REBAAAR

My friends, this part was a real rollercoaster! So first I obviously finished the turret with remaining details from the kit and handlebars from wires, nothing special, right?

Then it was time for the rebar cage. Having done this already in the past, I knew how to proceed. However, this being 1/48th scale, using a 0.2mm wire for the rebar would be a bit out of scale, so alright, where do I get thinner wires? So I ended up dissecting an old electrical cable full of roughly 0.1mm wires, excellent! While I was twisting these into rebars, the wire was so fragile that 50% of the time it snapped. Not the most fun process... (they were twisted just like a metal rope - you bend it in half, put one end into a rotary tool, put a toothpick into the loop at the other end and turn the rotary tool on). 

Then the cage, this was very straightforward, starting with the sheet metal mounts made from copper sheet. Next the horizontal rebars, and finally vertical ones. This requires a LOT of wire, and it also takes a while until you get it all done. At first I kinda wanted to leave the cage like that, but since I have a reference photo which I'm loosely following, I felt like trying to add a few sandbags inside. And before I knew it, I had half of the cage full of sandbags and bricks! Oh, those bricks are actually another, brand new 3D print. 

But there was a small problem, I was running out of Magic Sculpt putty! This meant I had to be very resourceful and that's also why about half of the space is filled with bricks. I even squeezed a plastic Tamiya sandbag in there to save putty. In the end, I spent it all and what's unfortunate, I can't find it anywhere for a reasonable price, which means I'll probably have to give Green Stuff or good old Milliput another chance on another project. 

The tied up ends on sandbags were made from Tamiya epoxy which works better for me when it comes to small stuff, and while I had a huge ball of it at hand, I rolled a tarp. Then I thought, hey, this putty is starting to dry up and it might be easy to tear up. And would you know it, it did! So I was able to follow the reference photo even more closely with a shot-up sandbag where the tank was probably hit and the whole cage got torn to shreds there. 

So in conclusion, it all just kinda happened. I'm not very good with sculpting sandbags so they don't look particularly perfect, but on the other hand, how are you gonna learn if you don't keep trying, right? 

Initial plan was to add rebar screens on the hull as well, but now I'm not so sure. Partly because I like how the tank in the reference photo looks, and partly because it takes so many hours to get the rebar done! We'll see, next I'll add missing details from wires here and there, finish detailing the hull and then, if I feel like doing so, I'll do it... or not! 😁

Oh, and how am I gonna paint them? Airbrush seems like the only possible way...