Checking the facts!

I thought that it was a bit of an odd gun to use as an anti-tank gun but that is what I read somewhere on the internet when I first bought the kit. Having got into the build yesterday I was left wondering what on earth the hydraulic plate under the hull was all about so I went Googling! I found what appears to be a much more realistic explanation of the vehicle on the Tank Encyclopedia website which you can see by clicking here . Basically the gun is a mortar that was to be used to destroy heavily fortified emplacements or buildings. The reason for the plate in the bottom of the hull was that with the mortar at its highest protectory it would hit the floor of the hull. Therefore to give it clearance as well as allowing for its one meter recoil the plate lowered the floor and acted as a stabiliser/recoil absorber. That all makes sense now and well worth checking the facts!

I have linked into on of the drawings on that site which shows the internal details much better than I can describe them!

Anyway, back to the kit build! Today was focused on the rear panel to the hull and the photo below shows what appears to be limited progress but there are 26 parts in that small area with many being small and easily lost onto the floor where searching for them takes a long time! Guess how I know! The jack itself is made of 10 parts and the supplied plans are not the clearest on the placement of parts so trial fitting without glue at first is the order of the day. I also managed to fit the four suspension springs that you can see on the right of the hull. Whilst the rest of the wheels were subject to torsion spring suspension that required a rod to go through the hull, where the hydraulic plate was there could be no rods going through it so conventional springs were used. I can begin to understand why this thing never progressed from the drawing board with all these complexities.

Next stage is the torsion suspension and axles followed by the wheels. I have a feeling there are about 30 wheels to make which will be a bit of a repetitive task, repetitive task, repetitive task!