Leman Russ DIY Progress

I've been working a bit more on building a replacement side wall for the Leman Russ. I cast some copies of elements from the other side wall using Green Stuff. The copies were then cast in Green Stuff using Canola as a release agent, which worked pretty well, although it's pretty messy. Once the parts were hardened, I was able to trim the parts fairly easily with a blade, and glue them to the side wall. So far it's coming out pretty well.

I built up riveting on the side wall using White Glue. They came out a lot flatter on drying though, so I'm probably going to have to go back and apply more White Glue again to raise them up. I also tried making rivets using Green Stuff, but they were too hard to apply as they were so small, and I kept ending up with my fingers glued together.

The other panel detailing was made by laminating sheet styrene shapes or panels to the main panel. I used Green Stuff to fill any joins or irregularities as required.

I'm also quite pleased, I finally got the turret attached. The previous owner of the Leman Russ kit and glued the turret neck panel on upside down, and removing it to fix it up, I found that it was melted and covered in glue. I finally managed to trim the glue back enough and fix up the neck so I could attach it to the body.

Next I'll have to make some replacement sponsons. I have the guns, but not the sponson housing for them. I'm also thinking about adding a stubber to the top of the turret.