Continuing on from last week, this week's efforts focused on the lower hull and suspension.
Step 4 adds the base mounts for the suspension along with the bump stops and the rear towing hooks. The Atak panels for the lower hull are provided as a large single piece and some trimming was necessary here and there to get things to fit properly but otherwise no major issues were encountered. From experience, I know that the front piece that curves over the final drive will interfere with the fenders when it comes time to install so I cut that short on purpose to head off that issue.
Step 5 returns to the hull rear and adds the idler mounts and the exhaust. The instructions provide a choice of type of idler mount and after checking reference photos I went with the parts B15/14 as those are the later style appropriate for this vehicle's production time line. The multi-part muffler was assembled and the exhaust pipe thinned out with a drill bit and some trimming with the tip of a sharp #11 blade. I had to trim the Atak panels a bit more to allow the pipe support trays to fit correctly in this area as well.
Step 6 installs the hull glacis plate and the Atak set includes a resin replacement with separate parts for the transmission/brake access hatches. Those were added using CA gel and the narrow panel for the full front plate zim added along with a little putty to round things out in that department. The glacis spare track run will get installed later after the hull is painted to make it easier to detail it at that stage.
Step 6 also calls for the road wheels and suspension elements to be installed. The road wheels were left off for now but the suspension elements were added. They have just a little bit of play to them so it's important to get them all lined up correctly so that the vehicle will sit level later on.
That brought me to Step 7 which deals with the assembly of the fenders and their installation to the hull. I added the front mud flaps first along with their zim panels, carefully trimming them to avoid the interference problem mentioned previously with the lower hull sides. The kit designers didn't build in any tolerance levels for zim interaction in these areas so the added fractional mm that the zim creates causes issues if not dealt with accordingly.
The fenders were then installed using regular glue along the hull edges where they overlap and liquid glue at the rear where they sit flush. After that had set up, I added the rear mud flaps and finally the spacer parts between the schurzen mounts. The spacer parts don't have a large surface area that they attach to so it made sense to install them after the fenders were in place to avoid them coming loose or getting skewed accidentally during the fender installation. I also did a test fit with the casemate to be sure everything was playing nice at this stage.
Next up will be the upper hull elements!