Hi,
Just finished up the hull on this kit the other day and I found that when test-fitting a set of the Tamiya 'rubber-band tracks' to it, I had quite a time getting them to go up in the area above the first return roller. There seems to be something of a 'bar' right over the top of the little wheel that goes all the way from the inner hull to the fender's edge.
I went ahead and put a section of the kit's 'magic tracks' together to is what was what here and they wouldn't fit either, so I knew that the other kit's 'rubber bands' weren't the problem.

After looking at the instructions I couldn't really tell what this little plastic bar-like thingy was on there for (maybe some kind of 'reinforcement' for the fender or something), so putting a nice big square blade in my knife I went ahead and trimmed this thing off all the way back to the hull itself. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but now both types of tracks fit very well with plenty of room above the return roller.

Can anybody who had built this thing tell me if they have run into this particular problem here, or maybe I'm just the lucky one?

Thanks and take care, Larry

I confirm that indeed there is a problem with these bars. They should be there, as there are similar reinforcements there on a real tank. But they are too big in a model and indeed make it difficult/impossible to attach tracks. I suggest trimming these bars slightly to make tracks fit, but not removing them completely.

Pawel

Hi Larry

I had the same problem. The "culprit" is that the rim of the return roller is too thick. As the top run of the track will be hidden by the fenders, I decided it was easier to reduce the height of the bar until the tracks fit.

You can refer to my build here
http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2360&page=2

Lawrence Quah

I should be getting to those tomorrow too. Are we sure the parts numbers are right? I found at least 10 errors already on the instructions(I did the turret first so its almost finished). The mount itself looks low enough to clear the tracks and I think the part angles down. Can you cut the locator pin of and cheat it? Or is this molded on the sponsoo. NM I see it now and will just chop it off.

Hi, Thanks for the answers guys. Yes Kevin, Dragon, for all their very, very fine kits that they are now producing for the modeling public at large, sure need to do some 'upgrading' on the quality of their instruction sheets. I just don't understand how a major model maker such they are can still put out instructions with missing numbers, reversed numbers, etc. Such a shame. I'm the first one to complain of their 'magic tracks' as well, but I figure what with the other kit makers now coming along with 'movable' track links, I'm quite sure Dragon is going to be forced to do the same here before too long. (Quite sure they have the technology to do it now.)

I must to be perfectly truthful here and say that even though I think this Abrams kit is very, VERY nice model, it's still a notch or two below the quality of their their 'smart' German Panthers models. But this is just my opinion.

Thanks and take care, Larry

Hey Lawrence, I did my personal mini-review of the issues as well in the feedback forum. I just read your entire build and found just about every single same issue as well. Big props to your effort doucumenting the build.

My simillar, yet by far abbreviated thread...

AIM

And I agree 100% the instructions thing is rediculous. I don't expect the perfect plastic kit and really do not have any large qualms with the kit at all. I will almost always catch an error because I spend the time to clean and prefit everything before gluing. An average very good quality 800+ part brand new plastic warship kit has by far more tweaking to fix then this. I wouldn't hesitate to build another one. I have lost no momentum or enthusiasim whatsoever because of the technological issues-this thing is fantastic.

If someone simply sat down and built one over a weekend before putting thousands on the market it would of been fixed. The MUST FIX sponson rib problem would of of been no issue with me if there was simply a window drawing showing to remove it was added to the sheet. The minor flash and misfits still score a 90%+ rating overall from me for the kit itself. I give the instructions a generous 15%

I also think if a kit maker puts all the effort into line/cad drawings there is NO reason the markings drawings should be so small. Is it that much $$$ for 2 or 3 more pages' worth of paper for each version to take up a full page-sized set of drawings? Funny thing is even though there's no color illustrations on the box, they probably had some done up anyway.

Simply having accurate parts numbers and a few 'windows' added showing the headlights and a few other detailed assembly drawings with the sponson issue depicted would make it an all-time great kit. They could of skipped the aluminum barrel and sprung for large color markings drawings with blow ups for the stenciling and it would be simply divine.