Jeff E

Dan the amount and quality of the detail you are adding to this build is absolutely stunning. Jeff

Hi wangmm2047, Thanks for your opinion about some of the detail being unnecessary and some of it may well be completely hidden after other parts are added but what would disappoint me more was if I did not add it and it was able to be glimpsed or seen after it was too late to add it in. The fit of the two hull halves on my model is very good and I am constantly checking the fit of the two halves after the detail is added so as it does not interfere with their fit. I don't intend to glue them together allowing the upper hull to be completely removable. Hello All, Time for another small update, I have cut out the access panel for the engine bulkhead from 0.5mm plastic card it still needs a few things done to it such as an hole cut into the lower RH side (looking at the picture) so the oil scavenge valve can be accessed and a hole roughly in the centre to access the air start distributor without removing the panel. I have also added the wing nuts and cut some hinge detail into the lower access panels. The next job was to add some bulkhead fittings to the bulkhead so that the various fuel and air lines could pass through from one side of the bulkhead to the other. These were made from 1.8mm bolt heads drilled out to take the pipes. The yellow arrow indicates where the pipe for the air start system will go, the blue arrows show where the fuel air pressure lines will continue from the front fuel tanks to connect to the engine bay fuel tanks, the orange arrow indicates where the fuel air pressure line for the rear fuel tanks goes and the green arrows are where the fuel lines from the front fuel tanks connect to the engine bay fuel tanks via a tee piece on the engine side of the bulkhead. The next picture shows the engine side of the bulkhead. The cross pieces of the fuel line tee pieces were made from 0.8mm plastic rod with drilled out bolt heads glued to each end, these will be glued to another small piece of rod to form the tee and positioned into the lower bulkhead fittings after the fuel lines have been shaped. Two oil return lines were made up to connect the oil manifold to the oil tanks on each side of the hull. They were made from 1.2mm solder and the 'hoses' were made from heat shrink, carefully shrunk onto the solder and then pushed onto the plastic part. The solder was slid all the way into the heat shrink and bent so that the heat shrink holds a nice shape without kinking. The bulkhead was then glued into place the next jobs will be to make up the air and fuel lines for the drivers compartment and to finish off any other details in that area so that it can be painted. That's all for now thanks for looking in, all comments welcome. Cheers Jeff

Very nice work on the hull and the turret John, the hatch turned out really well. Jeff

The other small job that has been done was to fit the oil return manifold to the rear of the engine bulkhead. One possible use for this 'manifold' or hollow chamber was to trap water vapour. The original mounting holes in the bulkhead had to be relocated because to mount it the right way up they were to low. The part had a large hollow in the back of it where it mounted on the access panel, which is now removed, was filled with a piece of sprue and putty and sanded to shape and a hole was drilled into the LH side to take the outlet hose from the oil cooler radiator. The manifold was the fitted to the bulkhead and a mounting bracket was made. That's all for now Cheers Jeff

Thanks Liam and Nicolay, I am glad you like them and hope you find some of the information useful. The next job was to make the two fuel tanks located in the engine bay, these are not supplied in the kit and will be scratch built. As with the covers for the other fuel tanks I made a template for these tanks from cardboard and the used it to cut the tanks from 0.5mm plastic sheet. The first two photos show the template fitted in position. The two tanks were then cut out and glued together and dry fitted to the hull. The next thing I had to workout was how to replicate the panel strengthening detail that is present on the other tanks, the circle and cross that can be seen on the rear fuel and oil tanks. What I finally decided to use was adhesive foil which is about 0.3mm thick and after testing that primer and paint will stick to it will add a nice relief that can be painted and weathered later. The foil was cut to shape and marked and cut out with a hole punch and scalpel and it was the stuck to the tanks. The tanks were then glued into place. The engine bulkhead is still only dry fitted here as some more parts need to be added to it. As you can see in the above photo I have also added this detail to the front fuel tanks and will also add it to the rear fuel and oil tanks. I am not sure what the small handle on top of the tank is for, possibly a lifting eye.

I agree with you after just posting from Flickr for the first time the process does take a bit longer and I can't work out how to organise my photos in the order I want them as easily as I can with Village Photos. Anyhow we will see what happens over the next few days, hopefully they get it sorted soon.😃

I have assembled the engine crankcase, timing cover and generator so they can be dry fitted into the hull to make sure that the modifications I've made to the bulkhead don't interfere with the fit of the engine. The next two photos show the engine and bulkhead dry fitted. A plastic strip has been fitted across the opening in the bulkhead and a piece of plastic angle glued across the bottom of it to support the access panel when it is fitted. A handle was also fitted to the selector valve. That's all for now Cheers Jeff

Hi All, I am still having an issue with Village Photos as they have still not renewed their security certificate. I tried again just now and I still get a privacy warning that personal information could be stolen if I proceed to the site so I have signed up with Flickr and I will attempt to post my images from there until the issues at the other site are rectified. I have been working on the bulkhead which separates the fighting compartment from the engine. There are quite a few modifications I want to make to this part, one of the main ones being to cut out the engine access panel in the centre of the bulkhead. A new panel will be made out of plastic card and be removable. The first photo shows the part as it comes in the kit. The second photo shows the parts of it I intend to modify. The black line indicates the access panel that will be cut out, the black arrow is pointing to the fuel tank selector valve which needs to be cut off and re-positioned because it is directly in line with the generator drive shaft on the engine. Holes will be drilled where the red arrows are pointing so that the speedo and tacho cables can be fed through to the engine and transmission and a hole for the wiring to the fuse box and the yellow arrow is pointing to the oil scavenge control valve which needs to be cut from the access panel and plumbed into the oil system at a later date. This is the bulkhead after the access panel was removed. All of the ejector pin marks on the rear of the panel were filled and sanded and the pipe detail was removed. The pipe on the left in the photo was removed and a piece of plastic card fitted over the square hole, which is the back of the fuse box, in between the two pipe sections. The fuel tank selector valve was removed and refitted a few mm to the left of it's original position and the holes were drilled for the wiring and the cables. The rear parts of the fuel valve and the oil hand pump, which is represented by that lever to the left of the fuse box, were made from plastic tube and rod and fitted with drilled out bolt heads to represent unions for the pipes some wiring was also added to the fuse box.

Excellent attention to detail Dan, love the fire extinguishers and the flashlight holder. Jeff

You are on the home stretch now Nicolay, the weathering on the tracks looks great as does the subtle weathering on the hull and turret. Looking forward to seeing a little dust and dirt on it. Jeff

Thanks John, I am planning to make the whole of the upper hull removable so hopefully most of it will be visible. I do try to visualize what parts will be seen and which ones will be covered by seats, ammo boxes or other parts and only add the detail where it will be seen. Thank you Nikolay. Thank you Vaastav. I was planning to add an update today but the photo hosting site I use, Village Photos security certificate has expired and when I open their page I get a warning not to log in as personal information may be stolen. I have encountered this problem with other sites and it is usually rectified fairly quickly. So as soon as they are up and running again I will post an update. Cheers Jeff.

Excellent work Dan! the amount of detail you are adding to this old kit is amazing😀 Jeff

Very nice Nikolay, the chipping looks good to me😃 Jeff

The inside of the two guards for the front suspension stations were painted ivory and then parts E17 and E18 were glued into place along with the air pipes and the front area was given a coat of ivory paint. That's all for now. I will post some more progress soon. Cheers Jeff.

Hello All, Time for the next update. Trumpeter supply two PE sheets with the kit mostly for the external parts, grilles, straps etc but also included are some very nicely detailed parts for the machine gun magazine racks for the driver's compartment and the turret. The first one is fitted on the RH wall next to the radio operator/ gunner. I have also made up and fitted a cover, out of aluminium tube and plastic sheet for second axle on the RH side as it will be the only one visible when the driver's compartment is completed and a poly cap on an axle didn't look good. The pipes that connect the air tanks to the air start valve and the fuel air pressure pump to the fuel tank selector valve have also been fabricated. The following photos shows them dry fitted in place.