Been a while since I have posted any build progress I'd lost my mojo a bit but I've been slowly tinkering away on the chally, chieftain and another centurion.
Some may remember the group buy for the armoured models challenger 2 TES kit, I finally got mine out early last week and started on it.
I'll do a write up but I'm afraid I didnt get masses of pictures oh each step.
I also felt the need to crack on as once BarryC works his magic itll be an act hard (impossible) to follow!!)
First impressions of the kit were excellent, sturdy box, loads of kit really well packed.
On closer inspection this does change, the side skirts are really hefty pieces, they sit on a backing plate which is also printed. I've been sceptical about printed large flat items over styrene from a print quality perspective and strength too.
However these are fantastic, Armoured models know their printing onions, quality is brilliant and the parts are very strong, I think a high infill must be used.
The bar armour is especially good, no clean up required on the main sections and only a little on the lower rear bit.
The smaller more detailed bits are done in resin (printed) and are well done, the ecm pod face even has the option of an auto bots icon embossed a la megatron.
Now onto the actual build.
The first job was assembling the Dorchester armour modules, theres one piece for each skirt and then multiple parts for the turret sides which stick onto a single base piece either side.
To improve the representation of the rivets they are printed separately in resin and the builder as to attach them.
Here is a built up one.
To make life (slightly) easier you are supplied with thin face piece which are very smooth and have the guide holes for the rivets in. You glue these to the thick blocks, then drill out the holes with a 1.3mm bit. I wont lie, there are probably well over 200 rivets to do and it's a slow process, I took about 8 hours all told. However nothing good ever came easy and I think the results justify the effort.
James supplies far more rivets than needed and even with my butter fingers dropping a lot there were still about 40 left at the end.
Once the chobham was done it was time to attach things to the chally. I started with the front armour. Unfortunately this obliterated some of the brilliant detailing jim did. However I did managed to salvage everything bar the styrene armour plate.
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