Sorry, Stephen, I'm not into diorama building, so it will be a stand-alone model.
Thankfully, the second side has turned out to be much easier. I left out a lot of invisible details, and the bogie axles fitted much better, which made aligning everything simple. Here is what the side looks like without the bogies. Everything that won't be seen, as well as excess structure, has been omitted.
The bogie axles are a snug press fit into their holes on this side, so I'll describe how they're fitted, since the sequence is important. The instructions call for the bogie sets to be assembled first, then installed in the side frames. That doesn't work well, since the flanged A type bogies interleave with the cylindrical B bogies. Instead, all of the B axles and the first row of B bogies were set up first:
Next, the A axles and first row of A bogies were fitted:
The second row of A bogies was dropped onto the axles next:
Finally, the second row of B bogies was dropped in place. If you have a set of B parts left, you've forgotten the bogie on the top of the track toward the rear.
With the axles staying in place this time, it was easy to lay the other side of the frame on, then glue it in place. The two side frames were then glued to the center hull, and
voila! It's a tank!
Well, the beginnings of a tank, anyway. The next step will be to figure out how to modify the cannons and mounts in the sponsons.
Peter
