E-75 tank destroyer and stuff I've finished this year

This will be my final post for the year and the Hurricane, Leopard, E-75 tank destroyer and ZiL-131 all are still on the bench as although I was hoping to finish at least one of them, the illness I had earlier this month came back and I've spent the Xmas holiday recovering.
Anyway this weekend I'll be concentrating on the E-75 as construction is nearly finished...or it was until I test fitted the track and wheel assemblies.
I like to keep them as separate assemblies as it makes painting easier however for some reason they seem to have shrunk and just would not fit even though I left them to set on the hull. I tried to stretch them a bit by dunking the assemblies in very hot water but all it did was loosen a couple of links so I broke them again and fitted an extra track link in each side. Some of the wheels had come loose but because of the extra link it's thrown out the spacing for the ones still attached so I removed them all and cleaned off the superglue that was used to hold them in place.
I must say this area has been problematical since I did the tracks as the VERY short axle stubs on the kit, coupled with the loose-fitting resin wheels have proved troublesome all along so I'll fit the wheels after everything has been painted;

Some you win, some you lose....

As for 2017 I surprised myself by actually finishing six models although admittedly the S-3 Viking WAS started a few years earlier;

So there it is, the end of another year! Again I've bought more kits than I'll ever need but I really don't care, I enjoy getting them. 
I haven't a CLUE what will be on the bench next year (apart from what's on it now) as I don't really make plans and generally go with the flow with whatever grabs my attention.
Happy new year people and thanks as always for taking an interest in what I do. See you next year!

E-75 tank destroyer

I've been away from the bench for a week or so due to illness but because I'm feeling better I decided to make some progress on the E-75 tank destroyer. Like the E-50 Heimdall I built earlier this year I've decided to add the armour plating over the engine grills that were found on late-war panzers, Then I thought of the Panthers found in Italy that had additional spaced armour welded to the top of the turrets so using paper templates I marked out where it would fit on the roof of the E-75....of course it would have been so much easier if I had thought of it BEFORE sticking everything on the roof but never mind.
I made the templates and transferred the shapes to 0.20 thou styrene sheet then cut them out, .75mm rods cut to 2mm lengths were glued in various places underneath and left to set.
The engine grill plates were just rectangles and circles again cut from .020 thou styrene sheet (or plastic card for the purists out there) however the .75mm rods were inserted into pre-drilled holes, this way it makes painting easier as they will be all added last;

One thing that I didn't feel looked right was the raised detail on top of the gun mantlet so this was removed and Mr Surfacer applied to re-texture it. I'll probably need to put a couple of coats on as when I last looked you could still see the remains of the raised detail;

Another thing I'll be adding (although you'll probably won't be able to see it) is the lower part of the periscope sight in the commanders cupola and yes I'm basing it on a submarine periscope just for the hell of it :o)

The aim is to actually get it to turn when I've somehow managed to fit it into the roof of the superstructure.