We had left the tank with the idler wheel supports ready, but with the left side of the hull unglued to have comfortable access and to test the right engine layout.
After a lot of measuring, centering, re-measuring and centering, I fabricated the right motor shims to put it at the right height (in the following photo you can see them marked with an A). Stacking styrene rectangles of 2 and 1 mm we give the desired height (9 mm). The shim closest to the lower front we finished it in bevel, because the screw falls practically in the front-belly junction and would not have where to hold:
Once this was done, I glued the left side and all the arm supports on the same side, and built some shims for the left motor in the same way as for the other motor. As I mentioned in a previous post, the space between motors is very tight, so I had to mount first the gearboxes without motor, and then the motors themselves. Aspect of the hull without tracks and without motors, both sides finished:
If you look closely, there is a "filling" in the form of styrene strip of 3 mm between the inner wall of the hull and each motor, to give solidity to the whole and stick to the measures.
And why stick to that particular measure of 3 mm? as I said before, the position of the motors and suspension is copied from Heng Long panther and in this the shaft protrudes exactly 27 mm. Therefore the motor is positioned so that the axle protrudes those 27 mm, aligning the drive wheel with the rest of the wheels and the tensioner. If you take a long shaft gearbox, you will see that the axle protrudes exactly 33 mm, which taken to my design is: 3mm filling + 3mm styrene thickness + 27 mm shaft.
Detail of the transmission cover, fastened with m3 screw. The nut fits perfectly between the engine and the side of the hull, without interfering with the "filler" strip:
What inclination did I give to the cover? Well, a lot of looking at visual references (panzer tracts panther/jagdpanther). It also serves to hide the axle bearing support, previously glued to the hull. As the piece has two rods in addition to the screw, I drilled the appropriate holes to fit: