Scratchbuilding a US M2 Medium Tank in 28mm Part 3

Picture 8 Drivers Compartment:  Here we start fitting some of the skins for the driver’s compartment. The front section forms a pyramid structure. Two sets of drawings I had did not match and one showed a “cheater” plate to fill the driver’s compartment and the crew compartment. Notice how the back of angular plate, the side plate of the driver’s compartment, does not meet with the line on the crew compartment.

Picture 8A Drivers Compartment:  This becomes more apparent when skinning in the upper sides of the driver’s compartment and the purpose of the “cheater” plate becomes apparent.  Note the gap between the upper and lower plates of the driver’s compartment.   The lowest glacis plate is also installed and can be trimmed to size and edges filed to shape.

Picture 9 Cheater Plate:  The “cheater” in blue, fills this area.  This is not obvious in the drawings, but is clearly visible on photos of the real vehicle.  The pyramid structure of the driver’s compartment is not true pyramid.  In this case, as the model progresses, the model itself will direct how it is to be built.  Note too that overlapping plates can be installed on the inner edges, and the overlaps can later be trimmed to size.

Picture 10 Lower Rear:  The lower rear, showing the floor plate. Note the lower rear is actually two plates so the side plates and rear base plate need to be trimmed.

Picture 11 Trimming the Rear Deck:  Here a razor saw aligned with the trimmed lower side plates will be used to bob the vehicle’s rear end to the correct angle.

Picture 12 Filling in Rear Deck:  The upper rear decked in.  Note the use of thick and thin for structure and for sizing.  You sometimes have to recess one part to set in an additional panel or make a part out of thicker stock to come up to the correct measurements.  Generally structure is thicker than ‘skin’.  The rears of the upper and lower sections are now at the correct angle.  The lower side plates are yet to be trimmed to the correct angle for the lowest rear plate.

Picture 13 Basic Hulls:  The “basic” hulls.

Picture 14 Basic Hulls:  Side and rear of two basic hulls.

Picture 14A Basic Hulls:  Here I took my Dremel to the floor and up thru the base plate.  I had planned to add some weight to the models.  This also gave access to the interior structure if required later.  Ultimately neither the weight nor the access was used.