The small but important things always take the time!

The builders turned up today complete with the continuing aftermath of flu. They moved the bricks and blocks for the conservatory rebuild from round the front of the house to the back and piled them in several strategic pillars. Not sure if these pillars have a greater meaning or act as some form of  intergalactic pathway but this is a small but important step in this project. 

After achieving this they went home with coughs that could be heard above the ill maintained diesel engine of their van!  

Meanwhile the Italeri SU-100 assault gun is all but built. There are a couple of small but important things that still need to be added which are almost the signature of the base vehicle but these are taking time. Firstly there are the tracks on the front panel of the hull. I have never seen a T34 or variant without these in place. The kit parts should be easy enough to build. 7 track links just need to be joined. Easy to say but when the parts just do not fit together not easy to achieve. Being so prominent they do need to look right so there is going to be a great deal of fettling needed which will take time.

The saw that is mounted to the hull side is also one of those items that you see on most of these types of chassis and not having it just does not look right - unless of course you are modelling an Egyptian version of the tank where the need to cut wood in the desert is perhaps not likely to happen. The kit part did break into several parts when I removed it from the sprue so I have had to spend time piecing that back together. However these are the only parts I have had problems with so that is not bad!

As I had a few minutes to spare (just don't tell Mrs. Woody that I had spare time) I put my already built Tamiya Su-85 next to it for comparison and apart from the main gun barrel and the mounting mantlet there is not a lot of difference between the two. What there are relate to hand rail positions and similar. Never the less an interesting set of photos.

Now will the builders return tomorrow..........