If it involves edge joins I'd probably go with solder.

Unfortunately it's a brass edge to plastic join, not brass to brass, otherwise the soldering iron would have been the first tool I pulled out.

Ha ha! Well, that certainly makes sense!

So having ditched the brass strips this is my replacement:



A little wider and not quite as thin, but close enough for government work.

A little more work is still needed to get everything lined up and glued in place, but a fraction of the effort the PE would have required.

Will the St. Chamond tank be acceptable?

Boy, we are really stretching the envelope on this campaign! The St Chamond, as far as I know, is actually named for the town in which it was built, not the Bishop of Lyon for whom the town was named, but I guess I'm feeling generous after everyone else wore me down! LOL!

OK, thanks. If you do feel that is to much of a stretch I can definitely switch to a different kit. I just figured Saint would make it. LOL

Like I said, feeling generous...Bring it! The more the merrier.

Notwithstanding the fact that the instructions for this kit might just be the worst instructions ever, the Priest is starting to look priestly:



Pretty much OOB so far, although the DS tracks are WAY oversized and don't want to conform to the proper shape, so I've ordered some AFV Club tracks. Hope I'll be able to get a decent look from them without being too tedious.

Mark,
The Priest islooking very nice! I wanted to join this campaign, but I build too slowly to do the AFV Club and this campaign and I committed there first... I would have gone with an early Priest to go next to the Bishop I completed a few months back. I love the concept and still follow along!

Again, lovely work!
PH

Thanks, Paul. Between the horrible instructions and some major fit issues with the engine deck and rear of the fighting compartment this kit has had me saying some decidedly un-holy things!

Sorry you couldn't join us. I've got another two builds beside this one I need to get through before I can get started on my build for AFV Club.

I'm in with a Dragon Sexton.

Cheers
Todd

Here is the kit I will be building for this campaign. It is the Takom St. Chamond (Late Type) 1/35th scale.

Wrapped up build phase for the most part and got a coat of primer on. Yesterday I finished up the AFV Club indy links:



I suppose I could have tried shortening the DS tracks that came with the kit, but they still didn't want to wrap around the drive sprocket and bogey tight enough to present the proper appearance without putting an unacceptable amount of stress on the suspension. Now that I have a usable set of tracks I can experiment with the DS tracks to see if it's even possible to get a realistic appearance with them.

The Priest is looking very nice. The AFV club tracks look great on there. I haven't be able get them acceptably tight to properly replicate live tracks well either.

Cheers,
PH

Thanks, Paul. The AFV tracks do look great and were not too bad to assemble once I got a system down. Filing off the EPMs was by far the most time consuming part. Once that was done I was able to assemble both runs in a day.

I would say those tracks look great, I can only hope my Shilka Zeus tracks look 1/2 as good...

I'm sure they're going to look great, Clayton!
I'll take indies over rubberbands any day!

Work going on the Shilka puppy today...
Running gear assembled and painted...

Popsicle sticks Jig for nice straight and flat treads...

Upper Hull coming along...


...and tomorrow a good day for Guns and Turret!

Got my Priest base-coated and a start on the weathering.



Trying to replicate the effect of paint that's been oxidized by exposure to the elements and scuffed up from use. It's not 100% where I wanted it, but I think I'm generally pretty happy with the result.

Bishop work has halted for a while as I work on simpler kits to maintain motivation. Lack of time doesn't help either.

I have managed to get an experimental silver coat on the lower hull interior, using a Dulux spray silver enamel. Came out quite acceptable, probably a little bright for scale, but some subtle (i hope) weathering should tone it down a bit. With the rear turret doors open there may be a reasonable amount of the interior visible though it's hard to tell at this stage.

Wow! that is a pretty nice metallic finish from what I can see in the photo. I've never heard of Dulux. Is that something you got at the LHS or Home Depot?

Dulux is a common house paint brand in Aus, this aerosol paint was bought from the local hardware supermarket.

Unfortunately I was a little premature with the silver interior as I mis-remembered my research info. Silver interiors were apparently phased out around mid-1940 so the bishop would most likely have a gloss white interior.

I have since resprayed it in a satin white, but I will definitely be making use of this silver paint in future as it goes on quite smoothly.

Nearly finished the Shilka...first time I've ever built individual track links, and boy, getting these to behave has been an exercise in folly ;-(...but the upper hull and turret are looking ok...