Roy about this time last year I was in A & E awaiting the laying on of hands by the Godgiven angels of the NHS,
I have no wish to make such visits an annual event which is why I am holding back from filling many expletive laden pages of the Forum on the 1/16 scale Panzer 4 Suspension System.
Suffice to say that Tamiya when faced with reproducing a working example in 1/16 from the full sized prototype the first thing they did was to lock away in a deep dark dungeon the Tamiya bean counters,
The Engineers then got on with producing a WORKING example of the system,
I am minded at this point to remark on "Fords" assessment of the "BMC" Mini, They had gotten hold of an early version which they stripped down and amongst other things they priced its build cost against its showroom price, their conclusion was that each "Mini" would LOSE "BMC" £20/25,
Indeed in the history of the original "Mini" it never made a profit for the company,
Bloody engineers.
You make a valid point about the value or otherwise in buying aftermarket metal upgrades for any part of our Tanks because we are gulled into believing they are without question superior to the Plastic/ABS original.
Fitting metal parts begins an expensive and very vicious circle,
Adding metal to a lightly stressed plastic/abs assembly equals more stress which needs more metal which ---well you get the idea.
Now to that piece of bent spring steel,
This actually came separately in the plastic bag from "Asiatam" and was fitted in the build up of the assembly under tension, this supposedly gave the suspension its swing arm effect, which is why it was loose fitting as gluing it in place would negate its point
You then offered up the whole preassembled (LOOSE)system to the hull where the Screw would hold
everything including "The bent piece of metal"in place, If only,
I have lost count of the times I have trodden on a long lost PZ4 spring steel suspension fitting that has "PINGED" across the workshop.
You say that they are sometimes missing from the upgrade pack,
No they are not, "Asiatam" no longer includes them, and why should they? After all they never worked.
The only piece that worked was the single leaf spring attached by a rivet at one end to the base of the assembly but it only worked for as long as the spring steel clip wrapped around the loose end of the leaf was in place,
The clip was only held in place by being under tension so that when the suspension was working (Sorry my little joke) the tension was removed and the clip slid off and was lost,
I swear the foundations of my home are composed of long lost metal upgrades for 1/16 scale Tanks
If you do have them in place the first thing to do is to squirt a drop of "Superglue" at it.
Enough,
I hear the sounds of an ambulance siren coming up the lane.
Shaun.