Some riveting work on the hull
Added 2023-04-18 08:02:53 +0000 UTCMy friends, today's progress is probably not gonna be very riveting, but a lot of work has been done on the hull!
Besides the obligatory texturing of the armor plates, although I kept them rather smooth, there's been a lot of sanding, filling, and reworking on the rivets and bolts.
For example, most of the hinges lack the obligatory details, but I added these with small circles punched from tin foil using a drill bit. The rivets on the engine covers were in the kit, but they were so flat they pretty much disappeared after light texturing. A pin wash wouldn't hold around those at all!
Then there was the plate under the turret. I had to fill, sand, and re-scribe it to represent the real thing as the kit is assembled from multiple pieces that don't really mirror how the real tank was assembled.
I also took the opportunity to steal a few details from the Bronco kit, namely the periscopes and the sprockets, but the kit donoring doesn't end there!
What I tried to do was mating the Bronco suspension with the Tamiya hull. This could be possible with some scratchbuilding, but it probably wouldn't be worth the effort. The advantage of this would be a fully functional suspension, and a pretty unique one! Ultimately, I just removed some locating nubs on the Tamiya parts and at the very least the bogies can swing back and forth. The Bronco bogies are very fiddly and fragile, too!
Up next I'll probably finish the running gear and try using the working tracks from Bronco, and then add the remaining plastic details to the hull, and then start working on the extensive photo-etch!
