Thanks for your comments, gents! I hope my build lives up to your expectations
I've now completed the center hull. The exhaust system and shroud will be painted separately and installed afterward, which means the equipment box on the back must be left off too. Fortunately that box will cover the nasty fingerprints I got on the back of the roof plate.
The major hull plates were built up using one side frame as a jig to ensure the angles were correct:
Having each plate separate makes for great detail, but I could've used 5 hands for sure! The nose plates are the most critical, since they have to fit between a raised plate on the side frame, and the raised guide on the inside:
All of the seams between plates are somewhat fiddly, but the only really poorly fitting plate is the front of the driver's cab:
That may be my own fault, but that was the best I could make it fit. The instructions say to build the cab first, then add it to the top plate, but online builds recommended that it be built after the major plates were joined, and that's what I did.
The front Lewis gun was a loose fit into the ball, so I wrapped a bit of Scotch tape around it for a press fit. Gator's Grip acrylic cement was then dabbed around the inside joint to secure the barrel.
I've left extra background area at the bottom of each photo, to hopefully keep the annoying Photobucket watermarks off of the important parts. We'll see!
Peter
