Hey SM1973, good luck and please post photos of her when you're done!!!

There is no need to use the poly-caps if you are gluing it solid. I wouldn't mess with them.

OK, thanks for the step by step instructions-(great idea to use the popsicle sticks to help fix the wheels' level). And yes, there were locking pins on the hull, but this knucklehead has already cut them away even though the kit instructions clearly state that they should be left if fixing suspensions (smacking side of my head). My only remaining follow up question: should I still use the black (rubber) poly caps (glue them together with the arms inside)? Or just glue the arms directly into the hull holes? Thanks again for having advised me...

If I recall,the ones without the springs have locking tabs which put them in the right position

Yes, get rid of the gimmicky springs first.  And yes, glue all the roadwheel arms solid. 

Use a piece of .040 styrene or a popsicle stick placed under each side of the hull to raise it up so the roadwheel arms are slightly below the hull bottom.  Place the roadwheel arms (without the wheels) in and put the hull on top of the styrene/popsicle stick shims.  Glue all the roadwheel arms and let them dry on the elevated hull.  You now have all the roadwheel arms flat, level, and at the same height. 

Tojo72

Unless your doing a diorama,just glue them,no need to bounce the tank on its suspension,I just finished that tank and I glued the suspension .

 

Hello, Tojo72. OK, thanks for advising further. I get it that the up and down suspension  (bounce) will never be used. And you are correct-I am not building a diorama, but rather just a 'static model'. To clarify what you recommend, do you mean that I should glue each of the fourteen wheels into fixed positions? (I'm just trying to figure out how to keep the wheels relatively in line so that they mostly touch the ground and look like the picture on the model kit box (like a real tank))? Maybe I should just take the two working springs out, because they are just causing my tank to sag and popup unevenly). Maybe this will make it easier to glue the end wheels into position? Sorry if I am being a dunce...(but still confused about how to accomplish this)

Unless your doing a diorama,just glue them,no need to bounce the tank on its suspension,I just finished that tank and I glued the suspension .

Hello. By my beginner standards, I have done a pretty clean build of the turret upper and uuper hull on this Pershing for the first time in my modeling (little glue staining, almost no fragile parts broken, etc.). But, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the suspension system working (so that the wheels will look normal with the tank just sitting there). I can only get two springs located diagnallly from one another to actually work and keep tension. The other two have basically had the plastic worn away in the groove  and/or keep popping out. At first, I figured I would just detach the one front suspension spring that is working, but alas, the lower hull just collapses forward. Even when I get one of the rear suspension springs to work intermittently (it keeps wanting to pop out of the axle hole, it pulls up all of the other middle wheels (unnaturally) into the air. So I have a tank that sags heavily or has some interior road wheels pulled into the air, neither of which looks normal. Oh, I should have explained in trying to unscrew part A27 and just glue it into placed as advised, I snapped A27 in half. Maybe that is part of my problem, too. As fellow posters have pointed out to me, the suspension never really has to work, because the tank will never move. But is there an alternate way to hold all the wheels in place? I'm hoping someone else who has run into similar trouble getting the stock suspension parts to work might have devised another method. Otherwise, I guess I will just have to be content with making this Pershing look like it has been knocked out (and maybe even had a track broken). I have never modeled damage on a tank before, but maybe one has to start somewhere. Thanks for any words of wisdom here.

Hey guys. Many thanks for having let me bounce this problem (which turned out not to actually be one) off of you all. You're all  one hundred percent correct: I won't be converting this into a radio-controlled, motorized tank (or into something where its suspension would actually be used/need to be adjusted). Am I the only one on this forum who has no common sense (smacking side of head:)? I'll simply glue the parts in question (and forget about the screws). Thanks for having saved me a lot of time and aggravation with this...

You've been pointed in the right direction.

Never overthink a problem making it more complicated.

Yeah, I'd go with Gino's idea. You're not going to adjust it after it's built so you might as well cement it in place.

I would not worry about the screws and just glue it all solid w/Super Glue. Once it is built, the suspension is solid anyways and the screw part is not needed. I don't know why they went with the screw at all. Plastic parts would have been fine.