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| Subject: | [Chapter] Chapter 9 - The Suspension |  |
| Date: | Aug 23, 2005 |
| From: | James Wechsler | |
Chapter 9 - The Suspension
The early M3 suspension included in the Legend conversion kit is a very nice set. It is a bit complex to assemble (more on this later) but it does appear to be accurate based on the references I have. The Legend set assumes you’ll use the road wheels and return rollers from the donor kit. The Dragon donor kit I’m using has two sets of road wheels, the open spoke type needed for this build and the stamped type seen more commonly on later Shermans. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have two sets of return rollers. I just couldn’t bring myself to sacrifice the very well done Dragon VVSS suspension just for the return rollers. Fortunately, I had an old Italeri VVSS set that I will be scrapping for the rocker arms so I decided to use these return rollers.
I figured it was probably a good move anyway since the Legend kit is designed for the Academy and Italeri return rollers (LF1097 is the sister kit for the Italeri Shermans and uses the same parts for the M3 suspension). Imagine my surprise when the return mounting pins for the return rollers were too big in diameter for the Italeri rollers. No big deal, I just got out the drill and opened up the holes in the rollers.
The other little item that is noted in the Legend instructions is that if your using the Italeri hull (and the Dragon hull fits in this category as well), you must remove the hull attachments from the back plate of the suspension. Hmmmm. Remove a large chunk of resin from a thin plate. Fortunately, the resin Legend uses is super soft and flexible. I was able to simply snip off these pieces with a sprue cutter. I also had to determine the reference distance from the bottom of the suspension back plate to the bottom of the hull so I could locate them properly later on in the build (once you cut off the fitting, there’s no reference pins or anything). I determined that the bottom of the suspension back plate should be 2mm below the bottom of the hull.
So after cleaning up all of the parts, it was time for me to start the assembly. Terry Ashley has a nice write up on the Perth Military Modeling Site (www.perthmilitarymodeling.com). In it he notes the issues to be considered in the assembly of these parts. By far, the biggest issue is that the Legend instructions show the rocker arm axle (part 45) as being the axle for the return roller! Legend really needs to fix this error.
I decided to do the assembly in a slightly different order than Terry’s write up. First, I glued the front return roller mounting support (part 46) to the front housing (part 41) and let it dry. I also glued the suspension springs (part 47) to the front housing as well. Then I slipped the return rollers on and glued the back plate (part 42) to the front housing (part 41). It turned out to be pretty simple and straight forward.
I decided to take a chance on the rocker arms. They have only a short stub for an axle and I got to thinking that maybe I could glue them together and slip the road wheels in after they dried. I figured that if this worked, I could paint the road wheels separately which is quite a bit easier. It did work! The Legend resin is soft enough to flex sufficiently to allow me to slip the road wheel in and out with ease.
Finally I glued the rocker arms to the housings making they are squared up.
Up Next: Front Hull Details |
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 | [BLOG] Sherman III Early in North Africa - James Wechsler - Aug 13, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 1 - What items am I going to use? - James Wechsler - Aug 13, 2005 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 1 - What items am I going to use? - M Wawrow - Aug 14, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 1 - What items am I going to use? - Martin Dogger - Aug 15, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 1 - What items am I going to use? - Jim Wechsler - Aug 15, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 1 - What items am I going to use? - Billy Bishop - Aug 17, 2005 |
| . . . Re: References and markings - Paul A. Owen - Aug 14, 2005 |
| . . . . . . Re: References and markings - Jim Wechsler - Aug 14, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: References and markings - Paul A. Owen - Aug 15, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: References and markings - Martin Dogger - Aug 15, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: References and markings - Kurt Laughlin - Aug 15, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: References and markings - Paul Roberts - Oct 19, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 2 - Lower Hull - James Wechsler - Aug 15, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 3 - The Upper Hull - James Wechsler - Aug 16, 2005 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 3 - The Upper Hull - Andrew Herbert - Aug 17, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 3 - The Upper Hull - Jim Wechsler - Aug 17, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 4 - The Front Fenders - James Wechsler - Aug 18, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 5 - The Sand Skirts - James Wechsler - Aug 19, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 6 - Painting the Lower Hull - James Wechsler - Aug 20, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 7 - Weathering the Lower Hull - James Wechsler - Aug 20, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 8 - Those Pesky Front Fenders – Part Deux - James Wechsler - Aug 22, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 9 - The Suspension - James Wechsler - Aug 23, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 10 - Front Hull Details - James Wechsler - Aug 26, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 11 - Rear Hull Details - James Wechsler - Aug 26, 2005 |
| . . . . . . a couple of suggestions..... - Chris SMith jr - Aug 29, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: a couple of suggestions..... - Jim Wechsler - Sep 1, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: a couple of suggestions..... - Chris SMith jr - Sep 1, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 12 - The Pioneer Tools - James Wechsler - Aug 28, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 13 - The Turret - James Wechsler - Aug 29, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 14 - Painting - Part 1 - James Wechsler - Aug 30, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 15 - Painting - Part 2 - James Wechsler - Aug 30, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 16 - Painting - Part 3 - James Wechsler - Sep 1, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 17 - Painting - Part 4 - James Wechsler - Sep 2, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 18 - Dry Brushing - James Wechsler - Sep 3, 2005 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 18 - Dry Brushing - Aaron Cole - Sep 3, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: Dry Transfers - Paul A. Owen - Sep 4, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Dry Transfers - Aaron Cole - Sep 4, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 19 - Dry Transfers - James Wechsler - Sep 3, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 20 - Detail Painting - James Wechsler - Sep 5, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 21 - Weathering - James Wechsler - Sep 7, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 22 - Just the Tracks Maam - James Wechsler - Sep 8, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 23 - Please Maam, Just the Tracks - James Wechsler - Sep 9, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 24 - Stow it - James Wechsler - Sep 10, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 25 - The Crew - James Wechsler - Sep 10, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 26 - All Together Now - James Wechsler - Sep 11, 2005 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 26 - All Together Now - Andrew Herbert - Sep 12, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 26 - All Together Now - Paul A. Owen - Sep 12, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 26 - All Together Now - Andrew Herbert - Sep 13, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 26 - All Together Now - Jim Wechsler - Sep 13, 2005 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 26 - All Together Now - Jim Wechsler - Sep 13, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 27 - Well, isnt that special - James Wechsler - Sep 13, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 28 - The Base - Part 1 - James Wechsler - Sep 19, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 29 -The Base - Part 2 - James Wechsler - Sep 21, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 30 - Final Assembly - James Wechsler - Sep 23, 2005 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Chapter 30 - Final Assembly - henryk gorkiewicz - Sep 24, 2005 |
| . . . . . . Awesome! - R.C. Hill - Sep 24, 2005 |
| . . . [Chapter] Chapter 31 - Perspective - James Wechsler - Sep 25, 2005 |
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