Well I finished the D9R in U.S. Service, and thought I'd try a Armored artillery piece.
I'm not one of the Experten, this is just how I build.
This time I thought I'd start with the Sprues, the build will follow shortly.
Donald

Well that's the spruces, now to do the building.
donald

Thanks Donald for showing us all the goodies on the new Meng kit ! Those tracks look a bit scary, lots of clean up & gluing there. I'll be following this one.
Thanks for sharing !
Tom

They are supposed to be a snap (Dry) fit, I'm not looking forward to them, a lot of clean up there.
Donald

Well that was the spruces, now we start the assembly.



I cut the sponson bottoms from the lower hull, this will allow for an easier fit of the tracks.





Now we have the Sponson bottoms and the devider added to the upper hull.

Remove the 2 tabs on the back panel Part D21



When you test fit the upper hull the devider should go to the front of the angle brace as shown here.



Test fit the rear pannle, it should be even with the underside of the top and tight with the little lip on the bottom.



Here is a side view with the suspension parts added.

Top test fitted.






That's all for now.
Donald

I have finished adding the parts to the upper hull.

Parts C1 & C3 don't fit together very good, I trimed the raised oblong off the back of C1 (See the following Pics.

You will have to enlarge the holes for fitting the parts, as they are all to small.

Donald

I have the gun finished.
You fave a choice of using the regular muzzle brake or a covered one.

Now it's on to the turret.
Donald

Below is shown the inside of the turret. The Gun mount is only 2 parts with large polly rings. there are only 2 spots to hold the gun mount and the fit is really tight. You should make sure that both mount parts are even before gluing.





Below is the outside of the mount with the smoke grenades it's easier to mount them now.


Be sure to trim off all of the push pin marks or the part will not sit flat.

It's better to add the turret bottom before installing all the little bits. That way wou don't have to worry about breaking them off.





Now to add the little parts.
Donald

It's coming along really nice! I'm thinking of getting this kit, so I'll follow along.

I have finished the turret assembly,
One part of the instructions isn't very clear.
On the MG ring, Part F28 the solid ring should only be used with the hatch in the open position. If you use it with the hatch closed you will not be able to open the hatch.

The smaller storage bracket is used for most versions the larger is for the Royal Netherlands Army.



The model is now in the paint shop, I'll be working on the track while the paint is drying.
Donald

The following 16 Pics. are of how I assembled the track.

The tracks go together fairly easy, the hard part is cleaning up the nearly 600 parts. The worst is cleaning up the parts with the guide horns.
Now to some more painting.
Donald

After test fitting the Track to the model, I found that I had to shorten the track to 97 links to get a better fit. With 98 links as called for in the instructions the fit was too sloppy.



I used the track jig to join the ends of the track together, after painting.





A little dark on some of the Pics. I'm not really good with Photography.



Install the wheels & other parts.

Slip the Track loop on starting with the Sprocket.



Place the Track under the wheels & working toward the rear fit the Track on while compressing the suspension.





Track Installed

This is why I cut the Sponson bottoms off of the lower hull.
It's a lot easier to fit the track this way.






That's all for now.
Donald