The worst part of this build!
Added 2023-04-25 14:48:36 +0000 UTCMy friends, leave it to the British tank design school to make things as complicated as possible :D These fenders have at least a 100 bends in the oddest places, tons of rivets, and multiple complex fasteners. That would be mostly okay if they didn't have to get damaged according to a real photograph. There were cases where I was bending the fender, and the soldered joints kept breaking. Ew, what a painful journey! Oh, did I mention that superglue refused to do its work on a few occasions?
But on a more positive note, at least I've got this part out of the way. A cool trick is to drill a few (3 in this case) holes into the hull and the fender. Then you solder a brass rod into the hole and use it as a super firm locating pin. This way you just slide the damaged fender inside and it'll hold tight and fall precisely into place!
Also, I wasn't able to replicate the damage perfectly. Especially the front section with a sharp bend in the original photo. The material just wouldn't allow me to go any further, and I still had to find a way to fasten the fender to the front armor plate. I guess we can't always mimic reality perfectly. The brass is stronger than the solder, while in real life I can imagine the bolts and rivets definitely are stronger than the thin sheet metal.
Anyway, I'm just glad these are done. But the painful detailing journey is probably not over! There's still the large exhaust on the other side, the external fuel tank, and the most dreadful part - the headlights! :D
On the other hand, I can already imagine that this will be a pleasure to paint and weather!
