W.I.P - Trumpeter 2S19 Msta-S; Part 1

Hello Gents .... welcome to my sixth instalment of my SPG fleet build. This time it's the 2S19 from Russia. With the finishing of the 5th one, the K9, I can now finally crack open this beautiful kit of a monster given as a gift by a friend.

So, let's get down do it Shall we?
As usual, box shot -

and the sprues -

The start of the build is pretty much the usual like any AFV; start from the lower hull.

For this particular one, start from the rear hull plate -

The rear hull plate is a separate piece and very well detailed. The strap for the un-ditching log goes on as well as the towing hook on it. After that, the hull plate is glued to the lower hull. There is a slight difficultly trying to make it sit properly but a few second of carefully holding it in place sorted that out -

Next, I had to build the convoy lights and the wire for it. That is comprises of 4 quite small pieces and it was such an assault on my eyes to focus and put it on. But I did it -

Those little convoy lights goes on the hull like so ( it is upside down on the photo ) -

After that, I had to put on these little triangle thingys which I believe are stopper for the wheels swing arms ( so that the arms won't move up so much ) -

Followed up by shocker absorbers which is made up of 4 pieces each -

and they goes on the hull like so; 3 shock absorbers per side -

The non-shocker-absorber arms haven't been glued on yet but I guess you have a pretty good where they goes to from this photo anyway.
After that, I put on the various little things that are needed to be put on to the front and front-bottom -

Followed up with the engineering blade ( I think it is called the engineering blade )

Attached into the slots glued on earlier like so -

After that, it was time to do the wheels and voila .... we now have completed from step 1 through 5 -

and that gentlemen, makes up the entire lower hull. Next step, the upper hull.... 
See ya then......