The kit's instructions are complex, and as such I resolved to follow them closely, to avoid any mistakes on my part during the build (if possible). The build starts with the "legs" that support the base, which have a few bits of added Photo-Etch to busy them up. Here I spotted a goof with the instructions, and the bases of the side legs B32 and B33 should be transposed, as they're handed incorrectly on the instructions. There's a helpful positioning diagram to help place the PE in the proper places, which is full-scale, so makes that particular job easier. The "front" leg is rigid, while the side legs hinge sideways. The rear leg however raises, but there doesn't seem to be any pivot point included with the kit, so it wobbles and falls off once complete, as you're told not to glue it. I might put a brass rod through it later on to allow it to pivot if I feel the need.
I decided to build the kit with the supplied plastic barrel and flash hider, as Airbrushes.com were out of the upgrade set (which looks great btw), so I glued the parts carefully, paying attention to the alignment of the parts. This paid off, and the seams were soon obliterated with a bit of sanding. There is a strange shallow depression at 90o to the seam though, so that also needs some work. The flash-hider went together nicely, but due to the restrictions of tooling, all of the perforations pointed in one direction. To remedy this, I inserted a suitably sized reamer in each hole, and reamed it out slightly to the same size for each one. The result is a much more pleasing look to the part. I also replaced some rather weak raised lines around the barrel with some styrene strip, as they had got damaged during sanding.
Next up was the front trolley, with working suspension. I had my doubts about whether this would work, but apart from a bit of three-handed juggling of the parts during assembly, it worked out well. I found that gluing the two top suspension pivots together around the chassis and the wheel back, then inserting the spring, and finally adding the bottom suspension pivot worked well. Far fewer hands needed, and you get plenty of time to fill the small sink marks in the parts. I've yet to add the soft wire representing the brake hoses, and I think I'll leave those until later.
Anyway - a picture of all the assemblies so far.
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