No tracks! It’s neat looking though, and French. What could go wrong? I wanted a quick and easy build, no scratch building, no hard thinking, and this kit is perfect for that. Parts fit, the instructions are easy enough to follow, and it looks to be well molded and well engineered. It to all of two hours to have the suspension done and hull halves joined. The tires are really good too, having good sidewall detail and the slight mold seam came off with a few swipes of a sanding stick.
Well, fitting of the front and rear hull plates has revealed a wee problem: all the joins are beveled, and the fit is not great. After thinning the plates to get them to sit as flush as possible, remaining gaps are filled with Vallejo plastic putty and lightly wiped with a damp Q-tip or my finger to remove excess putty, hopefully leaving the gap filled. Only primer will tell.
There’s a fair amount of details at the edges of the joins, making cleanup and sanding a tedious process, but as the original was amphibious, I’m thinking I need virtually seamless joins here. It’s still a fun build, just not the shake-'n-bake I had initially thought it might be. And the ejection pins: some are huge, like a leak in a sprue gate. I have also found evidence of a short-shot here and there on the edges of the hull panels, more putty required.
Oh wow, never built a Tiger kit but surprised a new kit would have fit issues. Looks like you have things under control though. Very cool AFV. Where’s Waynec? He’s a big war wheels fan.
In one way, yes, it’s going to be a quicker build not dealing with tracks. But, and it’s a big one, part of the reason I build tanks is that I have always had a thing for stuff with tracks.
Six of one, half dozen of the other I guess. At least it’s got a big gun.
Ready for primer, which I’m sure will reveal lots of things to fix- the tan plastic is kind of hard to see for me. I had a few slight fit issues with the turret, nothing major, I think. Only primer will tell.
I haven’t done any brush work in a long time, and needed to get my mojo back before I do either one of the Challengers, so this thing was perfect. This is just the first coat, no clean-up at all.
Thanks G. I can’t call it one of my best, too many construction booboos that I didn’t catch when I was building it, and then I kind of forced the finish just to finish it. Long story there, I’m better now. [H]
IMG_2563 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
