This beast has been sitting on the top of a piece of furniture in my room for almost one year. Tonight I noticed I wouldn't complete the Commercial Law program in time for Tuesday, so I gave up and restarted living in our world!
I got this model at Mario's Modellbau Studio in Berlin (few steps far from Charlottenburg) last summer, an original "souvenir"!
Moreover, I ordered an Eduard PE fret from Hannant's, which mailed it to me in about two weeks, at a good price (€15). So this kit will be built with pieces coming from different countries! Currently I'm working on the Pz. IV as well, so I'll try to do as much as possible.
Here is the box
Content:
8 heavy rubber wheels
Clear parts
3 dark green sprues
The decal sheet for 5 versions (2 early vehicles in overall Olive Drab and three in the NATo 3 colour scheme - also provided are two different gun barrels for both versions). I've chosen the most recent one, deployed in Kosovo in 1997 and featuring the names of the crew's wives and girlfriends painted on the surfaces of the vehicle!
The Eduard PE frets. Included are also the wheel blocks and a few details missing from the kit...
I will follow the producer's instructions alongside with Eduard's ones.
The assembly starts with the three biggest pieces: the hull halves and the back panel. No PE is needed in this phase, unless you decide to use the "box" for the wheel blocks provided by Eduard. Not having a cutting tool I let it go, because you had to remove a whole panel from the lower hull. The plastic is quite soft and easy to clean. Being the panels flat and not including details, I sanded the sides of the vehicle after the glue had set.
I always hated glueing big parts, so I proceeded this way: first of all i used a good amount of glue on the front part of the hulls. Secondly, I passed a relatively thin coat of glue on both sides and finally glued the back and pressed the hull. In order to strengthen the whole thing I applied a further coat of glue on the external part of the sides. Once dry, I sanded the whole panels with fine sandpaper and water. It seems very resistant... do you think it will be strong enough?
Here is a comparison with the Pz. IV... quite tiny, isn't it?
EDIT: now you should understand why I'm not satisfied about the turret ceiling on the Pz. IV!
Thanks for watching!
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