Deficiencies

Jacked MG

I had managed to leave the tank's jack to gather dust for who knows how long. The same way the radio operator's machine gun had been waiting for its installation for months already. Now, with the tracks finished, and while I was waiting for some fresh weathering materials, it was the time to get them finished.

My own reference photos

As a little background story: in an earlier world (Spring 2019) we visited the Asturias railway museum. Among all the other stuff, heavy machinery maker insignia and whatnot I spied a couple of jacks. Of course I took some photos with the proper camera, for obvious reference purposes, and for quickness I shot a couple with my phone. I really couldn't imagine it was going to take this damn long to get to use them.

These little things were pretty much the same as the tank jacks (I had never seen one of those live, so I thought these were possibly same, or at worst similar enough), so I thought that using these as source material I couldn't go way too wrong. Perhaps a fresh unit didn't need to be that rusty, though.

Copykittying

The jack I had assembled and primed a long time ago, and then forgotten it. First I painted both ends with gunmetal, then the rest with metallic black. As soon as the paints had dried, I drybrushed a bit of rust colour in various parts, the idea behind it being that some of the dents it had received were deep enough to expose the bare metal to the elements. I also drybrushed the edges and boltheads with gunmetal, to give the eye something to catch onto.

Again, as soon as the paints had dried I set the attachment brackets over the jack. This bit of dry-fitting revealed the correct places and I glued the brackets into the bottom end of the tank's rear armour. That's where it would be getting the hits and dents, while reversing over rocks and whatnot.

Ratatatatata

Due to a couple of fitting issues I had not glued the radio operator's MG34 in place. Now I glued it in for good. A little detail I had ignored to paint and that was the tip of the machine gun. I hadn't been eager to ruin the neat mini model with my amateurlike drilling. The machine gun's aiming was pretty much "straight ahead", I didn't want it being on the way any more than absolutely necessary.