Part 2: The Build

Assembly started as always. I constructed as many of the major assemblies as possible. I offer a quick word of warning. If, like me, you build the majority of your kits and then paint them I would advise that you at least pre-paint all the bridge segments. If you don't do this, you may want to paint the three bridge segments prior to assembly. I did neither of these and trying to get the paint into the bridge support framework was a nightmare. Assembly went well with a few noticeable issues. The first was that there was a major amount of fine flash on almost all the parts. Most noticeably it was on the insides of both the road wheels. This required lots of cleanup. The brass run inner circles on the idler wheels are a great touch and can be seen even after painting.

I added a wire antenna to the antenna mount. Trumpeter does not show that you do this. It just made sense to me. They include the antenna tray and antenna mount but no notice of adding an antenna. The framework on both the bridge segments and the bridge support rails required lots of putty and sanding. The rear cable pulleys were the most time consuming parts to construct and attach. I drilled out two holes in the reels to allow insertion of the cable material. I painted the whole vehicle in Panzer Gray. On the hull I used Model Master and on the bridge, I used Humbrol. I added some white to the gray and used that on the frontal support. All the parts were then given a gloss coat to prepare for the decals and wash. I had no intention of weathering this kit as I wanted to show it as relatively new.

The tracks were another issue. They had fine plastic hairs at the ends of each shoe. It was a time consuming job to remove all these fine hairs. The tracks were then checked for tightness. They appeared fine and were glued together with super glue. These were painted with a mix of steel, flat black and French blue. They were then glossed and washed. I lightly dry brushed the raised areas with aluminum for that freshly moved look. The cable wire was another issue. I looked at all the available photographs on the internet. There were quite a few actual vehicle pictures and a few models to look at. The setting up the cable was no problem. It just seems that the cables could not actually deploy the bridge. They appear to only be able to recover the bridge. I painted mine black and added just a touch of aluminum dry brushing to accentuate the cables.

This was another great kit from Trumpeter. With all the brass pieces and the complete driver's interior, this model lends itself to some very neat diorama ideas. The fact that the bridge can be deployed in numerous positions also offers great diorama possibilities. This is definitely not a weekend build but makes for a great model and conversation piece. Have fun, enjoy the build and learn while you assemble. I would again like to thank Trumpeter Models and IPMS/USA for the ability to review this kit.

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