Just pulled this one off the shelf, started working on it, and hit a snag in step 1.

The swing arms that attach to the hull have quite a bit of play in them. I looked at some other articles and reviews and found other people had a similar problem, but didn't find any that seemed to solve it. With the hull upside down, they have a more uniform level, but this also seems like this would be the extreme setting pushing up on the wheel/torsion bar as it moved through the terrain.

I looked at several wartime photographs and it's difficult for me to tell what angle the arms sit at.

Is there a good neutral position which would show the vehicle on level terrain under normal load?

Appreciate any suggestions.

According to Spielberger, the free height under the tank is 485mm. At 1/35 scale that is 13.8mm.

That's the distance from the ground to the hull underside plate when the tank is sitting on its tracks.

If you sit your model hull on something with that thickness, and lay out the tracks beside it, you can fit a swing arm and see where it sits.

David

or you could measure the thickness of the track links and subtract the track thickness from the 13.8 mm.
You will of course need to mount a road wheel on that swingarm ...
If you plan on building your model as if it stands on flat ground you can make the work a little bit easier by glueing the last and first swingarm on eah side (the "corners"). When these have set/dried you can aling the other swingarms between them.
Check that the chassis is level left-right and front-rear before the glue sets completely on the "corner" swingarms. In my opinion the left-right levelling is more visible than the front-rear (easier to see).

/ Robin

David and Robin,

Thank you for the information and suggestions. Sounds like it'll work and I'll let you know how it goes.

Mikkel