u/MuddyFootedKiwi

EDIT: poor thing was still sitting there when I walked back past so I gently scooped it up with my hoodie sleeve and put it somewhere much safer above the retaining wall. Little fella was so very calm and polite.

Saw this frog at the bottom of Greville road in Albany. Might move him on the way back home if I can get a plastic container for cheap so I can avoid touching it, but if it's some kind of invasive species it may be best that I leave it to fate...?

I was going to copy the layout of these round "reinforcement dowels" from the Mausturm but it was proving very hard to do that while keeping it positioned to the armour plates on the 100.01 turret so I went with a partial implementation where it made the most sense to me.

Takom's kit does not include these features at least until you go up to the Type 205 Mauschen, and ​I can find almost no information on where they have to go to make the most sense. They only seem to have been used on the Sturmtiger, Ferdinand, and Maus, but curiously not the Jagdtiger. Something about reinforcing the plates and aiding assembly, but no details.

I used a slightly different method from Night Shift, because I couldn't find a suitable hole punch for my sheet styrene. Instead I bought some 1.6mm styrene rod which I cut into very short lengths and glued them into the shallow pits made by a 2.0mm drill bit. Once the glue dries, cut them almost flush with the surface with side cutters, blob some mr surfacer 1500 onto the end of each, and give them a light flat sanding the next day with 1500 grit sponge.

And then of course go to town with the putty because it's welding time :D

I only put them reinforcing the front turret plate and also fixing in the huge cupola assembly, which I've opted to represent as a single large cast piece to add some interest. A lot more surfacing needs to be done on this turret before priming though.

After all your help on the last post, I decided to tear up some of the welds and make them go the "right" way. Some of them still need a bit of cleanup with a knife and sanding sponge, but I'm still very happy with them.

I've also got the welds done on the commander's cupola, which is from a T.Rex King Tiger detail set; the cupola the kit ships with is fine but gives off a very 1942 vibe, and if this thing had ever gone into production instead of turning into the Maus, I'd at least think it would get a better cupola with more visibility.

Anyway, just thought I'd show how my epoxy welds are going. I'm liking how they look, but being new to this, it can be incredibly frustrating when the putty doesn't want to cooperate.​

Edit: I hear you guys on the "perfect" vs "good" thing, but I decided to tear out the vertical welds this morning and re-did them the other way around. they look just as good and it was easier than I thought, but I won't have photos for a bit until they're dry and have gone through final cleanup.

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Working on my 1/35 VK 100.01 (p) and doing my own epoxy welds for the first time.

They came out pretty nice but I've realized some of the C-shaped welds might be going the wrong way; from what I've been able to find, stick welders were taught to go weld in the "upwards" direction, meaning the C shaped beads shown here are going in the wrong direction (the open end of the C bead needs to be pointing upward)

What's odd is Night Shift has two videos on this subject and both videos have his weld beads oriented in the same way as mine. So I think I could be missing something here, since he seems very knowledgeable?