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bossy122
Ooh. Just realizing this is the Japanese GP. That PE rear wing support wasn't fun for me but maybe your armour building skills will help with that. I got one picture of my completed project, went to move it and the whole thing crumnled on me. I had to go back and change to the #4 Depallier car. Be sure to watch the markings in the instructions as I believe each car had different Japanese text on it.

Jakko ‌
There's a sizeable sheet of etched parts, but they're all pretty large compared to what you get in typical aftermarket AFV sets, so it didn't phase me, no 🙂 I've put together the vertical sides by now, which was slightly tricky but not too bad. The exhaust pipes were worse, but I haven't got to the "cage" that holds up the rear wing yet, that might change my mind 😉 Still, being a Serious Armour Modeller™, I own a folding tool, which will probably make it easier to put those parts together.

The Japanese text in the markings is transliterations of the various names from Latin letters to their corresponding katakana, so yes, I do need to be careful to put the right ones on 🙂

David Taylor
Coming along nicely.

Jakko ‌
Shouldn't be that much longer now … I hope 😉

Rui S
Great work 👍

Desert Marlin
Watch the Cab to Chassis interface on this kit. My GMGC had some difficulty with that!

Jakko ‌
Thanks for the heads-up. I've been dry-fitting the floor and the rear body (main parts already built) and they seem to fit well enough to the chassis, but I won't know for sure until I get the cab built, of course.

Desert Marlin
I was the same for mine! I still think I messed something up. But they look great when finished!

Jakko ‌
I have seen somebody build a Dragon M3 halftrack, and he had some trouble lining up the cab and the back half, so I think it will pay to keep a close eye on fit straight from the start.

John
Nice build log. I was thinking of this kit since I actually live near one of the decommissioned batteries but it's not a must have and the poor fit is kind of a deal breaker for me. Hey, if you build five more and connect them, you can have your own battery!

NLAWScametovisit
definitely a rough looking kit, but your fixes are really impressive.

Jakko ‌
Thanks 🙂 It's not a kit I would recommend unless you like ones that need a good deal of work. The missile is much better than the launcher, though — except for the gaps around the main fins. On the whole it seems pretty accurate, just not that well-designed or -moulded. It is also lacking all of the hydraulic and electrical lines, as well as other minor detail, but I didn't feel like adding any of that. Those who want to, I will refer to ed-thelen.org/#NumDoc which has a whole bunch of technical manuals on the Nike Hercules (and Ajax); TM9-1400-250-10/2 has good drawings of all kinds of stuff. Also, the kit gives you a non-nuclear missile. To make it nuclear, you need to scratchbuild a probe with four vanes on the nose (or the protective cap for it).

As for the battery, the kit's instructions actually mention you can put four launchers together. After having built just the one, I don't want to make a second, let alone any more than that … Though I would have been lucky with this one if I did, because Dutch batteries (which this missile will be marked as) had only three launchers each 🙂

Jakko ‌
Removable, that might have been a good idea, yes … I glued the track to the wheels instead 🙂 My idea is that like this, I can still reach most of the track reasonably well to paint it, and that any unpainted bits will be largely limited to around the inside wheels where they won't be easy to spot. With both rows of wheels on, I have no idea how to paint most of the track at all. (These days, I much prefer workable tracks, because you can paint the model and the tracks separately and only then install the tracks, easily and without having to glue painted track links to painted wheels.)

Guy Rump
Looking good, watching. 👍