Early M2 half-track car

I bought this kit second-hand. This is how far the previous owner got building it. 

Suspension parts built so they can be installed without glue, for easier painting later on. 

Because the early halftracks didn’t have the spring for the idler wheel, I filed off its mountings and filled the holes for it. However, that makes it hard to fit the idler wheel mount itself. What I did was to first fit the sprocket and bogie into the track, without glue (and with the wheel-pairs loose in the bogie), then fit all that to the model, again without glue. 

A piece of Blu-Tack at the top … 

… and one at the bottom keep the bogie firmly in place on the chassis. 

Then put the idler wheel mount into the idler wheel, also without glue, and put them in place in the track, so the mount fits in the chassis as it should. 

All you then need to do is put a drop of glue onto the idler wheel mount to glue it to the chassis, and leave everything in place until this glue sets. Once that’s done, you can remove all of the rear suspension bits and paint them separately from the rest of the model.

BTW, all of this is not necessary if you fit the idler springs, A21 and A22, because those will positively locate the idler mounts. However, those springs were only fitted from mid-1943, and my model will represent a vehicle as in early 1942 or so. 

Some plastic rod added to the idler arms, to which the screws behind the arms connect on halftracks without idler springs. The bracket from the top of the arm to the rear of the chassis was also only present on halftracks with springs, so I filled the holes for them in the back of the chassis. 

Cab sides, with the jerrycan holder mounting removed from the right-hand side. The other still needs to be done. 

Front bumper with roller, where I replaced the moulded-on springs by new ones made from copper wire wound around plastic rod. 

Basic parts for the rear compartment. I’ll wait with adding details until I’ve also built the basic shape of the cab, to ensure everything lines up correctly. 

Replacement pedals in the cab, should be good enough for how little of them will actually be visible on the finished model. 

Cab and load bed dry-fitted to the chassis to ensure they line up correctly. 

Front of the cab with the radiator shutters in place. 

Inside of the cab. I replaced the gearshift lever with copper wire because Dragon’s part has only two bends instead of three like the real thing. The paint is because those areas will be hard to reach when spraying the model later on. 

Rear area, also with painted areas to prevent them being visible as bare plastic later. 

Machine-gun skate rail, with one of the two lips around the edges added — a second one needs to go along the top. The strip I used was 4 mm too short, and I of course filled the gap after taking the photo.