Over the past few days I've been working on the interior details and getting them ready for installation around the hull. In addition to the previous work, I added the details and gauge faces to the instrument panel and picked out the little knobs and lights using a toothpick and various colors where needed. The interior fire extinguisher got its Tetra decal and after checking reference photos, scrounged some canteens and gas mask containers from the spares bin to occupy appropriate spaces around the interior for the crew. The obligatory giant penny was included as well to get an idea of the scale of the different details in question. For the instrument panel, I used small drops of Future to create the impression of glass bezels and all of the other components got a shot of Testors Lusterless Flat dullcoat in the rattle can to seal them up and match them to the flat finish of the interior.
I also used the kit-supplied PE MG34 ammo can brackets and assembled them, painted and weathered them to match the interior, and installed them around the compartment where called for. There are 11 needed and 12 on the fret, so an extra is left over by design. Small amounts of CA gel gave me enough work time to get them properly positioned especially since the rows of 3 are a tight fit with each other and have no margin for error on their placement. I have a suspicion that the HB brackets are a little undersized...when I did a test fit with a Tamiya MG34 ammo can, the brackets were a couple mm shorter than the cans, so I may not be able to populate them after all, have to wait and see if the resin ones I ordered are smaller and able to fit or not.
The actual installation of all the interior details is spread out over Steps 4, 5, and 7 in the instructions in terms of the upper and lower hull halves. Since everything in both areas has to line up properly with each other, I did things in a somewhat linear fashion with both halves vs. doing it in separate stages. I started at the hull front and installed all the driver's station elements in the lower hull first including the steering column and wheel. Space gets very tight in this space so careful selection of what to install when is needed here. Once the glue had grabbed in the lower hull, I added the dashboard, first aid kit, and fire extinguisher to the upper hull and did a test fit to ensure the steering column lined up properly with the cutout in the dash. Only some minor adjustments were needed and then I left the upper hull resting on the lower and allowed it to set up overnight to ensure everything would stay put in later handling.
After more checking with the references, I scrounged some more items that the kit left out in the form of a bread bag, flare pistol and holster, and flares box for the right side of the compartment. Also added the two mess tins and MP40 to complete that side.
Left side received its details as well. Getting all 6 of the stick grenades in place and lined up properly was a little bit of an exercise due to how tightly they fit together but it worked out eventually.
Last but not least, I added the driver's seat. As you can see, it's best to add this after all the stuff is on the side walls as it complicates the space available to place anything on either side due to its angled back and placement in general.
While it is possible to add the armored visors to the driver's area in the upper hull and leave them workable, it's very tricky to pull off (and not pointed out in the instructions) especially with the large main visor. I decided to position them all closed and installed them after painting and weathering the gray styrene to simulate 90mm armored glass blocks present in the holders. The other gear was installed as well after carefully checking the placement to ensure it wouldn't cause fit problems with the lower hull.
Quick checks with the upper hull after everything was installed showed it is all playing nice and will be nicely visible if the turret and gun mount are not in place. Ultimately I will be posing both side doors open to also allow more detail to be seen but that's still a ways off.
I'm deliberately holding off joining the upper and lower hulls together with the chassis until I can be sure that the gun mount and turret will install without any clearance issues especially since I've added some gear in different spots. It shouldn't cause any problems but if they do, it will be much easier to solve if the hulls are still separate vs. permanently joined together. Next up will be working on the 2cm gun mount, a virtual kit in itself!
The assumption here of course is that bending guy is the driver and the other two are the turret crew. 
