Tamiya Challenger 1

[rbaer]

Couldn't help myself, I started something else, mainly because the Friuls showed up, and I've always thought the Challengers, 1 and 2, looked like hotrods with the steeply raked rear hull, blocky front and big road wheels. I picked up this kit at the Austin AMPS meeting last summer, and since I had nothing else going on (ha!) went ahead and built the hull up last night and did the Friuls today, while I was doing "online training". I have zip for references other than a magazine build article that focuses mainly on painting and a few pics in a Concord book, so I'm mercifully free from the need to "correct" things, other than the hull front, something the magazine build shows only a few tiny pics of. Other than that, it's OOB.
IMG_1602 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_1603 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
So far, it already looks like there should be a couple of rooster tails of dirt blowing off the back of the tracks.

[joelsmith]

Kickin' it into overdrive I see!

[rbaer]

I was, just down shifted.
My favorite on-line vendor got the Eduard brass in, so I ordered it, and it actually showed up a couple of days later, despite the best efforts of the USPS, the guys and gals who also took three weeks to get a magazine from Dallas to Austin. I'm sure they had a good reason.... But, here I am with a bunch of brass, when all I really wanted was the screens for the front turret basket. I also found a couple of Photosniper books on Amazon, so they're on the way. In a nutshell, I'm slowing down until the books get here, and debating about how much of this old Eduard brass I want to use. Typical older Eduard, there's a lot of bits on it that are maybe not as realistic as the plastic they're supposed to replace, the one clear exception being the mesh for the baskets. In fact, the part for the turret side basket used on later Marks is so good I may scratch it up so I can use it. Maybe.... In the meantime, here's where I am now:
IMG_1979 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
So far pretty typical for almost 40 year old Tamiya: some really nice bits, some soft bits and a few fit issues, mostly with the turret halves and the ever present too large locating holes, but I'm used to it.

[joelsmith]

Looking Good Bubba!!