To my fellow forum members,
This is my second attempt at building a tank. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy the build. Thank you all for your time and patience.
Toshi
Should be a pretty fun and easy second build. You might want to cover the battery/motor mounting holes in the bottom of the hull and putty them over but otherwise she should be mostly decent built right outta the box.
Thanks for tip! I definately will do so.
Toshi
Yes, that is a very nice little model. The detail is pretty good, and the figgies are nice.
Here’s something funny! The painting on the box lid shows the BACK of the tank, with the turret turned around so that the barrel fits in the travel rest. It gave me a fit the first time I built the thing because I couldn’t figure out front drive or rear drive!
LOL! I will be vigilante and insure I have the components correctly installed. Thanks for the tip!
Toshi
Great! For instance, on the box art the tracks are “backwards”. I.E. if seen from the front, the pattern is flipped upside down.
The easiest way to think about the direction of the tracks is to remember that the point of the “V” on the track shoe points downward when looking at the tank from the front. [:)]
I will make sure that I keep an eye open for any discrepancies. Thanks GMorrison for the heads up!
Toshi
I will reference this during the build.
Toshi
Here is what’s been done this evening.
Toshi,
Just a suggestion, but if you’re up for a little extra detail, if you look at the box-top pics, you’ll see the stowage boxes on the hull sides have elongated “X” shaped reinforcing ribs which aren’t present on the mouldings (due to moulding limitations at the time). These can be easily added using thin plastic strip. [:)]
That’s something I haven’t done yet at this juncture of my building of models. I’ve been doing this only for about six months now and I’m just getting somewhat confortable with the assembly of kits. I wouldn’t know where to start.
I suffered TBI Traumatic Brain Injury, I have just learned to utilize my eye hand coordination. Maybe as I get better I can incorporate scratch building. At this time, I know I’m not ready for that yet. Thank you for the suggestion! That’s something I can look forward to in the very near future.
Toshi
Nice subject, should be a nice fun build. have not built this one, but those old Tamiya kits can scrub up nicely.
I love these old kits. I haven’t built this specific one yet either but I’ll stick around and watch your build. OOB builds are my fav
It went together very cleanly, no sanding nor putty needed.
Toshi
I have most of the build done, it just needs to be cleaned up and get the decals situated. Thanks for the visit.
Toshi
It still needs to be weathered and things need to be cleaned up. But this is how far the build has gone.
Toshi
Toshi- the right side track is on backwards. Pop it off and turn it around.
You need to make the join seam on the front plates top/bottom go away. Probably you still have the two halves loose, right? Be sure to glue them together as it was designed that way to change the batteries, but that’s not an issue here.
Good clean workmanship so far.
Nice work so far Toshi.
Just a few more suggestions for you.
1: The seam on the barrel could use a little work
2: When you come to weathering, the mufflers (the box-like structures on the fenders at the rear, either side of the engine deck) could use some rust effects. They got pretty hot and the paint burned off them. You can get an idea of how this looks from the box art.
3: On the left side fender, there are three sprue nubs left over from the manufacturing process. A few swipes with a sharp blade & some fine sandpaper will take care of this. Just beware of the two tabs on the muffler, they should be there, like on the other side.
Keep up the good work… [:)]
OMG Toshi! You have definately mastered building straight from the box. 
My advice, since everything else has been covered lol, is to go crazy with the weathering and have some fun. You can almost never go too dirty with armor lol.
Enjoy yourself thoroughly my friend! 