Tony lee
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2011
- Messages
- 869
I was going to built this out of the box but after reading Terry Ashley's review at PMMS.com I decided to follow his suggestions and fix a couple of major errors. These are easy to fix so don't let them turn you off,it's a great kit otherwise.
There were nine of these built for use in North Africa and were still used on the front line right to the end of the campaign.
Terry suggest that you add 4mm to the front axle so the wheels are under the fenders in a more correct position.
I cut the axle on each side between the wishbone and the spindle,closer to the spindle than the wishbone and added a 2mm long section of sprue from the kit since it's the right diameter. You'll also need to extend the cross over tie rod the same 4mm. For that I used Evergreen rod stock.
Correcting the frame height came next and here is the picture the PMMS review supplies for a guide.
The kit was designed from a Diana that had collapsed torsion bars I guess and this correction gets the frame back up where it belongs.
After that I jumped ahead and built and installed the engine,fuel tanks,btw the tanks need to be reversed Bronco has them backward,and the air tanks.
The front axle fix was well worth the extra effort I think.
Time for some body work. Nothing is glued down just yet and you can see how well the parts fit.
To get that little tank to fit under the right side of the dash I had to sand off the tank straps on the backside where it glues to the firewall.
The Russian 7.62cm gun assembled and sitting in place.
You have to cut the trailing arms to length so be sure to measure twice and cut once.
The underside of the gun platform.
Checking the fit of the fighting compartment.
Startin to look like the box top art work.
The storage bin in the back has a section for personal gear (top), 32 rounds of ammo (center) and tools on the bottom.
Being a registered redneck I found it to be some what dull. It needed a Gnome or some Christmas lights to give it some interest but a picture I found on the net showing a partial shot of the rear interior gave me an idea. This is what I came up with.
I bought the Bronco Russian 7.62cm ammo kit and a little foil liner from a cigarette pack did the trick.
When I put the storage bin in the casement to see how it would look I found this eye sore.
The open side of the bin stuck up above the door seal. I'm going to leave the door open so I closed the gap up with a strip of plastic yard sale sign,problem solved.
That's it for now boys and girls
Tony lee
