I’ve gotten a bit more work done. But not nearly enough, I’m afraid...

The basic shape of the casemate and the lower portion of the hull is done. But now I’ve just hit a wall. Hard...

My plan was to make a greenstuff casting of the texture on the welding seams. But it turned out, that the texture was so shallow that I simply couldn’t get a proper casting of it. I could, of course, try to sculpt it myself. But I must admit that I’m having a slightly hard time figuring out how to replicate the really fine detail. And there’s a LOT of areas that needs to be covered in these seams.

Right now I’m wondering if I should simply sculpt it up somewhat smooth and then cover the entire front of the casemate with camouflage nets, stowage, sticks and leaves,  and whatever bitz’n’pieces I can think of. But that would, I fear, obscure the otherwise clean lines of the tank.

On the other hand, I fell that it would be somewhat appropriate for a tank from so late in the war. Build from whatever materials could be procured and festooned with all kinds of odss’n’ends...

Anyway, here’re a few pictures of the tank as it stands now. The scratch-build parts have been brownstuffed and then smoothed down to as smooth a finish I could. But I still, just as with my Ratte, can’t get an entirely smooth transition from the original parts to the plast-card. Just as I feared...