Eastern Winter Hornet

The first twelve steps involve the lower hull and suspension and they go as you would expect from any new Tamiya kit. All parts are new-tool.
Steps 13 to 20 involve the superstructure and this assemble made me pause for reflection. I normally try to assemble multifaceted structures all at once to allow for alinement wiggle as the glue dries. With this build, I choose to install just the front superstructure first and let the glue cure fully before moving onto the sides.  

Step 18. The sides don't just drop into position. There is a complex inter-locking point of contact between the rear of the engine air intakes and top deck. I don't know exactly how I got these to fit. I wiggled and bent and cursed and.... then they were together. The front of the sides was now firmly enplaced and the fit looked good but the side rears extended about a millimetre past the end of the hull. I glued the front join first and the rear join the next day.  

Step 20. Once both sides had fully dried, I started dry-fitting the rear superstructure. Hmmm... a big honkin' (about a millimetre) gap between the hull rear and the bottom of the rear superstructure (part B9). Choosing the lesser of two evils, I only glued the joints at the sides. I didn't attach parts B1 and B2 at this time as I planned to not concern myself with the gap until I had some time to think about it.  

(Having thought about it. I eventually came back to it and slipped a blade into the gap and removed three high points that kept B9 from seating fully along the bottom.) 

I am a complete fool for metal barrels. I love metal barrels! And machined brass muzzle brakes? Swoon.  

The Lion Roar barrel did not come with any instructions and is not a drop-fit for the Tamiya kit. There are raised tabs on the barrel rest doodads (D2 and D3) that have to be removed so that the metal barrel can seat down fully. The barrel clamp (D48 and D49) is too loose for the metal barrel. Everything looks good in the end though.
 

I skipped ahead to Steps 26. I was not looking forward to this process but I just took it one step at a time and it all seems to have worked out in the end (mostly). It seems that the gun is designed to have moving components. Traverse, elevation and recoil. The traverse seems to work the best but I'm not too sure how well it will work once its been painted. I will try to remember to cover the plastic parts that are in contact with each other before painting. I suppose someone will want to model the gun in full recoil but I just glued it at rest. Elevation? Yeah, no... It looks like a lot of time and effort went into getting this to work but I don't trust the join of parts D4 to hold the gun onto it's cradle. The equilibrators are stiff AF and I only tried to get them to move once and instantly stopped with the first sound of creaking plastic. Fortunately, the gun is pretty close to level once it was fully assembled. 

Unfortunately, while installing the gun shield onto the gun, I allowed a large drop of glue to end up on top of the right equilibrator. I didn't spot it in time and it dried into a big glob of plastic. Welllll poop... 

Various parts left off while fitting the shield to the cradle. 

Getting there. 

The crew figures are fantastic! They really make me wish I could paint. Being in winter parkas was the reason I choose to use the Winterketten tracks for this build. Tamiya provides four figures for the fighting compartment but that looks a little too cramped to me. 

The gunner and commander are the stock figures assemble per the instructions. 

In hindsight, I wish I hadn't glued the helmets on the commander and gunner. I feel that the commander needs to be wearing a headset and I could have fitted the gunner closer to the gunsight without his helmet getting in the way.  

The loader is made with the legs of the standing loader and the upper parts from the kneeling figure. 

A while back, I bought the Winterketten tracks without a specific build in mind but in the belief that I would use them sometime in the future. The future is now. Checking referrance photo, I completely failed to find a photo of any Hornisse\Nashorn fitted with them.
I assemble the tracks into ten link segments. I kid myself that I will just make one segment at a time but once I start it is very easy to assemble three or four segments. These track runs and spares (222 links in total) I completed in four days but I could have done it in two. I find this method fairly pleasant once I start. The trick is to start. 

105 links on the left side. Outer return rollers left off to allow the tracks to fit on easier. 

104 links on the right side. Only left off the front outer return roller for track installation. Old-style rear idler for flavour. 

Testing crew positions. 

Final details. Working on using stretched sprue for wires to hold foliage. Reworked the commander. Added a bow-frame. 

I'm not satisfied with the stretched sprue. Hard to tension it. I will live with it for a while and see... 

Not sure if I want the commander on the left or on the right. 

Happy with the radio headphones. I'm not sure if the connecting wire would be that long though. Still need to mount the MG34. 

Probably ready for paint....