My local hobby shop was clearing out all its old models to do remodeling (ba-dum bum), and I picked this puppy up 40% off. It comes with the Aber gun and photo-etch. I like the polar bear on red star (from the 7th guard's brigade), so I've decided to go with tank 432.
Looking on the internet, there's a number of tanks of the 7th Guards, 414, 432, 434, 443, etc. None of them offer more than one side of the tank, so I'd thought I'd do a composite, since we have 434 from behind, 414 from the port side, and 432 from the starboard. But, low and behold, looking at a pic of tank 443, who's that right behind? It's 432.
432 is missing all of its fuel tanks, most of its starboard fenders (including the mudflap), while its port side front fender is gone, and I think its mud flap. The fuel tank attachments on the starboard are gone, but present on port side. I
was going to put some trees as ditching beams on the port side, because they were present on 414, but as is clear from the 2nd attachment, 432 did not have them.
I also managed to snag a partially built kit off eBay: a DML JS-2M UZTM production. It's not in good shape, and many of the wheels have broken off. But what it did come with were Friul tracks, AL-14, already built (though too short, I'll have to add links). I got the whole thing for less than the cost of the Friul tracks). It also came with a metal barrel and a set of Eduard photo-etch for an Italeri IS-2. I think I'm gonna fix it up as well.
I panicked after comparing the tracks, and realizing that the AL-14 was all guide horned links, while in the Tamiya kit, both the rubber band tracks and the link-and-length were links with every other one having a guide horn. However, after looking at the links with guide horns and those without, I noticed that those with had a notch in the bottom, and looking at the first attachment, you can see that every visible link has a notch. Whew! One little hitch, though, the drive wheel doesn't fit the Tamiya.
Threaded Mode
