In the quiet times between xmas and new year commitments I've managed to assemble the turret donated by Mr Sassgrunt.
The Panda Hobby Pz38t turret went together fairly easily, the parts are top quality and are robust. Thankfully Im not trying to get the thing automated, or assembly would have been more difficult.
As can be seen in the subject picture, the turret is slewed to the right when concealed so the barrel fits inside the wooden disguise.
I am assuming that due to the standardisation of German fortifications, the shape of the concrete bunker was the same as the images from other '38t Panzerturms around the place.
I took a guess'timate of scale by the height of the man peering into the window, and assuming he was a 6'2" Teuton, the wooden ledge was above his waist but below his shoulders.
I made the base block out of left over polystyrene packing & dug the clearance hole out of it with a steak knife & mellon baller !!
Then got the mini vacuum out to clean up the god-awful mess the stuff makes
The shell splash guard that slopes towards the turret was a separate piece cut to suit with the handy poly-cutter that I used on the R39 version.
No snow storm created when that is used.
That was glued with full strength PVA to the base block.
The upper hull plate was trimmed of excess material and test fitted.
By the looks of all the '38t Turms, the upper hull plate was always used in some form to allow trouble free mounting of the turret, rather than remanufacturing a new plate.
It can rotate a full 360 so maybe it can be made partially automated later.
The base block was glued to a section of 4mm marine ply that has a full covering of light oak stain/varnish to prevent warping and create a nicer visual effect.
Todays mission is to get the faux concrete finish on the poly block.
Then, on with the "ALPHA-JOURNEAUX" news stand !