Hitachi Zaxis 450 Tracked Excavator with grapple

With the release of the new 1:50th scale Hitachi 450, i have decided to use one of the models to do a little conversion. The bucket rivets were drilled out and the bucket removed from the stick.

I have then installed a resin rock grapple kit from MDC. This is a simple but effective conversion and really enhances the base model. The grapple is painted satin black which makes it stand out from the orange stick and operates using the bucket hydraulics. The other half is secured to the stick and allows several mounting points to change the angle of the grapple.