Decided to start another what should hopefully be a quick build with the new Tamiya 38(t) kit.
The next real build I wanna work on is a Hetzer, so doing a 38(t) seemed appropriate.
I built up most of the lower hull without remembering to take pics, so sorry about that.
Fit seems pretty typical for tamiya, and goes together well.
I have some after market parts for this kit, but the tracks looked good enough that I didn't need to spring for fruil tracks.
These tracks went together really nicely. Better than most kits Ive built. The tolerances seemed to be just about perfect.
I built my armor with the wheels off to make it easier for painting, but that can sometimes make adding the tracks a real pain trying to get them on and fit them snugly with the wheels and keeping everything together.
Heres a tip I've found really useful. Tack your wheels or other parts on using masking fluid. It makes for a pretty nice non permanent fit and clean up is easy before painting:
I went to add the fenders and found they have these crazy deep recesses from the molding process, and are unfortunately pretty visible even when the tracks are on. I filled these pretty sloppily with Tamiya white putty, Once its dried I'll sand it back, but Im not to worried about making it perfect as I'll texture the underside of the fenders with mud and dirt anyway.
Im waiting on that to dry, and they need to be in place to continue building so Im calling it there for tonight.
Paint and weathering made this an interesting armor subject. I normally don't find early German armor anything I pay much attention too, for one reason or another. But I watched this complete build, anxious to see how well it was going to turn out. Very good work. I enjoyed your build.
Fantastic - great weathering. Well done!