Well it's not up to Meng or Takom standards but in 1/72 scale the old Emhar Whippet is the only game in town and with a little effort it can be built into a nice model.
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First step was to do something about the tracks. I've never liked the moulded on look as it lacks the characteristic flats around the drive sprockets and idlers also there's no gap between the track and track frame, this could just be scribed in but you're still left with rounded end links.
So a fair amount of tedious sanding followed, carefully checking all the while that the track frames were still square and that not too much material was removed. With this complete a  10 thou strip of plasticard about 1mm narrower than the track frame was attached all the way around to give the tracks the characteristic stand off.
For the tracks I used resin replacements I'd made up for my Mk.I and Mk.IVs.
There's still a lot of small detail to be added but the main construction's out of the way now.
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-- Edited by CrashandBern on Thursday 1st of June 2017 11:13:18 AM
A lot of details were added or replaced last night, including:
driver's vision slit
vision slit for the port gun
pistol port on the roof
grouser rail on the port side of the cab
front and rear webs between the hull and track frames - you need to check your references on these as I've noticed that the angle they're mounted at varies considerably from tank to tank. Some are almost horizontal while others have a pronounced downward slope.
front and rear towing eyes
engine hatch handles replaced with 0.3mm brass rod
rear hull stowage box? armour plate? Â Â
The curved plate that sits above this also had it's edges thinned dramatically and was shortened by about .75mm - again you need to check reference for the particular tank you're building as there appear to be at least two versions of different lengths ie. how far they stick out from the back of the tank.
angle iron below the track tensioner - this is another one with multiple variations and not all tanks had them. Â
Last few steps before it's ready for primer are the angle iron track guard frames and the frames for the two rear stowage boxes.
As nobody makes styrene angle fine enough, smallest I could find was 1.5mm and it's 20 thou thick, I decided to make my own by joining a 10 thou by 40 thou strip to a 10 thou by 30thou strip... hey presto 10 thou 1mm angle!
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That's it for now as the angle needs to cure off thoroughly, I'll crack on with the guards and boxes over the weekend.Â
