The .080 plastic strips are used to set the distance of the torsion arms and keep them aligned. Also I have added putty to bumper housings.
To make the adjustable idler wheel this part has to be cut apart.
I attached and torsion arm
Next I made an axle for idler housing and drilled a hole in the housing.
Then make a hole in the lower hull.
Insert the axle. Attach the idler housing and viola adjustable idlers
I hate roadwheels so I can only do so much wheel stuff and then I work on somethin else. In this case it is the turret which is now about 98% done. That is except the paint. Let's take a little trip and see how things turned out.
We begin with basic turret construction. As with most Tamiya kits assembly is pretty much hassle free, but with the age of the kit there is some flash that needs to be removed. With basic construction complete I set about makeing the mantlet cover.
I needed to add several details to the mantlet cover that were not included in the kit or were under size. The rear of the mantlet cover has a beaded edge on the back of the cover so used solder wire to make this. The most promenent part of the cover is the retaining clips that hold it to the turret face. The kit features are small so I replaced them with strips of lead foil adding a small piece of styrene rod for bolt head. A little time consuming, but worth it.
Next I moved on to the loaders hatch. The ejector pin marks were removed and a PE handle was added. The best part of the loaders hatch in outside with the handle and those large springs that aid in opening and closing the hatch. The molded on handel was replaced with a wire one and the molded on springs were replaced with ones made of copper wire.
next came adding details to rear of the turret. The vent parts were added. Then I added some weld bead made out of solder wire and then textured with a sculpting knife. On the very back of the turret are some loops designed to hold straps that were molded on. These were replaced with one made of copper wire.
Since this will be a Marine Patton (RAH) I was presented with a problem. Most early Marine tanks coming in country did not come equiped with rectangular search light, but rather an older round version used in the fifties. I have been planning this project for some time so the search was on to find this version of the search light. Thing were looking pretty unlikely that I would find one and then I came across a old Dragon M-46 kit and low and behold the kit comes with the very light I needed. My joy was tempered by the fact that it came with no clear lens instead where the lens was supposed to be was solid. Also inside the light was a set shutters that woul have to be built. So I set to work and drilled and cut out the front of the light to open it. I then made the shutter and a lens made of clear plastic. to complete the light.
One of things that make this light interesting is that it has lots of wiring. I made a small junction box on the back of the light for all the wire to come from and wired the light.
I moved to the turret side where a railing, lift ring and a jerry can was added. PE was added to the Jerry can to replace molded on detail.
Next was the turret basket with PE mesh.
I added a PE spare roadwheel rack to the rear ventilater.
The last thing was the commanders cupola pretty strait foward. I added some PE details and the dust cover over the top. Here are some images of the nearly finished turret comments and questions are always welcome and thanks for looking.
Terry
