Model Military International – September 2019

FEATURE ARTICLE Tamiya 1:48 Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf. L • Kit No. 32524

40 Model Military International - September 2019

Tamiya 1:48 Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf. L • Kit No. 32524

In accordance with the assembly

guide, I first attached the various

plastic details to the die-cast

lower hull.

Next, I put together all the wheels.

Their contact surfaces were sanded

and polished only after I’d glued them

in pairs, which in my opinion makes

even sanding a lot easier.

Once I’d completed the previous

task, I put the wheels in a zip-bag

in order to protect them from the

carpet monster, and subsequently

focused on the tracks.

I’m not scared of working with resin, but the fragile

tracks could cause problems. Fortunately, they

didn’t. To separate them from the casting block, it

was enough to simply break them off.

Some of the apertures within the tracks were sealed with thin

resin film. This was easily removed with a scratch brush pen with

brass bristles from Green Stuff World, or a toothpick.

I then assembled the track runs of a nearly definitive length.

To give the tracks the correct shape,

I had to temporarily attach the wheels,

using masking fluid as adhesive.

Resin castings are usually fragile and easy to damage. However, OKB Grigorov apparently

uses some specific type of resin for casting the tracks, which make the latter slightly elastic,

although not as much as to allow them to be wrapped around the running gear without heating

them a bit with some hot air from a hair dryer.