I pulled out the Bronco 1/35 Staghound Mk 1 from the stash as a respite from some pretty intense scratchbuilding and detailing. I've really enjoyed the kit's engineering and finesse.

Then I came to the leaf springs---- split down the middle. Not just a molding seam to remove (like most other kits), but you're required to glue two halves together and you're left with an enormous seam and huge shrunken pits to fill.

From searches, it seems many people have built up the 1/35 Bronco kits. What did you guys/gals do?

Maybe, if regular filling and sanding is too labor intensive or just difficult due to brackets and other details, you can simply glue a thin styrene strip on top, and sand/bevel the edges to make it sit flush with the leaf springs.

Regards,
César

I built their 1/48. Just as nice, and no leaf spring difficulties!

biggles: that does look good -- but I'm already down the rabbit hole with mine. I'm backdating mine to the earlier version seen with Polish units in Italy, BTW.

When I built mine, I bit the bullet and filled the seams. Mr Dissolved Putty, Mr Surfacer, a flat file and a chisel bladed xacto knife. Not much fun, but better than having visible seams that couch be seen with no effort.

Paul H

Hej Roy,

Just out of curiosity, what are the modifications required to backdate the model? I believe Polish markings for a vehicle in Italy are included with the kit (but I could be wrong), so I guess they won't work straight OOB?

Hi Sven: I've been poring over tons of known photos and galleries of surviving Staghounds. There are two main areas that point to early versus later. The Staghound in Bovington is an early one.

1) the engine deck. Initial production hulls had the engine compartment covers bolted to mounting frames. The Tech Manual photos and narrative ("remove the engine compartment covers" and "re-install the engine compartment covers") point to this. You can download the TM HERE. I found some photos of an ex-Italian police version with rivets and hinges but they clearly were post-war mods.

The early engine covers correspond to the fixed, vertical lifting hooks on the rear corners of the hull. Bronco provides the later configuration with hinges which allowed the crew to simply unlock them along the centerline and then splay them open to the side and foldable lift hooks.

Besides the addition of hex bolts, the earlier covers had a different set of handles on the face too. I'll post pictures later.

2) Turret. There's clearly a progression. The earliest had pistol ports on the turret cheeks and only the two rear corner horizontal lifting lugs. A circular plate was on the roof, just aft of the mantlet opening and they often had foul weather coverings over the mantlet. Later the pistol ports were welded shut and finally deleted. Then the frontmost pair of horizontal lift lugs were added.

Finally, the 2-in mortar was added and the rear MG pintle was added, as well as the reinforced armor on the mantlet and spot light base (per the kit)



I backdated my turret to what was seen sported by "Dzielny" -- no 2-inch mortar, no MG pintle base on rear of turret roof, added .30cal MG on left turret wall and modified commander's hatch to open frontwards (the .30cal and modified hatch were particular to many Italian theatre Staghounds -- both late and early turrets). Dzielny has the foul weather cover on its mantlet.

I haven't checked which Polish unit the kit decals depict so I can't state whether it was an early or later production variant. I'll say this however: I've not seen any modelers attempt to backdate the Bronco kit to the earlier configuration despite what markings some have affixed.

Another feature of the early hulls was the fighting compartment roof was flush with the side hull plates. Later hulls (like the Bronco kit), had a raised edge to give extra bullet splash protection to the turret race. To backdate the kit, carefully carve about 2mm extension off the upper edge of both side plates,adjacent to the turret.

Sven: A minor update -- the side armor upper extension to be removed is less than 1mm, not 2mm like I mentioned above. I just completed the alteration last night.