SS-23 etchy bits....ZzzzzzZZZZZzzzz

This bit is slow going as not only do I have to attach each tread plate separately it's essential that every part is aligned, also every horizontal plate has to be cut down by 1.5mm as they are too long.
It's taken a fair few hours to get to this point and I still have the lower part of this door to do then it all starts again for the right-hand side...ho hum.

After all the excitement of finishing the T-90....

It's back to the SS-23...yippee.....

At the moment I'm adding all the etch bits but it's around 3am (UK time) and my eyes are starting to hurt so I think that's enough for now.
The Hold n Fold has been invaluable for this job as it would have been very difficult to get accurate bends in the etch metal otherwise.

Once all the etch has been fitted the model should be ready for painting so YAY! :o)

SS-23-Soldering etchy bits

There is a narrow strip that runs along the lower hull sides and it's made up of sections so figuring out that cyano glue would never hold it together I decided to solder the sections instead. Thankfully this has worked so YAY for me :o)

The sections each have a right-angle so this was done using a Hold-and-Fold etchy bendy tool that is absolutely invaluable. Each part was cleaned up where they are to be soldered using a medium grade Wet and Dry paper and using Blu-Tack they were fixed into place on a piece of ceramic tile. A SMALL amount of flux was brushed onto each side of the join then using a 25w soldering iron the solder was run into the joint (again only a small amount) and when cool it was cleaned up to remove excess flux.
Superglue has it's benefits when attaching etch but soldering is really that easy to do and of course makes for stronger joints especially for a job like this.
By the way the stuff I'm using is lead-free solder AND flux that I got from a local DIY shop although I believe that a company called Carrs make products more suited for modelling.