Looks good Joel. If you used a white glue, then they would have some flexibility and you could get them to settle down over the drive sprocket a little nicer. The Tamiya Xtra thin is a full on solvent, so the flexibility is gone.

Nice to see this one shaping up nicely. I saw another post of yours that said that this modeling thing wasn't working out for you, so I wondered if we'd ever see more progress.

Best of luck.

Jesse, Actually, you can bend the individual links as the extra thin doesn't seem to bond by melting them. I'm not even so sure that the track pieces are regular plastic.

I took another look later at the track and the drive sprocket, and the issue isn't that I can't bend the links, it's that they don't correctly line up, so the track link can't position itself into the sprocket correctly.

Joel,

nice build thus far. The AFV club tracks look very nice. They front section looks like it needs more tension as its sagging a bit. Hopefully you can you adjust it with the idler and sprocket.

Unfortunately, there is no adjustment via the Idle wheel assembly. Of course I already glued the tracks to the wheels, so now I'm trying to figure out a way of removing one link without damaging the track.

Although my main focus with this build is the detailed interior, and pushing the weathering envelope. I've started to venture out into unknown territory, and it's been fun, rewarding, confusing, and a great learning experience all at the same time.

Been working on the 1st stages of the weathering process, the overall washes. Finshed them up yesterday, and then air brushed a coat of Testors Dullcoat to seal the oil washes, so I proceed with more phases of weathering, without removing the base washes. Unfortunately, waiting for the Dullcoat to dry is like watching the grass grow until Sunday when I can safely work on the weathering.

Well, it's been a fun build, and a great learning experience. For all practical purposes I finished up my 2nd armor build, and I'm calling the Academy M3A1 Stuart done. While I really enjoyed the interior detailing, and the corrections to the bogie's, I struggled with the tracks, ruined the kit vinyl tracks, and ended up using the AFV individual track set that I bought for another build.

The weathering was something that I really wanted to spend time with. After painting and a few oil washes, I applied a coat of Pledge for a gloss finish, then applied the decals, then another coat of Pledge, and a few more washes. Next came a coat of Testors Dullcoat, and then the Dot oil method, followed by dry brushing with acrylic paints,and finally a blackish pin wash. Then the final coat of Dullcoat, and this build was ready for its display case.

By no means do I consider this a great build, but I'm more then satisfied with the end result. Here are a few pictures of the finished Stuart.

Well done, it looks tremendous, nice range of tones on the weathering/fading, hope mine turns out half as well.
Right then what's next ?

Thanks Paul for the kind words.

My next build is for the Strictly out of the box campaign. It's the AFV Club M5A1 early version. Should make a great companion piece for the M3A1.