Saturday 16 February 2013

Abrams, construction (almost) completed

Step 7 (continued)

Finished adding the side-rails. The 2 machine-guns will be added after the tank is finished, because they're bound to break off during painting and finishing.

When you add the main gun, make sure your elevation is high enough. There are no locator pins to tell you how it should be attached, but make sure you fit the turret on the lower hull before the glue sets, because you want to check if the turret can rotate 360 degrees without bumping into anything.

Step 8 : Rear basket


The rear basket assembly is easy, except for the mesh. You have to cut the 2 pieces to size from the provided mesh. There's a template in the manual, but it's totally inaccurate. A lot of fitting and cutting is required and even now I'm not completely happy with the result.

Again, make sure the basket sits high enough, so it doesn't scrape against the lower hull.

The turret is now complete, except for some additional stowage which will be added after painting.


Step 9 : Fenders and tracks

This step tells you to add the fenders and the tracks and glue the upper hull to the lower. I suggest you skip attaching the hull halves, since some of the wheels become inaccesible because of the fenders, and you may want to hold off wheels and tracks until painting is done.


The tank is now as good as complete. Shown here with everything except the wheels and tracks.


Step 10 : Stowage and accesories

Additional boxes and jerrycans, some equipment I do not know. To be painted in different colors, so I'm keeping these off the model until the very last moment.


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