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A little later today than my already rather early session this morning, I am continuing the build of Zvezda’s 203 mm B-4 (M1931) howitzer.

From this point onward, unless stated otherwise or obvious from the context, all abbreviations use the Latin alphabet.

Nadya is ill and resting, Elena is watching some series, and I got the model out again to keep myself from getting bored.

Briefly, I continued following the instructions:

Once again, very easy and enjoyable steps with no problems. Except that I am a scatterbrain, and I have just noticed in the photo that I forgot to glue on part D44 in step 27a. It does not affect the assembly at all, so I simply need to attach it in the next session.

As for step 27d (and the similar 28a below), here is how I approached it:

First I assembled 27c, then glued B13 to it, aligning it with B23. Only when attaching this assembly to the carriage did I add D8. It worked out quite easily.

Then I carried on:

At this point I decided to finish assembling the main part of the model and leave the separate components in steps 30a, 30, 31 and 32c for later. These are entirely separate items—two shells and two… err… loading trolleys for the shells—and can be assembled, primed and painted independently of the rest of the model.

Watch out! There is an error in the instructions! Part D29 in step 29 and part C29 in step 32 are swapped. In step 29, use C29 instead of D29 as shown in the instructions; in step 32, use D29 instead of C29. You can thank me later. Not that it is a huge drama, but still…

So, after 75 minutes of work, this is where I got to:

If you have been following my progress, you can actually see it this time…