An Officer of the British Army improperly dressed while on duty, Disgraceful! Which figure would that be, Alan? May not use him. Don't know about the rivets, doubt they would be visible except maybe on the frame rails. Al

Hi Al,

The Chap with the cane should have a Sam Brown belt, with shoulder strap, he's wearing an NCOs belt. Make him a recently promoted 2Lt lol.

The base of the Gun Tub would need some rivets as it will be visible throught the door, if it's going to be open which I assume it is.

Cheers

Al

I'll have to check it out and make a decision. Not sure how far I want to go with this insanity. Al

Finished up the exhaust pipes, here they are with the engine just fitted without cement.







The last photo approximates the viewing angle through the doorway. The opening will be much smaller of course, and a lot less will be visible. Like I said, I just want to give the impression of the crowded interior. I'm not going to try to replicate everything to exacting detail. Al

Time for a progress report, some more work done to the engine. There is a frame that sits around the top of the engine. I've tried to replicate it.

The right side.



The left side.



There is a piece of angle iron missing from the left side, you can see where it is supposed to go in the photo of the right side of the engine. I have to cement the engine into position before I can add it because it would interfere with the exhaust pipes and make it impossible to get the engine into place. Right now, I can slide the engine in through the right side opening and sort of roll it into place. If I had added that angle iron, I couldn't. Here are a couple of shots with the engine in place.





The large square on the rear of the engine is the platform under the rear cupola. I may decide to leave the hatch open and place a figure standing in the cupola. Have to do some painting before finally cementing the engine in place. And there are some racks that hang down from the roof between the exhaust pipes that have to be made. They hold MG ammo boxes. I'll have to add them after placing the engine. There are the drivers' seats to be added also. But I'm beginning to see a little light at the end of the tunnel. And for once, I don't think it's an oncoming train! Al

Impressive stuff Al, as awlays.

Cheers

Al

Thanks, Alan. Sometimes taking a chance pays off, and I'm usually completely surprised when it does. Al

Made a little more progress. The gun shields are done. I deviated from the instructions once again. You're supposed to add the mounting bracket (Part# G20) to the gun mount in Step 36 and then assemble the three parts of the shield to the bracket in Step 37. To facilitate painting, I chose to assemble the shields as one piece, to add to the gun later.





Also added the last three parts to each of the six-pounders to finish them up.





Part G23, the arm on the left side of the gun has a pin that fits into a hole in the gun's trunnion. I had to deepen that hole a little to allow it to fit properly. Note the pistol grip and trigger on G23. Be careful with cement if you want the gun to elevate. I applied the cement to a different contact point. Where that curved, slotted, adjustment bracket touches the side of the mount, avoiding the issue. The locking handle (Part# G47) was then added to that bracket. Paint next, then the shields will be added. That's all I've got for now, more to come. Al

Began the chore of cleaning up and assembling some of the wheels today. My least favorite part of a build. But I've found that if I do a few at a time and keep at it. They'll all be done before I know it. There are certainly a lot of them. They are of two different types, 32 of one kind and 22 of the other, 45 all told. At least there are no rubber tires on them to paint! Clean-up isn't hard, just monotonous, very, very, monotonous! Did I mention that there are a lot. After test fitting one of the wheels in position, I realized after final assembly, they'll be mostly invisible. The sides of the wheels won't be seen at all. This will simplify painting them a lot. My plan of attack is to paint the inside areas of the track run then mount the wheels and add the outer hull sides. Then I can paint the rims of the wheels. The only part that might actually be partially visible. Al

Very nice work Al. Very well done. I'll be following along with this build. Keep it going.

Hello James, and thank you. So far, I'm really liking this kit. Al

I buckled down and completed all of the wheels. It actually went pretty fast. There are two types of wheels, 'A' & 'B'.



I thought the parts for the 'A' type would be the more work to clean up than those for the 'B', but it turned out to be the opposite. Takom's instructions tell you not to glue the wheels to the axles. Trying to keep all those wheels and axles in place while lining up the outer hull panels to trap them would (IMHO) lead to true madness. Since I don't care if the wheels rotate, I cemented them to the axles.



Did I mention that there are a lot of them? Those are just half, the ones to be used on just one side. I test fitted a few to show how they inter-leave.



The wheels for the 'A' type fit rather loosely onto their axles. Make sure that the gap between the flanges is even all around. If you don't it may lead to problems where the flanges are overlapped by the 'B' type wheels. You can see that the wheels will be all but invisible once the tracks are in place.

Inspired by a discussion about working with PE parts at a local club meeting last night, I got out my trusty 'Hold & Fold', and added the PE parts to the armored gas tank.



I've used accelerator to speed up the bond when using super-glue. One tip that I picked up during the discussion was to use a toothpick to apply the accelerator to the joint. Never thought of using a toothpick for that, worked like a charm. Also added the PE to the two brackets (Parts E23 & E22) on the inside of the track runs.



I've found a couple of parts that appear to be unused. I can't find them mentioned anywhere in the instructions. Two are plastic, C24, and the other two are tiny, X-shaped, PE parts, TP7. A puzzlement. I'll try to get some more work done today. It's very damp and rainy, so I won't be doing any painting yet. Still have some more to add to the interior. Any comments or questions are welcome, thanks for looking. Al

I bet that was a Wheely tyreing Job Al, still everything is rolling along now.

Very Punny, Verrry Punny! Al

Hi Al,

coming along well.

Cheers

Al

Hi Al,

Not sure about C24, but the X-shaped PE is straps for the camera held by the German figure in the "female" kit - not needed on this voyage!

I found the wheel-fit problem was most pronounced in the rearmost few axles, so be prepared to trim some flanges...

Thanks Tom, for that info on the PE. As to the wheels, I'll have to see how it goes. Forgot to mention in my previous post that I had to ream out a tiny bit from quite a lot of the holes in the hull sides that the axles are to fit into. Not much at all, just found a drill bit that was the same diameter as a hole that an axle fit into and used it on all the other holes. Al

Thanks, Alan. Al

The rails for the un-ditching beam are in place.



There are tabs on the brackets at the front and rear of each rail that make it easy to locate them correctly and the directions are pretty clear as to how they should go on.





Not so obvious though is how it fits onto the roof brackets. The rails have two small tabs at the front that will sit atop the driver's compartment. Once I get around to attaching the roof that is. The middle attaches to the uprights on part E15. The bottom edge of the rail sits atop the small flange that points to the rear on the uprights. If you test fit you will see how it is supposed to go.



The stowage box has two tabs that fit into small indentations on the inside of the rails , just where they bends downward towards the rear.



That's all that I've got for now. Al

This certainly an incredibly intricate kit considering how crude and straightforward the Mark IV tank looks compared to other WW2 onwards AFVs.

I guess there are a few places where the manufacturer could have cut corners, the 'won't be seen' chain drive comes to mind. They could have gotten away with supplying only the barrels for the guns rather than the whole gun. But I'm rather glad they didn't. Despite the number of parts the kit goes together very well. It may not be a 'Shake-n-Bake' kit but unlike some other kits, I haven't found it to be too over-engineered unnecessarily. And it will be impressive when finished. A quantum leap up from the old Emhar kits which were very simple detail wise. They had no wheels at all, except the drivers and idlers. Not to mention very poor rubber-band tracks. Al

Cobbled together some seats for the drivers' position. First attempt was less than satisfactory, rather clunky looking.



Second attempt came out much better.





Layered several pieces of plastic stock for the seat cushion, used brass wire for the seat back supports. Here they are test fitted in place.



Also added the shackles and PE bands to the un-ditching beam.



The PE bands were one piece and meant to be folded around the beam. If I had it to do over again, I think I would separate the bands into 4 pieces at the fold marks, and then attach each section one at a time. It would result in a slightly better fit. There are two PE straps that go over the muffler and since I was in a PE state of mind, I added them too.



That takes care of almost all of the PE parts, with the exception of the six pieces that make up the brackets that would be used to attach the un-ditching beam to the tracks when in use, or to the rails when stowed. They are attached to the beam with several small pieces of chain and look to be a very fiddly assembly, which I'm not really looking forward to. Al

I am very impressed with the extra work you are putting into this build Al, almost as much as I was with the sub you built.

Thanks, Darren. I'm having a ball. Al

Started fabricating the racks that hang from the roof, they're used for storing boxes of MG ammo.





I'll post some pictures when I've made a little more progress on them. Al