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The Chi He is coming together very nicely - will bump that one up my build list. The Gremir Grant is another possibility for a first tank build - it goes together fairly easily. WAK suggests their TK-3 as a first build. Regards, Charlie

I think you'll find it quite hard to get the band tracks to drape over the return rollers so it looks realistic. One way to help this is to score across the track on the hinge lines so the track can bend easily - don't be concerned if the track is floppy after you've done the scoring - this is...

Nice work with the roadwheels. The band tracks would seem to lend themselves to do something like the scheme I used on the Pz 1F (see other forum). Regards, Charlie

It seems to me that most Maly kits from about 2001 onwards are equal to most of the other Polish commercial kits. I haven't seen the PT-91 tank model but the Cromwell is similar to the Chi-He. The real fun with the Chi-He hasn't started yet - the suspension looks seriously fiddly to put...

Starting to look pretty good. You might also like to try florist's wire for handles and stuff - it's nearly pure Iron and quite soft. Regards, Charlie

Finding the right size mesh is (imho) a matter of luck. The trash screens on the KV were made with heavy thread dipped in acrylic varnish then wrapped around a piece of matte board. Once made the mesh was bonded together by putting some heavy Al foil above and below the mesh then touching it for...

I think it's finished. Some notes about finishing the rest of the model: - I went with as designed tow cables - the end parts of the cable are too wide to fit into the shackles and the attachment hook on the side of the hull. I think I should have gone with simple loops at the ends of the...

Suspension is finished..... The return rollers are a bit strange - KVs had 2 types of return rollers: an early type with rubber tires and a later type with steel rims. The design models somewhere between the two. I doubled the thickness of the rim and went for the rubber tired type. Rather...

I can't think of any free models with interiors. The commercial models with interiors tend to be more expensive than the exterior only models. Here's an incomplete list: Halinski - Panther, Tiger, Bergepanther,T-34/76 GPM - Jagdpanther, Jagdtiger(limited), Pz IVH, Stug III Ausf A, 7TP...

More progress on the suspension...... Drive sprockets, mud breakers and swing arm buffers. The designed swing arm buffers weren't anything like the original so I scratch built them by rolling up a solid cylinder of 80 gsm 4mm high and 3mm diameter, cut out a section to fit the base plate...

Tracks are finished. The guide plates as modeled are too thin - added another layer of 200gsm and they seem much closer to the orginial thickness. I haven't given any thought about the colour the tracks should be - probably will paint them a similar colour to the Pz 1F model. Regards...

Ever thought about doing the A7V "Mephisto" - the only surviving A7V - the cartoon on Mephisto's hull looks pretty good. Regards, Charlie

The basic scheme for 1943 onwards vehicles was: RAL7028 (Dunkelgelb) base coat with RAL6003 (Ovligrun) and RAL8017(Rotbraun) patterns. Unfortunately the RAL colours changed after WW2 so there's no definitive guide to these colours since no colour chips or charts survived. Don color...

Got a bit bored with running gear. The track model is supplied as individual elements and as a band track. The individual links looked a bit too daunting so I tried the band version. The track section was printed on 200 gsm and built up like the Pz 1F tracks (other forum for details)...

Most Russian tanks of this era didn't have turret baskets. I've heard that it's very expensive to get interior shots of the Kubinka collection and that many of the vehicles have stripped interiors. Regards, Charlie

The T-100 didn't survive but the derivative SU-100Y did and is displayed at Kubinka. Looking at images of the SU-100Y the final drive looks similar to the SMK/KV so I'd guess there were a lot of similarities internally. I think if you modelled the clutch/gearbox/brakes of a KV it wouldn't be too...

Time for an update.... The turret is pretty much finished - no nasty surprises adding the detail to the turret roof. The roadwheels were moderately painful to build - lots of work punching out the holes in the wheels. I think the design could have been better in locating the central web of...

As an alternative to 2mm card it is possible to use 2mm balsa - see the KV-2 thread - easy to cut and nearly as strong as card. The T-28 model roadwheels are 14mm diameter - you could use a hollow punch to cut these out. I agree it would take a while with a circle cutter. I bought a set of...

The turret is skinned. I decided to go with the version with the slogan even if there's not a lot of evidence that KV-2s had slogans on the turret. The slogan is "Za Stalina" ( For Stalin ). The rear door gave me a bit of grief - as designed it's supposed to have an angled strip around the...

The hull is skinned - the fit of skin was very good. I cut the sides off the bottom part of the hull - I'd rather have a join on the hull bottom edge than try to get a big piece in place in one go. The edge colouring where the skins join on the turret frame is an attempt to cover up any slight...