http://www.FineScale.com 2317
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I marked the holes with the point of a divider to prevent the drill bit
from moving as I opened them.I converted photos of the hull sides into line drawings using Adobe
Illustrator, then taped them to the model as patterns for locating
brackets, footman loops, and such.
Rather than the FT’s towing clevises, the M1917 used four hooks. Two additional lifting hooks were added to the center top of each hull side and
were strong enough to support the entire tank for lifting by cranes.
I modified the kit mounts to accept scratchbuilt hooks; the upper lifting
hooks had to be entirely scratchbuilt using spare rivets from the kit’s
sprues to finish them. For the latter, it’s necessary to remove four rivets
from the upper center seam of the hull armor, but this is easy to do.
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The M1917 trail is similar to the FT, with the only readily noticeable
difference being the replacement of cross braces on the upper section
with a single perpendicular piece of angle iron. I filled the locators for
the kit braces and used styrene for the replacement.