badger

Looking great mate and those grilles fit nicely - glad to see them used. Hope you managed to get some sleep? All the best Ben

This is the photo to the update above as Flickr is now back up All the best Ben

Phew! Glad I caught it in time. Here's the picture I wanted to share (it's Bovingtons jagdtiger). The mesh grille can be seen on the right. All the best Ben

Still can't access my Flickr account to add photos - Grrrrr!!

Hi Glad the metal barrel worked ok - I like them a lot. Please don't snip the plastic grill away - this is supposed to be there and is just covered with the etch mesh as an additional layer. Sadly I still can't use flickr so upload an image but a Google search of tiger 1 engine deck shows what I mean Kind regards Ben

Looking good (and massive!). I rather like the tamiya quick setting glue, although as you've said it does have a strong smell. Looking forward to seeing your next update. All the best Ben

Having enjoyed the mini session last night on this build, I have managed another hour tonight. I've started cleaning up and assembling the road wheels. These have some fairly bad seams and a bit of flash so are taking a while. I also fitted the non-slip etch to the kit fenders. Although the Eduard set provides new fenders they are for the dragon kit and I wasn't sure they'd fit my trumpeter kit. Instead I did manage to get the non slip panels (3 pieces) to fit the kit, with only a tiny bit of trimming. Quite pleased with that as, to my eyes, it makes a big difference. More soon All the best Ben Ps - flickr is down so will add the photo later

Cheers Steve - hopefully will get a bit more time on this. All the best Ben

Thanks Ozzy. I've had half an hour on the Ferdinand tonight and gotten the main superstructure assembled which went together quite nicely. Not a lot of progress, but a start. More soon All the best Ben

Thanks Stix I'm looking forward to this one but need to finish up the M60 first so progress may be a bit slow at first. Cheers Hewy Trying to keep this one a little less mad than the panzer iv! All the best Ben

Time for an update. I've not done any modelling this weekend as been sorting the stash to try and rehome some of the kits I'll never build. I have however planned out how I want this to look. First up this is the starting point of the Ferdinand. I've previously attached the fenders, hull sides, top plate and nose - 6 parts in total onto the lower hull. Hopefully this is under the 25% threshold. I've got the obligatory metal barrel and an etch set (actually for the Dragon Elefant, but I'm hoping bits of it will be useful). To go with it (but not part of this GB), is this rather nice Soviet Gaz AAA truck made by Komintern. I've partially built this already but have recently acquired an etch set for it and have some resin wheels on order. Finally this is how I plan on displaying them - the idea is to have the Ferdinand broken down (as many of them did), having shed a track. The Gaz will be loaded with ammo boxes and stopped while the crew take a cigarette break and view the abandoned tank. More soon All the best Ben

Now I'm safely back down from the attic I can send a proper reply. Excellent progress so far! In my (limited) experience, tamiya kits really do build nicely. Think the black poly caps are there to make a tight join for the wheels onto the axles, but also to allow them to be removed if needed (especially as many tamiya tanks were originally designed to be motorised). The nice thing about steel rims is that there is no tricky tyre to paint! All the best Ben

Hi Steve Quick answer I'm afraid as I'm up the attic stash mining. They didn't - all steel. All the best Ben

Breaking News!! I've decided to "expand" this project a little and display the Ferdinand as broken down during the Kursk battle, having shed a track. This lends itself nicely to a small diorama so watch this space as I have a cunning plan to further reduce the stash! All the best Ben

Hi Steve That's a great project you have there. I've seen some good results with the zimmerit and it's a lot quicker than using filler and a blade. The individual track links look rather nice - I have Tamiya's for a Tiger 1 and was quite happy with them. The metal ones are nice, but a serious investment. Not sure I can offer much advice as not built many 1/35 kits, but can chip in with bucket fulls of encouragement! All the best Ben Ps - the quick drying glue is great stuff.