The Official Armortek Forum - World leader in one sixth scale metal kits

Hi Colin, I'm impressed by the solid start you have made.

My wife was horrified when she found out what my first kit cost, but she now thinks they actually provide reasonable value considering just how many hours go into making a kit....and it keeps me off the streets. She was impressed as everyone else at the first test drive of my (turretless) Tiger.

My Sdkfz 7 arrived today, very exciting! It's my third kit, I wont be starting anytime soon as I need to finish my Tiger, but I am pleased to see your detailed thread, I am sure it will help me out with potential issues. Good luck and have fun.

Hi all, I have now made a start on the road wheels. I have fitted together two of wheel "A", gets boring very quickly, 21 nuts and bolts each wheel. When I finished the two I suddenly thought it might be a goo idea to check the fit on the axles, as there are 2 bearing, 1 in each half of the wheel. One spun lovely, the other didn't. I fact it really didn't want to go on the axle at all. Scratched my head a bit, and came up with.............
Loosen the nuts and bolts,
Put a nut onto the thread of the axle,
put the axle into my very ancient and battered vice,
then put the loosened road wheel assembly on to the axle,
it now spun easily,
now go round and retighten the nuts and bolts. problem solved. I shall do this for the rest of the road wheels "A"

Also have the tyres on to road wheel "B".
The bags are getting empty and lighter.

So, I have got to the point where some obvious truths have hit me.
This thing is heavy, I knew it was heavy, I carried the boxes in to the garage. So why am I building it on my workbench. Not a hope in hell of being able to lift it down to the floor once its completed!! No I'm not buying a motorbike lift, her in doors would have a fit! (I did tell her I wouldn't need to spend any more on extras, didn't mention all the Loctite's, paint and extra tools, servo, batteries for drive and my radio, that's assuming my radio still works!) Got round it it by using pulleys and a lifting strop, seems to work.

2 cans of primer, not enough.
2 cans of colour not enough. More ordered.

Any way, I have just realised that apart from road wheel "B" the chassis are done!
Steering is on, but I think the bump stop may be in the wrong way round, as the front axle doesn't seem to hit the stops. Closer examination needed. You can see from the photos that I also had issues setting it up as paint has been scratched off from where parts are fouling.

The sprocket assembly was fun, very cautious fettling needed to get it all to fit nicely. I had a major melt down on getting all the rollers to fit and "spin" freely. They all spun nicely till the fixings were tightened, then some, not all, started to bind. After much assembling and disassembling, I have got there, bar a couple that turn but don't spin, if you get the difference.