What you see is the dreaded zinc rot/zinc pest/zamac rot and there are other unprintable terms for it too!

I started dismantling the Lima Prairie tank that I talked about yesterday. It should have been a simple job to separate the chassis from the body. Just two screws and the two should part company.

Strangely enough the two would not part! I struggled for about 40 minutes before unscrewing the footplate to aid the release.

Once out I could see exactly why I was struggling on what should have been an easy, quick and simple job.

You may not notice it at first but have a look at the grey weight above the middle wheel.

That surface with the bulge is supposed to be flat and it is not!

In fact it is that bulged that it would not allow the chassis out from the body.

So how did they get the chassis into the body originally? Well at that time the surface was flat. What you see is the dreaded zinc rot/zinc pest/zamac rot and there are other unprintable terms for it too! I will let Google explain what this is: -

Diecast rot, also known as zinc pest or metal fatigue, is an irreversible, destructive corrosion process caused by impurities in zinc alloys used for casting. It causes models to swell, buckle, crack, and eventually crumble into pieces, often starting with paint bubbling. 

That all sounds fairly worrying and it can be and many expensive models in the past have been consigned to the bin because of this. But in this case I cannot see any such effect on the chassis at the moment so with the weight not being structural or in line of sight it can be dealt with relatively easily - famous last words!

Looking at the motor and its accumulated muck, that may not be an easy job to clean up!

Meanwhile, far from being cleaned, the Scammell tractor unit from the IBG kit is being made even more dirty with further weathering work.

I also glued in place the stowage cage on the chassis below the cab so that means there are just two door mirrors left to attach!