As a kit, it has a number of issues. As mentioned earlier, there is one typo in the instructions. The turret assembly lacks reliable support. The joins are too fine for the thickness of the plastic. The mantlet assembly does not align properly.
Monday, February 12, 2018
Warlord Games IS-2 Heavy Tank - basic build
So, the Warlord Games / Italeri IS-2 Heavy tank is now assembled.
As a kit, it has a number of issues. As mentioned earlier, there is one typo in the instructions. The turret assembly lacks reliable support. The joins are too fine for the thickness of the plastic. The mantlet assembly does not align properly.
The four fuel tanks have not been installed yet because they are difficult to align properly. The connections look more like flash than a properly engineered join. The fuel tanks on the Rubicon T34 kits look crude but they do align correctly. Neither of them have the end handles.
Plastic hand rails are provided, however I made them out of 0.7mm brass rod. They are all the same size, and I used the 24 inch handrail part of the 4mm to the foot scale hand rail jig.
I did lose the turret lift tab from the back of the turret, so I made one out of plastic rod. A dwarf aerial was added in front of the cupola. The cupola is rather crude, a number of features have been simplified. On the real tank, the AA gun and the hatch assembly would appear to be able to rotate. The loader's hatch requires quite a bit of modification to make it fit flat.
The upper and lower hull need to be joined before the rear engine plate can be added. This means my normal technique of keeping the upper and lower hulls separate for painting will not work.
As a kit, it has a number of issues. As mentioned earlier, there is one typo in the instructions. The turret assembly lacks reliable support. The joins are too fine for the thickness of the plastic. The mantlet assembly does not align properly.
