Another part of the interior that required a lot of work was the interior of the commander’s cupola.
The hatch is very large - taking up about two-thirds of the turret roof area. With the hatches open the inside is visible even without peering down into the turret interior.
Now this is one aspect of the kits where the Fine Molds version is actually better than the Dragon equivalent. The Dragon cupola has no interior detail whatsoever, whilst the Fine Molds version does at least have the inside fittings for the hatch hinges and also the small circular vision / pistol ports. However, what neither kit offers are the impressions of the six horizontal and two vertical vision slits which surround the cupola itself. There are also two prominent vertical weld beads inside because the cupola ring itself was made from two semi-circular pieces.
[ATTACH]411271[/ATTACH]
Ha-Go Restoration
You can see the inside of the vision slits and one of the weld beads in this image of a restored vehicle.
When I was sill intent on fiishing the Fine Molds kit, I tried to drill out the vision slits all the way through from the outside using a very fine drill. This was only partially successful - partly because the Fine Molds cupola is also way too thick. Once I had the Dragon cupola (which is at least thinnner) I decided a different approach.
Here you can see the two cupolas side by side with the Dragon part on the left and the FM one on the right (the reason that the FM one is grey and not dark green is because I had sprayed it with primer to see how well my work had gone - I was not impressed!).
[ATTACH]411272[/ATTACH]
Comparison between the two cupolas
Next I cut out two strips of thin plastic sheet which were the right size to wrap insde the Dragon cupola and cut the vision slits into them.
[ATTACH]411273[/ATTACH]
Cupola interior inserts
These were then glued inside and, once dry, sanded to make them as thin as possible. Next I transplanted all of the hinges, etc from the FM part into the Dragon cupola. I also added some bolt heads from slices of stretched sprue and the weld beads from the stretched sprue also, softened with liquid cement and then pressed gently with a knife the make the weld beads.
[ATTACH]411274[/ATTACH]
Cupola interior complete
It looks a bit messy here, but once everything was painted I was quite pleased with my efforts.
[ATTACH]411275[/ATTACH]
Interior weathered
[ATTACH]411276[/ATTACH]
Interior weathered
[ATTACH]411277[/ATTACH]
Interior hatch details
In this last shot you can also see the replacement grab handles and hatch latches which I added to the Fine Molds hatches using brass wire and spare photo-etch strips. These were moulded solid on both the FM and Dragon kits, so you have to make them which ever kit you buy. It’s an odd feature of many of these kits that they give you 3D handles for use on the outside, but seem to think it is acceptable to mould them as simple raised details on the inside of hatches - even when you want them positioned open.
The final detail I added to the inside of the cupola was an AA mount for the MG (from a small piece of brass tube). I believe that not all Ha-Gos were equipped with these, but if you look carefully at the shot of the second tank at Bakri (with the dead crewmen alongside) you can just make this out. The FM kit also had the mounting brackets in the correct position, but not the tube.
[ATTACH]411278[/ATTACH]
Here is the finished model before exterior painting begins...
[ATTACH]411279[/ATTACH]
The hatch is very large - taking up about two-thirds of the turret roof area. With the hatches open the inside is visible even without peering down into the turret interior.
Now this is one aspect of the kits where the Fine Molds version is actually better than the Dragon equivalent. The Dragon cupola has no interior detail whatsoever, whilst the Fine Molds version does at least have the inside fittings for the hatch hinges and also the small circular vision / pistol ports. However, what neither kit offers are the impressions of the six horizontal and two vertical vision slits which surround the cupola itself. There are also two prominent vertical weld beads inside because the cupola ring itself was made from two semi-circular pieces.
[ATTACH]411271[/ATTACH]
Ha-Go Restoration
You can see the inside of the vision slits and one of the weld beads in this image of a restored vehicle.
When I was sill intent on fiishing the Fine Molds kit, I tried to drill out the vision slits all the way through from the outside using a very fine drill. This was only partially successful - partly because the Fine Molds cupola is also way too thick. Once I had the Dragon cupola (which is at least thinnner) I decided a different approach.
Here you can see the two cupolas side by side with the Dragon part on the left and the FM one on the right (the reason that the FM one is grey and not dark green is because I had sprayed it with primer to see how well my work had gone - I was not impressed!).
[ATTACH]411272[/ATTACH]
Comparison between the two cupolas
Next I cut out two strips of thin plastic sheet which were the right size to wrap insde the Dragon cupola and cut the vision slits into them.
[ATTACH]411273[/ATTACH]
Cupola interior inserts
These were then glued inside and, once dry, sanded to make them as thin as possible. Next I transplanted all of the hinges, etc from the FM part into the Dragon cupola. I also added some bolt heads from slices of stretched sprue and the weld beads from the stretched sprue also, softened with liquid cement and then pressed gently with a knife the make the weld beads.
[ATTACH]411274[/ATTACH]
Cupola interior complete
It looks a bit messy here, but once everything was painted I was quite pleased with my efforts.
[ATTACH]411275[/ATTACH]
Interior weathered
[ATTACH]411276[/ATTACH]
Interior weathered
[ATTACH]411277[/ATTACH]
Interior hatch details
In this last shot you can also see the replacement grab handles and hatch latches which I added to the Fine Molds hatches using brass wire and spare photo-etch strips. These were moulded solid on both the FM and Dragon kits, so you have to make them which ever kit you buy. It’s an odd feature of many of these kits that they give you 3D handles for use on the outside, but seem to think it is acceptable to mould them as simple raised details on the inside of hatches - even when you want them positioned open.
The final detail I added to the inside of the cupola was an AA mount for the MG (from a small piece of brass tube). I believe that not all Ha-Gos were equipped with these, but if you look carefully at the shot of the second tank at Bakri (with the dead crewmen alongside) you can just make this out. The FM kit also had the mounting brackets in the correct position, but not the tube.
[ATTACH]411278[/ATTACH]
Here is the finished model before exterior painting begins...
[ATTACH]411279[/ATTACH]
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