Just for a change of scenary I turned my attention to the next major alteration, fully hinged side skirts.
Searching the net I found JT-scale military models, another German outlet that had some really good accesories for the Leopard 1, among them, these resin formed skirts with drilled through top section to allow hinging.
They also did a set of hinges that, unlike the AFV ones just had holes in them to allow use of your own bolts(I found that made them easier to mark out), and also included single holed end hinges not availible with the AFV set.
Started at the front by the already fitted hinged rubber fenders, made some alteration to the kit hinge section and inserted an adapted AFV hinge, to get the correct look, then fitted the first single hinge using 1mm bolts and nuts.
Using 1mm brass rod, I started working my way along, fitting hinges as I went.
I found I had to file the ends of the skirts to shorten them a bit or the hinges didn't line up with the fixing brackets moulded in the side of the Tamiya hull.
I wondered why they didn't make the reduced height rear skirt, and it only recently dawned on me that I could have bought two extra side skirts and cut them to shape,
DOH,
, and by the time I realised it , JT-scale had shut down, and I can't find the skirts elsewhere. But hey, why do things the easy way, my method was to remove the rear section from the Tamiya kit skirt, file off some detail and cut out the top section to take the hinges.
Drilling out through the top section proved impossible, even trying to centre mark it with a bradle resulted in a nasty puncture to my left 1st figer
So I decided to groove out the back to take the brass rod.
Completed one side (apart from the locking bars) and decided to have a break and post some pics , don't worry, I won't do another post when I finish the other side
bfn.