Catch up with PART SEVEN here
So here we are at the end of the week and is it primed yet ? In a word no. Not quite. But I’m almost there. Spent the week adding zimmerit to the hull sides and scratchbuilding replacement schurzen as the ones that come in the kit were just way too thick. Also spent time doing more stuff I knew I should have done right back at the beginning when I said I wasn’t going to get too carried away with the detailing but knew I probably would anyway.
The kit schurzen is 2mm thick which would be 70mm IRL, not the correct 5mm, so just re-cut each panel from o.25mm plasticard sheet. I did originally place all the hangers using the academy part as a template only to discover most of them just didn’t line up properly so ended up redoing them all one by one to get the positions right. I’ve decided to add a little damage to the front right so left off two panels and damaged the third. The idea is to replicate mine damage so I’m replacing the two frontmost right side roadwheels with ones with later style hubcaps, removed one schurzen fender mount and buckled the fender, then twisted the rail.
The aerial has been added, though I need to get the curve out of it yet, and the tracks are assembled. The idler can be removed as can the road wheels and return rollers so the tracks will be added at the end and painted/weathered as separate pieces until they need to go on. As I had plenty of links left over I’m going to add several sections of tracks to the glacis as additional armoured based on several photos of vehicles drapped in extra track lengths. As such I didn’t worry overly much about the central zimmerit panels and will finish the zimmerit on the glacis and drivers vision plate once the two halves are together ( have to get the engine painted and installed before I can do that ).
I also redid the spare roadwheel stowage bin to be an Ausf.G style, remade out of .25mm plasticard to represent the sheet metal with the folded lip. I’m going to stow a bunch of jerrycans along the side of the rear deck as well as an ammo box on the right side and an oil can tied to the schurzen mount. The can was redone to add the handle and the helical twist of the cap lid. This needs topping off with a blob of Mr. Surfacer to finish it off. Likewise the jerrycans need Mr. Surfacer added to represent the weld seam where the handles join the body.
So still just a few little things left to do. Mainly getting the engine painted and installed so I can join the two halves and add the final zimmerit. More cleaning up and at the moment I’m redoing a fuel cap to add on the rear deck as well as the two on the left side of the hull in case I decide to leave off one of the left side schurzen panels. The commander has his hand and weapon removed while I resculpt his body as otherwise it just gets in the way. There’s still a few rivets to add, a few to sand down and the towbar to deal with too.
And when all that is done weather permitting we’ll finally get it primed. Which will then just lead to finding all the areas that need touching up. So be prepared to check back in again at the end of next week when hopefully it will at least all be one colour for a short time, because once those last few rivets are done, and the towbar and fuel filler caps are done I don’t think there’s any more alterations to be done.
