on the thicker sprue, or when the cutter's wider blades opens the gap in the cut too far.

I've used that wonderfully fine saw from JLC. Using very light pressure and patience

Cheers
Dave

Heat an old #11 over a flame, slice off the part, then clean it up.