amazing!!

Nice one, looking good!

Thanks everyone

The rear of the vehicle is starting to look nice and 'busy' now...





Gary

Spade is dry fitted....



Gary

Driver's hatch in place with commander's cupola a WIP...



Gary

Commanders hatch unit now complete...



Gary

Another one of those where its going to be sort of sad to see it painted!

Agreed. It is a very extensive conversion and you're doing a great job on it.

Mario

Well, he took lots of crisp and clear pictures for this model's 'growing up' archives.

Thanks guys - glad you like it


As nice as this kit is, there are some flaws - one being the simplified cable guide for raising and lowering the rear spade - plus the total absence of any cable and hook. Fortunately, Google provides sufficient reference photos to allow you to bring this assembly up to an acceptable level...







Gary

From what I can make out in a couple of images, there appears to be some form of cable guide too on the rear deck so I replicated this using brass rod and some scrap PE...



Will mostly be hidden under the cargo deck when that's fitted though.

Gary

Kit modified part to form a spotlight for the rear along with added wiring for that and the convoy lights' junction box. Wiring conduit from the hull is lead wire with the end drilled out to give the impression of a hollow tube...



Gary

Gary
Simply outstanding work! I look so much forward to see it painted, although, as someone already pointed out, almost a shame to cover up all the great conversion and scratch building you've done.
Jacob

Hello Gary

A very nice model what you build. But the tail skid was not taken with the auxiliary winch on the vehicle. Given the large winch was used. Bin on your color scheme very interested. My respect for this model.


Best Regards LKWMAN

Thank you Jacob

Joch - I don't have any info on how the spade was raised/lowered, but the aux winch seems plausible. Do you have info to the contrary?


Cargo deck next. I anticipated a few issues here due to slight warpage of parts. The deck floor needed a little heat from a hairdryer to ensure it was flat before added 3 of the sides as per instructions along with locking pins...



The rear 'gate' was a little more challenging so I decided to rebuild it from Evergreen styrene to ensure everything was straight and true - simply replicating the resin parts and using styrene rod instead of the suggested brass...



Gary

Getting there slowly....



Gary

Hello Gary

Can anyone help, I think that you still build it to your model different from you.


regards LKWMAN

Seems to almost support my theory


Obligatory Soviet saw....



Gary

Hi Gary!

I just see it now.

Great work! I'll follow for sure!

Cheers!

Marco

Cheers Marco.


The mounting of the cargo bed to the hull was always going to be a challenge for a number of reasons. The support brackets are supplied as multi part PE and while not hard to assemble, contact areas between resin and brass are very small making a strong join difficult. You can't fit the assembly in place prior to painting for obvious reasons and gluing after paint runs the risk of touch ups later showing through. Then there is the conundrum of the aux tow cable being fitted in place due to it running over a couple of guide bars.

After some thought, I decided to remake the support struts from strip styrene onto which is mounted a square frame to act as a base....





The lower base of the bed itself is sanded flat....



... allowing the cargo bed to sit nicely onto the frame....





The bed can now be easily fitted after painting without fear of glue marks etc and the aux winch cable can be threaded as required.

Gary

Just noticed one of the rails on the gate was wonky in the above photos - now fixed

Gary

Draw bar is stowed on the RH fender....



Thought I'd improve upon the resin parts by using brass tube and soldering on new handles to each side....



Gary

Onto the boom next. Here are the main components ready to be assembled...



Base unit assembled....



... and attached to the hull...



Gary

Very clean work. Gary, this would make an excellent feature for the site. Interested?

Mario

Thank you Mario. Will drop you a PM later...


Boom assembly dry fitted....



Gary