Attaching The Top Deck to The Lower Hull

Sure, this sounds easy. But like Billy Mays always said, “Wait…there’s more!”

First off, The Top Deck (from Step 15 of the Instructions) will be warped. All of mine are to some extent, and this one is no different. You will need to get some heavy rubber bands, and in my case, some small Irwin Quick-Grip clamps, ready. Make sure that the pin marks on the edges of the Top Deck, especially at each rear side, are sanded smooth.

Also, the Front Glacis, Part B3, has two significant pin marks at the top-rear, that should be filled and sanded before you mount the Top Deck. Once these are addressed, run a bead of plastic cement around the full area of the Lower Hull sides where the Top Deck will meet, and inside the front and rear channel for the Top Deck. Insert the Top Deck into the channel in the Front Glacis (B3), then pull it down into the rear channel, and start matching up along the sides. Clamp and band to keep the seam as even as possible. On mine, rubber bands worked well, and they were used around the hull in both side-to-side and end-to-end fashion. At the areas where the warpage was worse, I had to apply slight pressure with a clamp at the right front corner, and the left side just ahead of the engine deck. Once the glue dries, inspect your seam line, fill as needed, and sand smooth.

With all of the sanding done so far, weld seams will need to be re-done. After the glue is dry and the clamps come off.

There are a few things to note, too. The driver's periscope, was ignored from Step 10, since it cannot be seen from the outside. The MG 34 in the Front Glacis (F2) was removed from the ball mount (B1-B3), and the ball mount was left in place. Since this is an exterior-only build, we can mount the machine gun barrel only, after painting, from the outside. Also, at a later time, we will address the two periscopes missing from the hatches. These can also be done from the outside, since Tamiya designed no periscopes coming through the hull, anyway.