I've rather stalled on my PAK 40 project for the moment and as it was my birthday last week went to my nearest decent hobby shop which just happens to be 14 miles away!
As far as the UK is concerned, Mr. Models in Bearwood, near Birmingham, is a surviving and thriving example of model shops as I knew them in my youth, some 30 odd years ago. It really is the traditional Aladdin's cave.
Anyway, after scanning box after box for potential purchases I settled on the Italeri Pacific Sherman and the subject of this bench, the MB Panzer 1 Ausf. A Ambulance Version.
I opened the box at home and thought nice, looks a neat little thing (sorry, no sprue shots), bit of flash here and there but nothing out of the ordinary. Had a good look at the parts over the next couple of days and read and re read the instructions before eventually beginning to attack the plastic at the beginning of this week.
Firstly, I'm not the most skillful modeller by any stretch of the imagination and because of the restrictions to the fine motor movements in my fingers I'm also pretty clumsy. I realised straight away that with the fit issues present it was going to test my skills and to no small extent my patience.
I managed to get the basic hull together and then realised, that even with the figures sat around the turret ring, there would be an easy view into a vast empty space. At this point, I thought is it even worth bothering now? I've never scratchbuilt an interior and had no idea how to go about sourcing the parts necessary. However, the stubborn gene came to the fore and I decided I'd give it a go.
I found some references on the net but decided there was no way I could build to that degree of accuracy so my intentions are to just give a representation of a busyish interior.
First step was to add what I would call the two axles which run across the floor of the vehicle and these were cut from some brass rod. The next phase was to add some kind of internal structure which I hacked together from various forms of plastic strut.
The transmission is very visible and runs the length of the vehicle before disappearing into the closed engine bay (and that's exactly how it's going to stay!) This basic shape was achieved again by using brass rod, plastic strut, lumps of plastic out of the spares box and, finally, a piece of wood! There is still a great deal of work to do in this area but the basic shape is coming together.
The next area to look at was the upper hull and I needed to place a shelf and a wall at the rear of the upper hull. This was again done with plastic strut, and this time a doctor's spatula. I added a few bits of spare PE for brackets (need to add more) and fixed it in place with superglue. Again, much more work is needed in this area but it is gradually coming along.
The final shot is of the whole thing just loosely fitted together and viewed from the front.
I realise this is nowhere near the standards I see regularly posted here, but for my first modest effort I have to admit I'm pleased with the progress so far. Hopefully, it won't be too long before I'm here with another instalment.
Just like to say thank you to everyone on planetArmor for posting such inspirational work on here and setting standards which most of us can only dream of.
Regards,
kev35
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