Wow, everything is starting to look so good! With the possible exception of a certain Valentine anyway, I have discovered several problems, most of them are self inflicted too, this kit itself is not half bad, I’m just a chump! 
anyway, here is the progress so far -
So, I finished off the assembly, including some slightly ham-fisted photo-etch work, which led to the discovery of a couple of fit issues, the worst of which is a step in the join between the turret halves which I have tried to remedy, but I think I need to have another go at it because it is far from solved! Additionally, I applied a layer of dark brown primer which showed up some nasty finger/thumb prints, one on top of the turret and one on the back corner of the hull, neither of them are going to be at all easy to sand down because I can’t really get at them. Oh well, I will have to come up with a solution of some kind. I also put down a layer of dark grey as a base coat for the exhaust, which kind of highlighted the mess I managed to make of trimming off the sprue gates, Still, there is a cover plate for the exhaust, so those will not be visible once I have that fitted. I hope.
I have mostly assembled the figures included with the kit as well, they are fairly good, but there are some nasty gaps that are going to need filling! Also, at the time of writing this, I have fitted all their additional web gear and equipment, I just need to make some rifle slings from tin foil and masking tape, then I can have a crack at painting them but I think I’m going to get the tank itself done and dusted before I start working on them in earnest.
Anyway, if anyone read all that, nice one! (I ramble a bit, sorry) keep up all the good work, and I am going to set about sorting out my mistakes!
