It's been a bit since my last update. For a recap...I'm building Hobby Boss' T-28E.
Driver's station. Basically, it's a metal box with a front hatch with a vision slit and bullet-splash strip. There is some inner detail to the hatch...vision block and handle machanism. This is an uparmored version so the sides get added armor plating. An armor plate also covers the front hatch.
Driver's spot assembled and mounted to tank. Next up are some additional cover plates for the suspension. There are some rollers for each. I assume these serve as a mud-scraper role or something. Each fits on the corner...as pointed out by the yellow arrow. You'll see those mounted a bit later.
Im getting off-track a bit here so bear with me. You can see where the mud/sand channel plating bits were added. This is where the fit of the suspension bits might come back to aunt you. I ad to adjust some parts a bit to get them to fit. The worst culrit are the PE suspension things. You bend them the top surfaces can curve and raise their height just a hair...that's enough. Realisically, you could leave those pieces off as they won't be seen and they don't really offer much support for the cover plates.
For some reason I went ahead and sarted on the small pair of turrets. The turrest are pretty simple. I assembled them and they can be seen a bit later. I got a bit out of sequence with my pictures...jumping around in asembly and just having some bad pictures.
All that suspension detail is now covered up. And you can see the end plates with the rollers.
I went ahead and shot a base coat of dark green on the lower hull so I could begin on the tracks. I added "mud", using Sculptamold. The first attempt ooked bad so I toned it down alot. It should work once I get to the later painting phases. Each side needs 118 links. The tracks require some clean-up but go together fairly well. he pictures I have seen of T28s all show the tracks being tight....so I included no sag.
Tracks were painted using dark grey auto primer (spray can). It smells to high-heaven but dries with a texture. It gives the tracks a texture and helps with finishing paint. Once those dried, the tracks were mounted...as mentioned, no sag. The length and multitude of road-wheels made them a bit fiddly to get on.
Rear deck detail. There's actually a nice radiator fan assembly underneath that cover. You canot see it so I removed the fan and I'll use it for something else. Then you have the exhaust, which was added alot earlier in the build, but not noted until now...and the air intake vent/ducts. The intake ducts fit funny against the exhaust so you might have to play with them a bit.
There's the MG turrets. They just sit in their rings. The main turret and MG turret rings all have geared edged..which you won't see once the turrets are added. Also done are the front details. The real lights could be folded down to protect the lenses. The instructions don't mention this but they can be posed as such.
This a bit of a hodge-podge of stuff. The plan at this point was to knock out some of the PE. That's actually what I am doing now. In the picture are the jacks, storage boxes, tow cables, brakelight assemblies, and handsaw & pickaxe. The fender mounts for the spares were done. The mount for the wheels and the bogey arm (yellow arrow) needed a shim to allow the wheels to clear the fender surface. You could turn it upside-down and it would work...the instructions don't mention that. Mine were already cemented on by the time I noticed it and I didn't want to risk damaging the mounts.
I still have the fender details, the main turret, and alot of PE bits to add. Then paint and weathering.