The kit is up to the current Trumpeter's quality standards, this meaning a fair ammount of detail, quite easy buildability, the usual grey plastic which I find very easy to work with, and so on.
In this particular case, the parts' count is not on the high side, nor the quantity of provided PE either, what allows you to expect a simple and reasonably fast building process.
The following photos -taken with my cell phone, so not the very best- show what I achieved after a couple of hours or so of work, mainly devoted to the road and idler wheels.
As it usually happens, after looking at the photos, I discovered I'll have to do some more fine sanding and to brush away some plastic dust here and there...
Let's go to the pictures.
First, a look at the metal gun barrel from Magic Models.
Now the turret. The upper and lower parts fit easily with zero troubles -I mounted them together first since I like to have an early glimpse about how the vehicle will look when finished-.
Just a couple of views to have an idea of the detail's quality here.
The part I hated most up to this point are the definitely ugly parts that try to depict the gun mantlet's tarp. Nothing that some putty will not fix, but ugly anyway...
Not so happy either with the turret cast texture, I'll probably work on that later, either with liquid cement or other "surfacer" product.
Tha main gun is just dry-fitted to have an idea of the "final look".
The hull parts fit quite well, and should demand only a bit of putty in a couple of places, you'll be able to see that by yourselves in the pictures below, together with the upper hull details.
Now a look at the suspenssion and road wheels details.
I find the detaill here quite good, even in the inner faces of the road and idler wheels. Don't know if it is accurate, but nicely done.
Time for a fast overview, to get the picture of the size of the monster.
As said before, the main gun metal barrel is only dry-fitted...
Still a way to go.
Now its time to add the most noticeable parts, so extra care to be taken.
Hope to be able to keep this pace, if so this can be a couple of weeks project...
Let's see
