I built this thing in a
weekend and then stalled for several months while I figured
out what to do with the overhead antenna array. Italeri
moulded it far too thick and it looked more like the roll
cage for a dirt track racer than an antenna. Several attempts
at soldering together a new one from fine brass rod ended
in disaster, so in the end I scraped and sanded the kit
part for a couple of hours until I got it down to where
I could live with it. It's still too thick, but a damn
sight better than it was. I also sanded off the solid
braces on top and replaced them with brass rod.
Other than that and replacing
the little "feeler" thingies on the fenders
with stretched sprue and globs of super glue painted white
and drilling out the guns as usual, there's nothing particularly
special about this.
Paint is Humbrol Tank Grey
(well, it would be, wouldn't it?!) with a wash of Dark
Earth over the lower surfaces, and a few paint chips done
with Humbrol Metalcote Gunmetal. A very nice little kit
that goes together quickly, but it's a shame Italeri let
us down with that clunky antenna array, especially when
the supports are such fine mouldings. I'm not too happy
with the flat moulded-on tools either, but I was too lazy
to sand them off and replace them.
Left:
This should have been a nice in-scale array soldered
together from fine brass rod. Instead, it's a not-so-nice,
not-very-scale thick plastic moulding that I spent
a couple of hours scraping & sanding into submission
with brass rod superglued on top. I've come to the
sad realization that the art of soldering is, unfortunately,
not amongst my many talents.
Back
to 1/72 Armour Main