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My contribution to the year long WWI build. I already had the little Meng kit in my stash but have recently purchased an e.t. PE set and an Orange Hobby aftermarket barrel.

I can’t really start the build till late Nov as the reference text I just bought won’t arrive till then, but I hope to get a bit of a kit review done before then.

Nice choice - I have one too and I've considered building it, but it will most likely end up like this

Philipp

...and here we go...again.



and



The Orange Hobby barrel is very nice and comes with the main tube, recoil mechanism and the mantlet. The e.t. PE set is also very nice and comes with a piece of chain. The chain serves no function, but I suspect the AM companies all saw the same photo of an FT-17 with a piece of chain draped over the tail as they all seem to include it

On to the Meng kit.

I'm a bit of a Meng Fanboy so am a bit biased, however, the kit is very nice. Each spru comes individually wrapped and cast in tan styrene with fine surface detail, including the wood grain on the idler. There are several black sprues for the track links. A small PE fret is included as well as a small sheet of decals which are all in register and look to have a very fine carrier film.



There are a lot of parts for such a small vehicle, but you do get a full interior and the option of two types of armament.



The instructions are very clear, one small correction sheet is included.

My previous experience of Meng kits has been good and the online reviews are promising so once my reference material is delivered I'll dive in!

It's actually a really nice kit Adam - you'll enjoy it for sure.

Gary

Reference material has arrived from Amazon, hope to make a start on this once a few other projects are off the bench!

Good choice Adam and those Walkaround books are very helpful too.

Vincent

So I've made a start. So far fit is perfect, but there is a fair amount of clean up as the sprue gates are huge. The details are pretty spot on when comparing to my reference text. The interior detail is awesome, lots of it will be lost once the hull is closed up but I'll know it's there. Only selectively using the ET PE set as most of the Meng set can't really be improved on. Orange hobby barrel set is very nice, got it all soldered together and it is a definite improvement on the kit gun.

Assembly can be fiddly, if you want parts workable there is a lot of balancing bits together and apply selective glue. I've also replaced all the springs in the suspension as the kit ones look like they were borrowed from a biro and are well out of scale.





Sorry about the crappy pics, just quick snaps of progress made on the iPhone.

Working hard not to assemble anything I won't be able to get to with a paintbrush too soon!

Great work Adam! The engine alone is a piece of art

Philipp

I have to agree with Philipp. That engine looks very nice indeed Adam.

Vincent

Have been making slow progress with this over the Xmas break. I've never built a kit with such a complex interior so have been taking my time and building lots of separate sub assemblies. Primed the interior with Ammo rust primer, chipping fluid, then a light coat of white. Minor chipping followed and I was planning to push on when I discovered an error in the kit



I noticed in my references you could see the engine bay from the fighting compartment, I thought it was because the subjects were under restoration...then I took the time to read the text. FT-17s didn't have a firewall, but American M1917s did. Possibly the kit designers used a mix of references, FT-17s and M1917s were visually similar but that was about it.

Some minor cosmetic work followed



This has its upside (the transmission and radiator I've taken the time to paint will now be visible)...and downside (I now have to paint a lot more interior detail).

The other issue is the colour call outs for the engine and transmission are way off base in the instructions, luckily the real thing is more visually interesting