Much progress!
Being a Tamiya kit, most of the tank practically assembles itself, so a lot is done.
The lower hull is pretty much assembled, just adding all the details to it. I had to plug up loads of mounting holes in the top of the hull, and hull rear, and cut/sand off some details since they're getting photo etch replacements.
Most of the fittings on the hull top are done, except shovel mount, and mounts for the main towing cables. Also need to add some wiring to the smoke grenade dischargers, and add extra antenna mounts (this will be a Befehlswagen command tiger).
The tools arent glued in, because i'll remove them to paint seperately.
The light towing cable is mounted, and all the side skirts. The 4 skirts per side are each made of a main piece, 3 braces underneath, 4 bolts, and 4 bolt retainers. The road wheels are actually rubber wheels mounted to the plastic wheels.
The rear end was filled/sanded/primed etc, used actual screw/bolt details to replace the soft plastic details. The jack, toolbox, heat shields, and air cleaners arent mounted because they'll be painted separately, but you can see the various little holes where they mount.
The front fenders are fully workable! I managed to make all the hinges properly, so the side pieces can fold up, or the whole fender can be raised. I also made correct bolts for the towing shackles, soldered a small ring onto a screw for the right part, also corrected the towing shackles themselves. The real ones were made of a square stock bent to the U shape on this version, but the ones in the kit were round.
Also made a start on the interior fittings for the commanders cupola:
And heres some of the various parts made, but not attached.
Barrel, jack, rear fenders, air cleaner tubes, barrel cleaning rods, heat shields, and air cleaners.
