In the first part of the build I basically completed the lower half of the vehicle and the cargo bed. Back to the crew compartment.
The AT-T’s front lights reside at the very front of the bonnet/hood on metal supports. In the kit these are PE parts, which supposedly butt-join the resin engine compartment, and on top of which the lights are glued. Images of broken-off detail in my mind lead me to soldering a piece of wire (in red) through each support like this (looking from the front):
I started construction with the chassis tub. First thing to do is gluing the back wall. Next I cut the suspension arms out of the casting block and it turned out the holes for their pins are much too small. Off with the pins, arms are drilled through, as is the tub itself – naturally observing the locations of the original holes.
I decided to use thick copper wire passing through the whole tub to make new pins. This would ease me in terms of affixing the pins and make the whole thing stronger.
After delivering their exquisite MiG-21MF the Eduard crew went on to produce a number of sets to further improve the appearance of this important machine in 48th scale.
One of the areas that would definitely benefit from an aftermarket set are the tires. Dimensionally correct the kit items are really “bald” and flattening them could result in holes. This set replaces all three kit wheels with beautifully cast resin items, thread present on all three of them. Two hub options, etched details and masks are also included:
