A week later than what I said previous post, but better late than never...
Here's where I'm at so far:
Right now, I'm sort of jumping around a little between the first five steps. As you can see, the model's hull is divided into two halves, and it'll stay that way until I can get the driver's station painted and weathered.
So far, it's been a typical Alan kit: unique subject and neat kit engineering ideas that only work so-so. The top of the lower glacis plate had to be sanded down a bit to get the upper and lower halves to fit right. Also in the fit department, the idler wheels when fitted won't allow the hull to join properly either. This is an easy fix, however, and a little groove in either side is cut into the lower hull to make room for the idler wheel axles.
You have to be careful with the drive sprockets. While the fit is positive, to get the teeth to line up right, the inner ribs have to be
improperly lined up. The kit comes with two different types of roadwheels: Hetzer-style ones and later "38d" style wheels. The latter look way too small, so I went with the Hetzer type wheels. The couple of photos I've seen seem to indicate that Hetzer wheels were used on the two vehicles which actually saw service, so this worked out OK. Also, the wheels have details on the inner sides as well, so that's pretty cool.
The detail for the driver's compartment is very basic, and could be well served with some creative gizmology to fill it up. I'm not going to do this however, as I want this to be a largely out-of-the-box build. What I am going to do, I have decided, is to add both of these:
Both of these figures are from Yosci, and I just ordered them from Colorado Miniatures. They look like two suitably used up and dejected fellows, so I thought they would be perfect for this build. They will also give me another valuable opportunity to get better with my figure painting skills (of which I need much work). Right now, I hope to place the seated one in such a way that it will take attention away from the rather spartan driver's station.
That's all for now!
David