The first three steps deal with the lower hull sides, and getting the idlers, sprockets and roadwheels prepared. Before starting with the main instruction sheet, I wanted to get the addendum out of the way, which is just the removal of a few extra 'bolts' from the hull sides.
The idlers consist of five pieces each, two of those being PE rings to add the nice inner lip. This fret of PE is very thin, more so then the typical DML photo etch, so a little more care is needed as not to bend it up beyond recognition. The rings have attachment points on both the inner and outer surfaces, so after cleaning the outer area, I glued them in place with Gator's Glue and tried to align the nubs with the spokes. The ones that were still visible were easier to clean up while attached. The idler adjuster's armored cover, part B2/3, was not very clear in the instructions on how to mount it, but looking at the rear plate (B30) will reveal the other half which will mate up later.
The sprockets are a two piece affair, which when I assembled them had a very visible seam between the sprocket rims, which can be seen through the spokes. I used some Tamiya Liquid Putty here (first time...nice stuff) and smoothed it out with a brush dampened in isopropyl alcohol.
Cleaning up the roadwheels...well, need I say more? Not too bad, but not the most exciting part of the build either. After these were finished, they all got put away until painting time.
I left the torsion bars unglued until after the shocks and swingarms were mounted, to make sure everything lined up. Even though there are slots and pins for these parts, there was a little room for adjustment, and using a straight-edge everything lined up very well. The rest of the third step involved adding the bits and pieces, no problems at all so far as long as you pay attention to the callout numbers. The only ones I found wrong were for the lower hull hatches with the numbering reversed...no big deal as they are very visible on which side they go on. These can be left in the open position, although there are some ejection marks on the inner surfaces that would need attention.
Next up...the rear hull plate and some slight changes to the mufflers.
