As I would like to represent this vehicle in a late 1944 ETO setting the wet and damp conditions will require a darker coloured pin wash to add to the muddy running gear and lift the contrast to the monochrome base coat. More vibrant colours will be added by way of the accessories in the load area.
Construction of the Drathgelflechtschurzen (mesh space armour).
In addition to fitting the spaced armour the kit provides parts so you can build it up without the tubular rails altogether. By simply adding blanking plates to the upper hull. To replicate this option accurately you would really have to drill lots of very small holes in the track guard side profiles where the lower brackets would have attached. That will involve a very fine drill and a very steady hand!
The tubular top rails provided only come with cut-outs to attach the spaced armour panels. Unlike the excellent Dragon Ausf J kit #6575 there are no additional tubular rails offered without any cut-outs. This would allow you to display the rail without the spaced armour panels. If you wanted to display the odd panel missing you would have to fill appropriate cut-outs. I notice RFM in one of their CAD images simple show the brackets attached to the rail where a central spaced armour panel is missing which is a little strange. In reality the bracket was welded or bolted to the rear of the spaced armour panel and clipped and bolted over the rail.
The upper brackets connect the tubular rail to the rear of the panels. The lower brackets connect the rear of the panel to the track guards. These lower brackets are in two parts to allow for two fitment options. This was to enable the use of wider Winterketten/Ostketten tracks. The upper rail brackets are in one part and have two fixed positions, whereas the track guard brackets had to be adjusted to sit further out to accept the wider track type. The outer portion of the bracket needed to be positioned horizontally to clear the wider track type. In step 17 these are only shown fitted in the vertical position to accept the regular tracks included in the kit. The real bracket was hinged but you need to decide which option you want beforehand (unless you fancy drilling and pinning all eight brackets!)
Track guard brackets postioned for wider tracks
RFM offer individual links together with a fitting jig. They are an appropriate type for the vehicle. Along with this out of the box solution I had quite a few other options. First up I had the three-return roller link and length tracks leftover from the Border kit. In addition I also had two 3D printed aftermarket sets. T-Rex and QuickTrack. As I hadn't yet tried them, I finally opted for the QuickTrack snap fit set.
These are type 7 links and come in two bags for both left and right fitting. A small bag with a few open links and wire, to which you can thread through to close a completed track loop is also included. Both runs were built up in an alarmingly quick 20mins. They do indeed simply snap together and are far more robust than they look once assembled.
With the upper hull fitment conundrum remedied it was time to move onto the turret.
The gun breach and cradle parts are exactly the same as on their interior kit. Although not called out, a few other interior items from this kit can be found on various sprue trees. There appears to be a few different boxings of this kit which will have slightly altered sprue layouts. Unfortunately, although the rotating turret floor moulding is present both are missing the crucial bracket parts that would enable you to add a full basket to the turret surround. However, even with what is available, there is still plenty of detail to eyeball, shoud you model any turret hatches open.