Still a productive modeling day, my friend @gblair! Interior looks awesome so far!

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). This has been a trouble-free build, apart from mis-identifying a couple of parts and painting them the wrong color, which was my fault.

This one is really coming together nicely, George @gblair
I really like how the weathering is turning out.

I ran into an interesting problem today. Most of the upper part of the arm consists of large pieces that meet with beveled edges. Most of the edges have no slots or other means to insure correct alignment. I have been assembling all of these pieces for the last few days by gluing them together, adjusting their fit visually, and then taping them to hold them together while the glue dries. This seems like an efficient way to assemble the structure, but I discovered that the final pieces of the superstructures didn't fit. Apparently each piece was a fraction of a millimeter off from its correct position, and as I continued to add more superstructure pieces that were also slightly off, the error added up to a final piece that won't fit. So, faced with a cumulative error like that, I tried to clamp the pieces in place while the glue holds everything together. Well...a lot of the seams in the previous pieces broke free, leaving me with an attempt to clamp and tape them in place while more glue dried. We'll see if that works. Cheers.

10 attached images. Click to enlarge.

George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
The interior weathering , dirt and chipping looks very authentic. On the interior of our tanks they were painted in a semi-gloss white. After some time in the field they looked just like your model does. White tends to get dirty very quickly. Needless to say when we returned back from a training exercise we spent a lot of time at the wash rack... cleaning our homes and getting them looking good again. Every so often we would repaint the interiors, and the exteriors too because the paint occasionally chipped off leaving chunks of bare metal which was a no no...

I'm sorry to hear the final part didn't fit. It seems like this happens to all of us at one point or another. I recently had a mishap with my Cologne Panther. It was not the kit's fault, but my building. I installed the engine radiators on backwards ! They had an angled slope to them, and I found out the upper hull wouldn't fit correctly because of this.

So I had to cut them off and redo them. It took me about 30 minutes of surgical work with an Exacto #11 and a nail file board. In the end it was fine, and more importantly no blood was shed.

I'm sure you will be fine too. I like the idea of using clamps like this. I will definitely keep that idea stored in my Mark 2 memory bank parked in between my ears.

It's looking good ! and I can't wait to see your next installment. I'm also happy to hear that you got to spend some quality time with your grand daughter Evie. You have been blessed for sure.

Take care my friend.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten), John (@johnb), and Louis (@lgardner). I was thinking that gluing parts together on a bevel was a cool and efficient way to get the various parts joined, but it only works if you are absolutely accurate gluing the beveled faces together. I hope to get it sorted today.

Nice, have this one, the Putrilov, the Austin and the Lanchester waiting 🙂

I think I am back on track. I got some Tamiya glue with the orange cap, which is considerable thicker than the other Tamiya glues. I thought it might hold better than the thinner cements. I used it on the side pieces I had to bend into shape, and it seemed to bond much better. Everything is pulled together and glued, and held in place with about 20 yards of tape. I plan to let it dry overnight and see how it does. I also started cleaning up the 76mm shells and the 3 machine guns. Things seem to be moving along well again.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.