Ha! LOL
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The shell for the 420mm weighed about 1000 kilogram (a little oner 2000lbs) Pushing that rickety cart took some work.
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Upper and lower hulls are now together
Again, everything fitted perfectly and nice and snug. You get 2 types of engine deck supplied, same for the exhaust side grills and the circular air inlet ? I presume they are for an earlier version of the AUF ?
Stay safe everyone 
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You’re right about the engine grille and the exhaust mesh protections. The TA is based on a AMX 30 B2 which has a different engine deck.
The earlier AuF1 had a AMX 30 B engine and rear hull.
Good job on your model.
Olivier
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M12 GMC progress…
AFV Club T51 tracks are too wide for the kit sprockets and cause a few other issues.
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Coming together nicely John.
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Thanks Olivier and Peter…
That M12 is building up nicely Doug … Lovely work mate
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The Academy sprockets (and their tracks) are 1mm too narrow so don’t fit any of the AM tracks out there. If it’s not too late, remove the sprockets and pry them apart, then fit a disk of Evergreen 0.040" plastic between the parts to widen them by 1mm…
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Unfortunately, as with the Academy M3 Lee I was working on two months ago, I discovered this the hard way and it is now too late. I used the wrong sprockets in the manner you suggest (you can see the mismatched sprockets in the picture) but will now need to find new sprockets (for both models) since prying apart the correct style sprockets is just not gonna happen.
On the positive side, the tracks did not pigeon toe like they did on the M3 Lee. That is a small mercy. There are other issues with the tracks but I can work around those.
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You may still be able to separate the halves if you run liquid cement along the join and try and prise them apart after the existing glue weld gets soft. Alternative is to use a Razor raw to cut them apart, but then you will need another disc of styrene the width of the saw blade as well as the .40 one.
If you do decide to cut (and by the sounds of things it may be worth it), first run a permanent marker across the hub from sprocket to sprocket, or scribe a line. When you glue in the discs, you can use the marker line to match the halves back to the same place they were before you cut. If the cut you made is not perfect, matching the line on the halves together will ensure that the two gear rings are still evenly spaced and the faces are parallel. Also when you put the halves together, put the tracks in place to make sure the gear teeth are exactly opposite each other.
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I tried the glue thing but wrecked the sprockets trying to pull them apart. Oh well. My spares box does not include any sprockets of the correct type so I guess this goes into storage with all the other failed projects. At least it will have lots of company. HAHA!
Edit: I found a pair of spare, solid type sprockets in an Academy M7 Priest. 
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Doug, it might be worth putting up a thread and asking if anyone in the USA has the ‘fancy’ Tamiya sprockets as spares and would be willing to sell them to you. Most Tamiya kits have both the ‘Fancy’ type and ‘solid ring’ type:
Otherwise, what you mean by wrecked? Did you break the teeth of the sprockets off trying to prise them apart? If so, and the central hub and centre bolts are okay, you can get a replacement ‘fancy’ type ring from a Dragon kit if you have one, or see if someone can help out. Dragon supplies both the solid and fancy types in their kits. As long as the donor vehicle kit is one that can use the solid type, the fancy ones could be used:
Unfortunately, postage to the US from Australia is more than half the cost of a new Dragon Orange label Sherman kit!
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If you PM me your address I can sort you out some sprockets, but they are coming from across the Atlantic by “slow boat” cheapest fare so may take a while to get there! Did you use the Academy final-drive? (It’s green in your pic, so not the one that came with the M12…) I have sprockets from several brands so want to make sure they fit!
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Thank you both for the suggestions and offers to help. That was very gracious of both of you.
When trying to pull the sprockets apart, I broke off part of the disk with the drive teeth. Twice! The cylinders were also mauled pretty good.
The M12 GMC I am building (June Gil) wore solid type sprockets. The sprockets you see in the last picture are jury rigged spares from my shelved Lulubelle project.
I went through models and found a pair of spare, solid type sprockets in an Academy M7 Priest. They look the same as the broken ones so…problem solved! (I hope.)
The same Academy M7 Priest includes a spare set of fancy type sprockets. Those can go to Lulubelle so that problem is also solved! (I hope.)
Even after ruining 4 sprockets and using 4 spare sprockets, the Academy M7 Priest and Academy M12 GMC models include enough spare parts, when combined, to make another complete VVSS suspension! This could turn out okay after all.
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Good to see you have a solution.
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That looks old Bert
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Those old Heller kits; a friend of mine had an R35 tank and it was a headache and a half; not just the instructions (which were in French), but also trying to figure the correct colors to use.
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Thanks, and yes, this is old… has those old stiff tracks that I remember of the AMX 13-75 I did…
And indeed, an all French instruction sheet, with French names for the parts, luckily there is also an extra sheet with English/German translation included…
As for the correct paint, well… let’s just say I am very flexible…
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Google translate is usefull too. I often use it because my english is a bit limited.
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