This may sound like a stupid question but, how do you determine if the kit supplied grab handles are grossly out of scale?
Thanks

To be honest I would use my own judgement, but comparing against photos of the real thing would be the best way.

I always replace the grabhandles of the kit with handles made of fuse wire.
It saves me a lot of time for cleaning them up and you can choose the right size for the handles. And it's quick and easy.
Just look for some different sizes of fuse wire and copper wire, and use some pictures for reference.

Greetings and good luck,
Beaker

Try going to an arts and crafts store and getting stome 22 gage florists wire. It's much stiffer than fuse wire or copper wire and easier to work with.

PH

They almost always are out of scale. Plus, if they're close, they can be almost impossible to clean up and remove from the sprue without breaking. I have several different size/types of wire that I use for handles and other things. Most of it is scrap from various places, so it hasn't cost me much either.

Thanks guys for all the answers, I think I'll try the florists wire.

Another advantage to using the wire for the grab handles is they can be bend into much more realistic shapes... some of the photos of soviet armor show grab handles that look like they were bicycle handle bars that were welded on without straightening...

Usually they are out of scale. They range from .5 to 1 mm that in 1/35 scale means 1.75 to 3.5 cm of thickness that's usually too thick. I use copper or brass wire to replace them...
Ciao