AEF Meuse-Argonne FT-17 | Meng

After doing some of the interior bits, the hull begins assembly. 

 

 

Turret (mostly) completed. 

Dryfitting the turret to the hull, which has also been built up a bit more. LOTS of seams, but nothing some putty can't fix. The model came on the sprues without any base tubs to be built up, and therefore had to be constructed from the ground up. Miter joints helped with the angle of various joints for the riveted plates, but slight errors can create a butterfly effect throughout the model. 

Took a long while just putting together the left side running gear. I've since cleared away some of that flash on the return roller bars. 

Dryfitting the turret and running gear.  

Everything puttied (mostly) and ready to be primed. 

Primed and dryfitting. 

 

Second tone painted, need to get the third then I can touch up the errors caused by the masking putty. 

Need to do some retouching, but for my first time masking with blutac, I'm very pleased with the result. the results with brown were unsurprisingly better, as I did the green first and learned from my mistakes. 

Lots of stuff since the last picture. Touched up the paint, applied an oil dot filter (my first ever attempt; you can see some of the messups, with a little too much blue at the front of the chassis by the driver's hatch. Did my best to rectify that), then some of AK's weathering plaster + Dark Mud. Next I'll apply a matte varnish, apply pigments, and do final assembly. 

Finally done! Learned a lot from this, probably wouldn't have done the oil dot filter if I had to do it again. Really pleased with this result; unfortunately my phone's camera doesn't do it justice.