I epoxied the front & rear set of wheels in place so as to make sure the model would sit level - the middle rows will go on later.









I will more than likely add brake lines as well...

Looks really good...

is the rest of the kit OOB (except for the turret)? I can not wait to start mine... might squeeze in a few minutes this week... I have the building sequence planned out (at least for the moment).

And thanks for te pics, the second set was about perfect...

Cheers,

Harm.

The wheels are aftermarket, and all the flappe will be aftermarket along with the tools, etc. I will use a little more photo-etch here & there.

Alex,
That is shaping up to be a great build, I have the 234/4 on the to do list after the 232, so I am following your build closely. Italeri might not be state of the art when it comes to molding but there kits can be built into really nice models with a little tlc. I look forward to your next posting,
regards,
Robert

Looks like your going to town on this one. Can't wait to see what comes next!

Looking great so far Alex. Wheels look good.
Looks like a very detailed undercarriage.

Alex,

are you talking about the Aber visors? Made up of about 20 pieces each? What did you have to use the putty for by the way?

Cheers,

Harm

Harm,

I have all the "windows" blocked off with styrene, so I won't be doing anything other than attaching the Royal Models resin flappe via Epoxy. They will all be closed.
I felt that it was necessary to use Tamiya putty & Mr. Surfacer 500 for 2 reasons. The back of the 234/1 (along with all 234 series) has a hatch to access the engine. The Italeri kit has that molded flush with screws set in along the perimeter. The hatch is on the surface and there are no screws anywhere that I can tell so I filled all that in with Tamiya putty, sanded it, then went back in with Mr. Surfacer 500 to fill in any scratches I may have left and then went over that with steel wool.
This is the 2nd 234 kit I have built and although the 234/1 was the last to be released by Italeri - it shares the same flaw as the 234/2. You will see that there is a gap between the hull & the top plate (the one the turret mounts on).

Here are some VERY CRUDE drawings I whipped up. The red line is how the top fits when you put it in place. The space between the red & black lines is exaggerated, but it IS noticeable.





I filled that area in using the same materials and I shaped up the sides of the full a bit to make sure they were flat - the left over "putty" tells the tale - they were not flat.