Will be taking a crack at this new little guy from Tamiya. More to come in the next few days and weeks!

Where you get it form?

It's a review sample that was provided to Armorama and I'll be doing the build-up review for it as an OOB project.

Allright Bill,this ones on my list,do it up.

Will do my best not to disappoint Anthony.

I'm interested to see how it builds up, too. Always thought it was a cool looking AFV.

Will be following this build; this kit is definitely on my wish list

Do we know who's mold's they are

Tamiyas. The kit # is 35348. They only use that numbering scheme for their own kits. Sprues are stamped Tamiya copyright 2016.

Has a release date been announced? The last one I read was a February release.

This is also on my wish list and I will follow the build.

Thanks.

George, they are totally new molds, not anybody else's.

Love to see this one, thanks

I'm just finishing up MiniArt's model of this tank destroyer; it'll be interesting to compare the two.

I'm not sure on the exact release date but it's popped up on eBay with a couple Asian sellers, so it shouldn't be too much longer.

Hobbyeasy has it available on 3-24 as of today.

Appreciate all the interest in this one gents! Should have the first round of WIP pics to show after this weekend if all goes to plan.

Interested here, will watch!

Kicked this one off today and duly started in on Step 1. This is a simple step, it just assembles the base of the gun mount complete with a polycap and gets the hull nose plate ready for install later on in Step 3. I deliberately left off the hook details for now as I prefer to avoid adding details to plates until after they are in place to prevent damage, loss, etc.



Step 2 builds up the front plate of the fighting compartment. This part does double duty as the main hull support bulkhead, so it plays an important role. First order of business was dealing with the many small ejector marks on the interior face. They aren't deep but some of them are in hard to reach spots. I used some custom cut sanding sticks that keep on hand for just this type of thing and sanded them down. It was only after I sanded smooth the large square area on the right side that it gets covered up complete with additional parts later, but I was in full-on EPM removal mode.



With those taken care of, I completed the assembly as called for in the step.



Step 3 deals with the multi-panel hull assembly. I know some have reservations about this type of approach vs. a one-piece tub, but Tamiya did a great job with the fit and engineering here. First up though, you guessed it, more little ejector marks to deal with. Most of these are around the suspension arm mounts and would most likely be covered by the road wheels but I didn't want to take any chances. Others were in highly visible areas and had to go, so more delicate sanding/trimming with a sharp #11 blade did the trick.



The instructions clearly direct you to assemble the hull in a specific sequence of events to avoid any problems. The nose plate goes on first, then the sides are attached to the floor pan, then the superstructure plate slides in between them to lock it all together. I used liquid glue to attach everything and encountered zero problems in the process.



Just to be sure I wouldn't have any problems later on, I skipped ahead to Step 15 and added in the glacis and engine deck plates. There's no real good reason I could see in the instruction order to wait to attach them and it has the added bonus of ensuring the hull would set up square. For good measure, I did a test fit with the compartment back plate, part B8, and held it in place with masking tape. Everything fit like a glove.



So far so good! Once the hull is fully set, I'll circle back and add the details called for to the nose plate and also work on the suspension components. Steps 4-13 deal with the fighting compartment interior and will be skipped for a while until I'm ready to tackle that area given all the detail work it involves.

More progress to report! I went back to Step 1 and duly added in the tow hook arrangments to the nose plate so I wouldn't forget about it later on. Easily done, you just have to be sure to add the small triangular parts, A6, first and then the main hooks to avoid any issues.



Rather than move on to the suspension as I originally planned, I instead started in on the interior modules to complete what I could there so that it would make painting and assembly easier when I get to that stage. First up, I assembled the main parts of the two right-hand side shell racks as called out in Step 4. The bases have small tabs that extend beyond the rack wall and are used to install them into the fighting compartment, so I wanted to see how easy that would be if the compartment wall itself was already installed.

The right side of the compartment is assembled in Step 5 out of two separate large pieces. I used the main hull to help ensure they were lined up properly in relation to each other and the angled front part of the compartment, then carefully applied liquid glue to the join and let it set inside the compartment before popping it out so it would behave as a single piece going forward. A quick test with the shell racks showed that the recommended order in the instructions of installing them to the compartment side first is a good one...it's a pretty tight fit, so I will deal with them separately in the painting and detailing department.

It's also worth noting here that Tamiya did something a little funny with the shell rack components. The retaining clips for each round are molded onto the rounds themselves, so there are no clips present for the empty round places in the racks. Tamiya deliberately left several round places empty in all three racks, so that leaves something for the aftermarket boys or the adventurous scratch-builders to address.



Skipping over to Step 11, I worked on the compartment rear plate. Some ejector marks that would be visible were removed and I installed the bench seat and supports so I could work with this as another interior module for painting.



A quick mock-up with some masking tape and poster putty shows just how cramped/tight the interior is with all this stuff. I deliberately left off the little commander's jump seat on the right wall as it will be easier to detail it separately and then install it due to how closely it fits against the rear shell rack.



I also noticed that there was a small gap/opening on the right side between the engine deck and the angled superstructure front. As near as I could tell after consulting available reference photos of the actual vehicle, there is supposed to be a small gap here but not one that would extend all the way down into the hull itself. To address that, I added a small length of white styrene rod and applied liquid glue to soften it then shaped it with a wooden toothpick to fill in the base hull area while still leaving the superficial gap between the superstructure and the engine deck area. Not sure if that's 100% accurate, but it looks better to my eye vs. having this small crack down into the interior.



Next up will be spending some time on the fighting compartment upper sides to get them ready for paint.

If Tamiya can design kits with perfect fit, why can't they design ejector pin marks on the insides or bottoms of parts?

Sometimes the engineering cannot overcome the physical need. You probably would have to create an entire new manufacturing process to do something better.

Because they are constrained by the engineering realities of mold design. They are on the side that needs them. Could you completely re-design the parts as well as their layout to avoid this? Perhaps, but then it might not fit perfectly, eh?

KL

I agree. They seem to have taken care to place them in areas that won't be seen wherever possible and/or used small pins with shallow footprints.

The build is coming along nicely, Thanks for sharing I just might have to get this one.

Robert

Nice progress Bill.
On my t "to-get" list for this year, but just need to make some space in the attic insulation that is my stash first.