So the tracks are fitted. As Dave said earlier they fit really well, but trying to juggle so many pieces and get them to sit right all the way around was a bit of a struggle for me. Masking tape was my friend. Lots of masking tape!
Before fitting, the individual links were formed around the front idler as per instructions, then everything got a coat of black primer, 2 light coats of Burnt Iron, then a light rusty wash to start off the weathering.
10 glued joints in this picture (I think), much better than my last attempt on the T-28
And they are still, just, removable. I still haven't decided what I'm doing about weathering them so thought it'd be easier to have them separate until I decide. Despite exhausting YouTube on the subject I'm still no closer. Too many different options and techniques!
Between the various stages of the track work I put the main gun together. The sprue scars you can see are perfectly smooth but it seems to be a property of this Zvezda plastic - no matter how smooth the surface is you can always see the light & dark spots.
Nice attempt at moulding in the rifling on the barrel.
Tell me to stop if I'm putting up too many pictures!
This part was fun to clean up. Plenty of attachment points around the outside then this inner reinforcing ring with gates in the high & low spots.
But it cleaned up ok in the end, apart from the aforementioned discolouration, and turned into a handy on-board cocktail bar
This was supposed to fit inside the main turret, but here's where we run into yet another damaged part.
It might possibly have pulled straight when glued to the other parts but didn't want to risk it, so held it above a hairdryer to get it as hot as my fingers could stand then gradually tweaked it back into shape
That's it for now. Back on shift tomorrow so there won't be much progress until Monday, but I'll leave you with yet another picture, this time for scale against my Universal Carrier. It's a big brute!