VT-55 ARV 1:72

upper and lower hull 

tracks 

a lot of them small parts 

some larger parts 

PE 

Then you pay 45€ for a resin kit, these are the instructions, and the only parts resembling the parts given are the wheels and upper hull, most parts don't look like the drawing or are mounted in a complete different way... Sigh 

thickness of the fenders ok on this side 

but not on this side 

some scraping later... 

added the torsion bars. 

fenders are a bit warped 

pure gold in this case... 

left rear was still a bit warped, but this is corrected now 

Cleaning up the membranes in the wheel openings... 

before(R) and after(L) 

and the other side 

baseplate of the working platform soldered 

bottomside of the platform 

almost finished the sides of the platform. Took me a while to figure out how these were mounted, but these are ingenious... one outer shell with raised detail, one inner shell with lowered detail and the railings, nicely fitting together 

baseparts for the material boxes.. this is the easy part.. 

now I have to add a ton of these 

like this... and when you take up these parts with tweezers... they are invisible... 

made some progress clearing all the openings in the wheels... Over halfway... 

platform almost ready 

platform almost ready 

platform almost ready 

first box ready 

first box ready 

cut some (very) tiny pieces of solder 

apply these to the corresponding places with a bit of flux and heat them up 

minimal amount of tin where needed 

apply some tin to the parts while at the fret and cut them as close to the edge as possible 

add some flux, flas-ce the part in it and heat it up with the soldering iron... all done. 

nice collection.... 

models cannot fly... unfortunately it came down as a tank... 

restored, so far no holes drilled and copper bars added... hope it won't be a necessity 

started dressing up and looking how the fit will be 

started dressing up and looking how the fit will be 

how the tracks are molded 

tracks will be a real pain to clean, let alone to make em fit .... 

first piece almost cleaned... 1.5h for this... still a lot to do... 

Remade the support for the crane to get rid of the gaps 

Better fit, crane itself is also better aligned 

next problem, dozer blade in "up" position 

remade the cylinder 

and mounted, still needs to be cut at length 

Cast cilinder removed 

dry-fit