After a long time of  absence I have made some progress. I decided to make the complete sets of French periscopes for my B1-bis as well as my Somua models. It starts with the basic shape being built up from templates. 

When the glue has dried the excess plastic is removed and the shape refined.  

The hinged portion is built up from scrap.  

It looks rough but gets sanded down when dry. 

Slowly taking shape. 

Here it is taking on the final shape.  

A sample fitted inside the turret to see how it looks.  

A detailed close up.  

Here are the nine periscopes, six for the Somua and three for the B1-bis. 

I discovered that Meng make nuts and bolts for scratchbuilding, I only wish I had found this out earlier, the grey ones are Meng the tan coloured ones are my own heat formed items.

Here is the finished compressor head with Meng nuts and bolts added. 

In my hand to give some idea of the size. 

I added some copper wire for the pressure hoses that run to the cylinder heads. 

Looking into the engine compartment.

Here are the spark plug fittings in place, also seen is the wiring harness and the way it links to the magneto.

This is the early construction of the compressor head. 

Some tube was turned down and the fins were made from 1mm styrene with holes drilled out through the centers. The discs were evenly spaced and glued in place.   

Here some more work has been done on the compressor head. 

A close up of the outlet pipe attachments. 

The top of the head.

After a long absence here are some updates. The nuts and bolts that hold the tank together are made up from a nut and a narrow lock nut. To make each one of these would be time consuming so I made a silicone rubber mold cast some for now.

The spark plug suppressors are also being cast as there are 12 of them. 

Here are a full set plus a few extras just in case.

Here are the other interests that have been keeping me from building the actual model, my virtual modelling. I am teaching myself Solidworks and hope to be proficient at it one day, these are the renders of the B1-bis gearbox so far. 

First of all sorry for the long delay, life and other interests have been encroaching on my build. When I'm not modelling my mind is usually working behind the scenes trying to figure out the simplest way to construct certain items with the least amount of effort. So, the strange above item is where the spark plug goes and each cylinder has two of them, one of either side. Seeing as I have to make twelve I wanted to do as little as possible to make these. I came up with the heat forming method to make the cylinder and cone shapes, I think the photos tell their own story. 

The aluminium former and heat formed parts. 

A test component is seen on top of the drawings. 

A better close up of the test piece. 

And a close up of the aluminium former with their respective formings.  

A slightly higher view showing the path the pipe takes in the engine room. 

I fitted the hull gun to see if the pipe interferes with it, it doesn't. The elongated box that the pipe goes around is the makings of the gear shift mechanism.