A fool in the turret

cont.

It's pretty obvious that the turret has been my #1 priority for the last couple of weeks. That's because it's just about the last incomplete subset of the model. There won't be much stuff on the inner walls of the turret, only a couple of machine pistols for close defence, a spare aiming device (I guess that's what it is), a couple of containers and an empty wheel. For a while I was thinking if I should fill the wheel somehow, but as I didn't have a good idea what I could use, I left it empty.
All the pieces got a couple of layers of green paint applied manually at this point. The externals will be airbrushed whenever I get to it.

Turret assembly

When I had finished the two triple sets of grenades in their racks, or at least I get them to look acceptable at this point, I started assembling the turret at long last. To keep my exits covered, this obviously meant that I only built the front- and rear parts and left the sides open. This was mostly because the side panels weren't even complete at this point, so it didn't make any sense to attach them (just look at those insane holes in the photos).

I had somehow imagined that those huge gaps in the insides of the armor panels left by the injectors would've been placed so smartly that the equipment would've hidden them at least half-decently. Oh my, no! There was little stuff to be attached anywhere and all of it was located somewhere else, maybe to underline the ugliness of the mould. Because my benevolent guess was (again) so wrong and I didn't want to leave my machine looking like a teenager's cheeks, I dug out my Tamiya putty and set to work. After a couple of extra layers of paint the result started looking a bit better. Yay.

Test fitting

Of course I had to try and see if my vehicle was going to look like anything acceptable. Yes, it is going to do that. These photos show you that I (once again) changed my mind about the handles. After all I used the kit handles on the hatches of the engine compartment, the driver's and the radio operator's exits. Those customized handles I tried to use didn't really work as I wanted them to. Shockingly the plastic monsters of this kit looked better.