Aaaand we're ready for paints

My friends, even if this was a simple "upgrade" build, it felt more exhausting than the BMR-3 🥱 Friul tracks for this tank were probably the worst I've assembled yet, as always, each link had to be drilled out but on top of that they're extremely fragile and easy to bend. They also got "warped" sideways when I assembled them, this was easy to fix but it was yet another inconvenience. There weren't too many leftovers so I was only able to assemble 2 spare runs. But hey, I 3D printed the broken "ring" on the idler wheel, at least that's a pretty cool fix 😁 

What then... some filling on the hull which my friend omitted when he assembled it, then re-doing the weld detail... Pz II is interesting because it's welded on the edges, so there's no visible cross section or anything. As such it's barely noticeable but I think it'll show once the model is painted. At least it was fairly easy, just "chopping" the edges with a hobby blade and then brushing liquid cement over them. Tamiya of course included the weld detail, but it's kinda shallow and hard to see. The only epoxy welds I ended up adding were around the fake periscope and the extra protection around the turret ring. Of course I couldn't leave it without at least some very light armor texture :) 

And then of course stowage. Still very little practice with this, I spent maybe 4 hours just thinking and arranging it so it would look interesting. I used a grenade box from Plusmodel, jerry cans from the good old Tamiya set (they're actually very nice!), a couple of tents and tarps from Eureka, a bucket from Miniart's Field Workshop set and some fresh 3D stuff - MG34 ammo cans and metal bowls. Helmets are printed as well, I used the same model downloaded from Thingiverse like on the Jagdtiger. I also added a few tarps to make the random items "sit in" and not just lay scattered over the engine deck. This time I went with Tamiya epoxy putty instead of the VMS Paper Shaper combo because I wanted to change things up a little bit... but I also think epoxy tarps work better with resin stowage since that was also sculpted from epoxy - the result feels more consistent. 

 That's about it, again it wasn't too much work but it was sloooooow! I hope the resin tarps have solidified because I'd like to wash the model and hopefully prime it tonight! Tomorrow - paints! 😁