while my sherman is waiting for a paint job, I thought I'd start with this little gem - Tamiya's new matilda. added the bronco workable tracks, which from an over view, are very good cast, and have great details


the tracks:

got some work today.
front hull parts:



road wheels madness




lower hull:





parts fit is superb, details are great. very recommended kit

Textures look nice too. Interested to see how the tracks work out.

Stuart

Will you build like an Israeli Matilda like the one in Latrun?

Looks like an interesting build! I'll follow closely to see the progress.

@ Stuart: yes the textures are very well represented in the model.
@ Ani: tell you the truth, I didn't even know that the Matilda was used over here. I thought we had some hotchkisses, cromwells and then moved on with things.
@Joe: thanks

suspension built and mounted - if you follow instruction and go light with the glue, the road wheels will turn (somewhat of a semi - workable suspension )

Nice job, I wait for more pics and look the tracks working!
Regards, Alvaro

got the tracks off the sprues today was a bit daunting, but had to be done. bronco really did a great job with these tracks. they have great detail, and you only need to get them off the sprue (with the necessary clean up that follows) and that's it! tomorrow i hope i'll be able to comment on how easy (or not) they are to build





'when removing this part - cut it as close to the sprue as possible, or you may damage it:

Lookin good so far! You must have an awful lot of patience to get all those track piecees done. Keep up the good work!

Sorry Matan!

You are right!

The Matilda at Latrun is in British colors for 8th Army. I remember seeing one there but could not remember if it was 1948 colors or British WW2. It is British!

My memory is shrinking like the Kinneret!

Good build!

Apparently the Egyptian army had some Matildas, passed on to them by the British, which were used in the War for Israeli Independence. The Arab Legion may have had some too, and maybe even Syria; and of course, Israel employed captured ones against their former operators. I hope all of you have better luck finding pics of Arab or Israeli Matildas than I've had. And believe me, I've looked. My main motivation was, i just didn't want to do a British army North African campaigner like every other modeler, but something different..
I wonder what markings the Latrun Matilda originally had? Too bad they didn't leave it as it was, when the Israeli forces captured it, instead of painting over the authentic scheme.

Thanks for sharing Matan. Am also in the building stage of the Tamiya Matilda, though its the older 1973 release. Am planning to finish it as a beautepanzer. From your pics I'd say the level of detail is greatly enhanced with the new kit -- i.e. the suspension on mine is just one straight rod. The painting instructions are almost nil. Do you plan to paint it in the Caunter Scheme? -- love to see one done. Good luck on your build. Cheers -- Tat

@ jphillips: i'm going to paint in british scheme anyway, so it doesn't matter to me.
@tat: yeah, this kit is absolutely great.
@Ani: it happens to the best

well, got some work on the tracks. once you get the hang of it, the build gets really fast and easy. i'm getting to like workable tracks and i have a set ready for my sherman, plus another one for a churchill i'm saving for a campaign.

this is how i've build them. i have noticed that you can 'slide' the under part of the track link between a fully built track link. so, i've made a full 1 part track link, added the upper half and started working backwards. you need some 68 links per track

link under part:


dry fit "track link". you can see the place you can slide the under part


1 upper part and working backwards





end result (sorry for the flash)

this kit is so much fun, i'm thinking on getting another one!
well, work was done on upper hull today:

the instructions call out for some drillin' - the nice thing is that the diameter is stated at start of instructions (1 mm holes). I've used some of bronco's workable tracks that i've got left as the spare for the tank, the look better then the kit's spares.




workable driver's hatch? why, certainly!








some dry fit + better tracks photos:




enjoy!

exhaust and axillary fuel tank built, plus side skirts, and some bits in the hull. the towing ropes are the down side, as the plastic shackles don't go well with the threaded string. i'll try replacing them with a metal wire
pay close attention when building the exhaust, so the pipes will go in smoothly. the parts should be angled - but fear not, they have sort of a pin to align them as they should be








enjoy!

Looks like a nice and clean build. Looking forward to mine. Why did you replace the tracks, just to get working ones or because the link and length aren't very good?

Cheerio!

Your model certainly looks good, especially with the Bronco tracks, but I am more impressed with how much progress you made in 5 days. I must consider acquiring one of these.

-Doug

@Stefan: I've picked the bronco tracks because i think that building the kit with the supplied link and length can be a small headache during painting. with the workables i can build the model and then slide them to their place, painted and weathered. plus, workable tracks are just fun.

@Doug: Thanks. also keep in mind that this is a really fun kit to build. parts fit is excellent and no putty was needed (yet, and I don't expect to use any). plus, the parts are arranged logically (i.e you get upper hull parts on one sprue, turret on the other so you don't have to go through tons of sprues just to build one step).

Great looking build so far, and you're right, the fit is great on this kit! I'm working on the same kit (and tracks). Couple of questions for you:
I'm assuming some of your parts are dry fit only (e.g. the exhaust)? I'm trying to figure out how much to glue together before painting. I'm planning on doing a British desert scheme.
You wrote you're using 68 links per side on the tracks? The instructions on the Bronco tracks say to use 71, but I'm guessing this'll just be a matter of trial and error?
Thanks, and I'm looking forward to the rest of your build.
Mark