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For those wondering why there has been little progress on Cisco the Green Nosed mustang (WIP elsewhere) and the glider thread (WIP elsewhere), my main modelling activities this summer have been geared towards AFV's largely due to my time at the Tank Museum as a volunteer modeller. Apart from finishing a 1/35 M24 Chaffee (RFI to come) and close to finishing two 1/35 M41 (Taiwanese and ARVN, RFI to come) I am now tackling the monster 1/35 M537G tractor plus semi-trailer from Trumpeter. I bought this kit back in 2011 at the War & Peace event, which Mrs T and I attended for a whole weekend. We actually camped at the event in our tent! Yours truly preparing a feast, note beer close to hand..... Karen getting to grips with an FV432 And there was an example of a slightly different variant, the MAZ 545 at the event, so I have plenty of reference pictures of my own. The main (only?) differences to the 537 are the side grills behind the cab and the cab front. I'm sure there are others. I made a start on the trailer back then, but life was very busy with work (I did that then), and planning for our wedding the following year. It then sat on the shelf for 13 long years (longer than the Vosper @Courageous), until the beginning of this summer, when I decided to take the bull by the horns and work on it again, during my summer shifts at the tank museum, where a number of other modellers and I display our models, and some of us actually make models for the entertainment of the general public. So this has been occupying me every week for 5 or 6 hours each shift, for the last six weeks. I think this is the first Trumpeter kit I have built. It has a huge parts count, and in 1/35 it is a beast of a model. The version I have is this one: No display of the sprues as much of those were put together during the summer! These two volumes have been very helpful as references. There are four etch brass frets in the kit, some of which has been made up and used (see pics later) but much of it still awaits construction, where I decide to use it. Trumpeter provide all the tyres (18 including two spares) as vinyl tyres, which IMHO do not look the part (even when painted) as they are two narrow in width and not chunky enough in appearance. So to the rescue came these ..... A great set, with size matching better to the Tankograd plans (excellent set in the book), although marred a little by air bubbles on small sections of the tread, where they were attached to the resin fill gates. More of that later. A comparison showing why I feel these are better. Progress so far has included work towards finishing the semi-trailer, plus making a start on the tractor unit. More of the tractor later. Two major sub components of the trailer completed and joined. The flat bed part and and the nose which hooks onto the fifth wheel on the tractor. Underside view. Topside Ramps constructed and in place Hoist constructed and fitted to the forward end of the trailer That small hole at the base of the hoist has a small plastic pin which needs to fit inside, part 15 thus: Cutting and cleaning that up was accompanied by much cursing of course, but we got it fitted in the end. It's the little things that make the difference! Latest parts for the trailer have included the hydraulic supports for the forward end, for when the trailer needs support once detached... These have some support arms that fit at the bottom by the pads, and thence to the trailer. Trumpeter provided each arm in two parts and the fit was pretty bad After filler and some cleanup And inside the feet of the hydraulic supports, I spotted those dreaded release marks that need dealing with. They will need dremeling out and cleaning up! Next job on the trailer will be to assemble and fit the guide rails for when loading AFV's. These fit like this..... ..... and the keen eyed will notice Trumpeter provide two options: 1. Plastic 2. Etch My plan is to see how the etch assembly goes ............... and revert to plastic if I'm too challenged by the etch! That's about as far as I've got on the semi-trailer. Next update will show all the work so far on the tractor unit, which has been quite complex to assemble due mostly to all the small transmission and suspension arms etc. Comments welcome! More soon. Terry