Sdkfz 234/2 Puma #8

Most of front details of upper body are done. Bumper, lights, fuel cans, shovels, lights, visors which I have put in open position to get as many points of view on the interior as possible. Antennas, rear view mirrors (for both drivers), spare wheel mounting brackets and tools are to be made yet. After finishing these details wheels will be put on and fixed to stay on the model. Rotating all 8 wheels will be possible as well.  

I quite enjoy assembling details, which are always more requiring than bigger parts. Most cutting have to be done using modeling knife and small size doesn't really help. The most difficult are tubes of a small diameter or great length and very tiny circles. It is common for paper to "crack" if shaping round objects wrong way. Usually rolling paper is done by dragging the part to be curved (usually strips of paper) through the edge of the scissors, and sometimes pressing too hard  while shaping may cause paper to crack and fold in unwanted places. It is more or less universal technique of making flat surfaces round and rolled.

Fuel cans required "group" approach, cutting out all parts and then putting all together in one go. This way of work saves time and patience. I used to do one full part at a time years ago, but that quickly expired my patience and models were never finished. "Group" method is good for working with models of great number of the same parts like tanks - plenty wheels and tracks links.

Bumper is made out of 3 different tubes, middle which is the longest and 2 short, fixed together on an angle and glued to the body using 2 side connecting plates and 2 pipes.  

I am looking forward to make a turret with the cannon and it's details as I really enjoyed assembly of Sdkfz 165 Hummel's cannon. Full assembly took me nice couple of weeks, as it was only detail work. Puma's cannon is not that complex, nevertheless it is something I really like modeling. It is also challenging to get barrel of the cannon properly shaped and without any bad work marks like said before. Will see how it goes - I think Puma may get finished pretty soon...