Boy...Wo1c ...Painless...you all should have "heard" all the fun I was having
Well...here's the result of that "fun"....
The gun was glued in the "up" position...found the guy had did that because he had mounted the gun shield upside down...the only remedy was to break the gun shield free and flip it back over...that was after breaking off the gun
If you look closely...where I sanded you can see where the guy plugged the lift ring holes....on the other side ...also if you look closely...you can see where the holes are for the lift ring is supposed to be ...they are clearly off
...same with the turret rings...reason I broke one off
The hull had to be broken apart ...wheels sprokets idlers everything removed...the transmission cover ...comprised of three major components...had to be literally carved off...broken apart..and reassembled one piece at a time to realign the front...one Sprocket was so crooked ....found the hollow where the pin for it to be mounted...to the hull was not only filled with a glue job that the Heng Long monkey would envy ..but the broken off stem that should have been part of the transmission case ....had to tried many methods to clear the opening...finally taking out the ol dremel to clear it out...made a new pin for the sprocket out of sprue ....and a new "socket" on the transmission case for it to slide into...if this is not done...(where the sprocket can be removed)...you will not be able to put on the tracks
Once everything was aligned and solid...messed with the tracks for a "few" hours...till they took to shape and fit with no slack ...tied the loose ends with some rubber ...If I feel ambitious...I might just fabricate links for esthetic value...but this isn't a show tank...so long the image is fine...it's not a priority lol
OK...She ain't pretty....but she's good and solid now lol...and as you can see...there is a lot more "fun" to be had
Painless...the tracks worked out ok...good enough for a research tank....found out why they don't make a skirted version of this tank too....they don't do it because you cannot mess with the undercarriage afterwards
...Unlike an RC where you can remove the upper....on these 1/35 puppies...unless you prep the hull for that purpose...it's basically unaccessible
...so painting...fiddling with the bogies...track fitting becomes impossible without tearing it apart
I would say this isn't the best production of the Firefly available....the details are funky...things like lift ring locations are not symetrical ..which they should be ....the plastic is terribly thin....The brand I am not sure of...as there were no molded on markings ...it is what it is...and at least "most" of the "fun" is over
CARPE DIEM GENTS
ALPHA
