A present from UK Mail

[silversurfer1947]

My only previous experience with metal tracks was those for my Tiger, which I purchased already weathered. The ones on the T90 were all bright and shiny, so I treated them using recommendations found on the forum. This is what I have now as a first stage of treatment.. Not an even finish, but then again I don't suppose it would be in real life.

20160914_124801.jpg (37.19 KiB) Viewed 1004 times

[wibblywobbly]

Too late, lol, I am 70% of the way through attaching the sprues to the tank. Only needed to trim out the oblong recesses for the hull armour mounts, the vertical hull armour needed quite a shove to get it to sit properly, but it went in ok.

I haven't glued anything in place, I will wait till I know it is all going together ok, and then pull sub assemblies off, glue and fill the joins.

This is going to be the weathering job from hell, but it should look pretty good when it is all done - though probably not until after I move house. I can foresee the brass etch manufacturers having a sharkfest with this tank.

Strange about the caps, 3D printing something that small is not easy, I've tried it before and sometimes it turns out ok, other times it doesn't, but I will give it a go when I get the chance.

My only teeny weeny gripe is that HL in their infinite wisdom have kept the aeriel mount for the old boards stuck on top of the turret, that will need to be removed at some point and infilled.

Hat's off to Heng Long, my first tank was a £50 Tiger 1, 8 years later and HL are producing tanks like this for £160, what does the future hold I wonder?

[silversurfer1947]

I had to open up one or two of the oblong holes and you are right. A hefty shove and the bits slotted home. Don't fancy having to remove them.

My only teeny weeny gripe is that HL in their infinite wisdom have kept the aeriel mount for the old boards stuck on top of the turret, that will need to be removed at some point and infilled.

Don't know anything much about the real tank, so I assumed the aerial was supposed to be the actual tank aerial, rather than a hangover from old 27MHz systems. My weathering skills are pretty much non-existent, so I don't think this would be a good one to start on.

[wibblywobbly]

You can't really go wrong with model washes , unlike paint. I use the Vallejo stuff. You simply wash the whole tank with one colour, let it dry, and then add different colours where you want it. When it is dry you go around with a wet cotton bud and tidy it up around the edges of where you want it. It sounds complicated but it is so quick and easy I do to all of my tanks now. Another method I use is to put a drop around the base of handles etc and then stipple it with a stiff brush, if it goes wrong then simply wipe it off with the cotton bud, and do it again.