And here are the photos from the last two days of work.
I've shown some of the metal components I acquired. For the most part, I'm pleased. However, the metal used for the .50 is a bit iffy, and the small bit seen in the photos broke off almost immediately. I'm going to attempt a transplant of the identical piece provided on the plastic Heng Long sprue. That will probably be part of the next day of work: I hope that will be tomorrow.
For the most part, the parts were clean of any flash, though there was a small quantity on the outside edge of the magazine. I was able to take care of that with a pair of sprue cutters. For the most part, nothing complex in prep. Had to be washed in the sonic cleaner to get rid of any excess oil/dirt.
Here, you'll see the standard mount for the pintel, which needed to be widened to accomodate the larger pintel of the metal MG.
Finally here are images of my progress with the tracks and roadwheels.
You might ask why I didn't fully prime the Tracks or Wheels with a pigmented primer. In the first place, because the right sort of sealer works just as well, but also because I wanted to preserve the natural metal color and, quite frankly, wasn't entirely sure that a coat of of thicker primer would be mechanically wise with the treads. Either way, I'm very pleased with progress so far.
