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Modeller Build Logs
Type 97 Chi-Ha |
| By Warrink Brothers |
| Started: | Jun 15, 2003 | | Updated: | Jul 16, 2003 |
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This is Tamiya's good old kit. The level of detail is remarkable for a kit of this vintage (1975). The only bad things are the exhausts: these are moulded as one piece with their mesh covers and look horrible. Fortunately, we recently bought Eduard's set for the Ho-Ni. This is the SPG version of the type 97, but the set includes the mesh covers for the exhausts.
Fit of some parts isn't very good, the separate right upper hull panel being a prime example, but otherwise it goes together quite easily. |
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| Construction almost complete | Jul 16, 2003 |
| The Chi-Ha is coming along nicely. The kit requires very little major surgery, but many small details, and making these is great fun. The crew member we will add is one from Warriors' superb Japanese tank crew set. I decided to try and build the mufflers from Eduard's etched parts, and as you... more |
| Turret | Jul 5, 2003 |
| The turret is basically complete. I added Grandt Line conical rivets to the cupola, as well as some other detail parts. The rivets on the mantlet top are made with a Milliput mould, and inserted into predrilled holes. The 57mm gun needs the muzzle faired into the rest of the barrel. Cleaning up the aerial... more |
| More Pics | Jul 2, 2003 |
| A shot of the rear of the model, showing the exhausts consisting of Eduard, Tamiya and scratch parts. Note the scratchbuilt exhaust shields, and the details on the hull side. To make the MG more accurate, I cut off the MG from its ball and enlarged the flat face of the ball with a file. After that I... more |
| Exhausts WIP | Jun 18, 2003 |
| The mesh cover can be seen to the right. We will convert the kit silencer-cum-mesh-cover to the silencer proper by scraping away the moulded-on mesh cover, filling the underside with Milliput, and sanding it to shape. |
| Basic construction underway | Jun 16, 2003 |
| As the title says. We had some trouble getting the right hull plate and the hull front plate to sit correctly, and these parts needed some filler. Putting the upper hull to the lower required some fiddling, and the final drives didn't fit snugly either. The kit is quite old, so this is to be expected.... more |
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