M32B1 TRV with T1E1 Mine Roller

Lower hull with basic interior parts (plus square plastic rod to support the floor that will be added later), and turret parts with ejector pin marks filled with putty.

Turret parts glued together, roof held on with tape so everything will set square. Fit of the turret walls to the base ring is very tight.

Turret seams puttied and sanded, and some interior parts added.

.50-calibre ammo boxes detailed.

Hull with driver’s compartment from AFV Club 17-pounder M10 kit, as the basics of it can be seen through the opening in the turret. Jerrycans in left rear sponson, from Italeri with RFM lids to make them water cans, and Tamiya M1 Thompson SMG under turret roof.

Mortar ammo tubes made from sprue H of this kit, as it has the right diameter; Tasca’s tubes are too long (18 mm instead of 16 mm). The hull rack in the right sponson holds 19 rounds.

Drive shaft and cover for power take-off chain added. These aren’t meant to be entirely accurate but to give a good enough impression when seen through the open roof of the turret.

Winch transmission added, not very detailed nor exactly to scale, because it will mostly be out of sight. What counts is that it gives the right impression.

Winch drive added under the floor, again mostly to give the right impression of the actual thing rather than being fully accurate.

View through the open top to show what will be visible on the finished model.

Details added to the firewall.

Fire extinguisher bottles from an old Tamiya M60A1 kit, with pipework from copper wire.

Winch control handles scratchbuilt from plastic strip and rod.

What you can see of the levers etc. through the open top, when the floor plates and winch drum are in place. (Drum has been bulked up with some leftover bits, so not as much cable needs to go on it later on.)

Driver figure, legs and torso from two different MiniArt sets, arms from the figure from an Asuka Sherman, head from Royal Models.

Turret interior now finished too.

Whole interior painted olive drab using Mr. Aqueous Hobby Color.

Interior had a wash of black and a drybrush of light olive to bring out the detail. Seats and mortar ammo tubes painted black, and fire extinguishers undercoated in dark yellow so that red can go over them later without becoming dark and muddy.

Hull floor and winch put in. Winch cable is far too long and rolled up so it can be cut to length later on.

Interior mostly complete, though hull top and turret are both still loose.

Left side of mostly finished interior.

Driver figure painted.

Driver in his seat, and a helmet and pack added to the rear floor to add some interest and make the vehicle seem more “in use”.

Driver masked off with a piece cut from a plastic bag intended for storing sandwiches 🙂 This can be pulled up through the hatch after painting, and is impervious to model cement (as proved by a quick test).

Covers made for grouser compartments to replace the kit’s air scoops, which were often removed and replaced when M4A1s were converted to M32B1s.

With the hull, turret and some stowage together, it starts to look like a tank.

Some of the recovery equipment installed in the left and front sides.

More recovery equipment on the right and rear. Two of the spare track links have been replaced by ones from a Dragon Sherman kit, for variety.

Replacements for the hubs of the mine roller discs, 3D-printed by a friend from a CAD drawing I made based on an illustration from the technical manual for the T1E1 mine roller.

Bold Division hub on the left, replacement on the right. Because of the BD hub’s thickness, the set only includes 21 (so you have to alternate one hub and one disc) when there should be 36 (two hubs to each disc).

Roller discs with hubs: Bold Division parts on the left, replacement hub on the right. The discs on the right also had their centre holes drilled out to 9 mm diameter instead of 5 mm as per the set’s parts.

All eighteen roller discs with a hub on both sides,

As I made the hubs slightly too wide so a set of discs is 4 mm too wide for the Bold Division parts, but those are about 2 mm too narrow compared to drawings of the real thing, I widened the parts by 2 mm on each side by superglueing a piece of plastic card to it.