New and need some armour advice

[Jakko]

quick question for anyone who has built a Tamiya Challenger 1 1/35 desert version. I have built the model in three parts - lower hull, top hull and turret. However, with the additional front armour on the upper hull, it is a real struggle to join the two lower halves.

I haven’t built that kit, but I did just look at the instructions for it to see how they would have you do it, and I see where things went wrong for you … the instructions say to attach the upper and lower halves of the hull first, and only then add the additional armour pieces, I suspect because it will otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, to get them to fit.

Of course, this is hindsight and so no use to you, but maybe someone else will read it and remember it when building this kit too

any suggestions?

Going by the instructions, the front extra armour seems to attach to the glacis plate at just six fairly small points:



I think I would try to carefully slice through those (or the glue there) with a knife to free the whole armour array. That would let you fix the upper and lower hull as Tamiya intends, and then re-glue the armour to the tank.

 

[Airborne01]

Welcome mate - does the Chally hold some special significance for you -are you an ex-Desert Warrior?
Steve