Welded and armed up!

My friends, Ferdinand has been progressing steadily until a certain point. I did all the major welding in one day, then focused on the running gear and then on some of the details that also needed additional welding.

The running gear is recreated as fully functional, but some aspects aren't executed in the best ways. For example, the road wheels are so clunky that it's easier to glue them firmly to the bogies. Also, the bogies themselves, while they move like on the real vehicle, are very loose and wobble from side to side. Luckily, the tracks will hold them in a straight line! The sprockets are held in place with a plastic, not a rubber poly cap. But, surprisingly, they are the only parts of the running gear that feel firm and steady!

I also made a GIANT blunder with the engine deck when I glued it the opposite way. I didn't notice it until today when I started gluing some details to it. And because I enjoy flooding parts with generous amounts of Mr Cement S (because it's so clean when it evaporates and it's satisfying to know you've created a strong bond), the recovery was unpleasant and painful. So much so that I briefly considered buying a new kit just for the engine plate. But I managed to chop, rip, and saw it off, and turn it around. The new joints were a bit messy in places, and there's one corner where a strategic tarp will be required, but some diluted putty did the job for the most part. Luckily, the real engine deck seems to have a bit of texture as well, so it should be all good.

The details are where the Amusing Hobby kit stops being Amusing :( Most of them are recreated in underwhelming quality, such as the antenna base, and while most have a locating hole on the engine deck, they're too large to fit in said holes. On another note, the hatch bumpers have a steel rod. It's in the reference images, it's in the kit instructions, but the rods are NOT molded in the kit.

Maybe the the message is simple: if you want an amusing hobby, you should always arm yourself up with reference images! :D But even then I was left a bit confused. The museum photos I found show an Elefant with every moving part welded in place. So I wasn't sure if the thick add-on armor at the front was just held in place with those giant bolts, or it was also welded for good measure. I went with the latter because bolting something and then welding it as well doesn't sound so wrong when the part is meant to stay there forever.

Another small tragedy is the gun travel lock. It's too tight to be wrapped around the Panzer Art metal barrel. And while differences between manufacturers of aftermarket barrels and the original kit parts are normal (someone has to get it wrong and someone else gets it right), I've never seen a case where the aftermarket barrel would cause so much trouble.

Oh well, what can I say? Of course, my own mistake was enough to sour my experience for the entire day, but what followed didn't help the situation at all. I'm curious to see how the rest of the kit goes together, and there are, of course, a lot of small details to be added to the bare bones kit! At least the Friul tracks and Eduard PE arrived today!

But with this level of quality, I'm starting to get seriously worried about the decals. They cover a good half of the entire model, so I better start praying they're good!