QUOTE: Originally posted by tigerman
Bill, you're up surprisingly late this evening, you must have the house to yourself. LOL
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Partly, as a matter of fact. The wife took all the kids but the 8 year old to the Rodeo. He didn't want to go, and at $14 a ticket, I didn't see any reason to force him!!
Okay, here's my entry into the idler problem. I think that DML's wonderful instruction sheet editing/proofreading staff has struck again. Below are some pics I took this morning of my Firefly and in particular the idlers.
This is a shot shows the way the instructions say to put on the plates Dwight was talking about. Notice how close the idler is to the sponson bottom. Also, the idler is way above the line of the return wheels and springs. (Looks more like a German alignment than a Sherman!)
This one shows the idlers from the back. Notice on this one how the part of the idler bracket closest to the hull doesn't come close to aligning with the brackets on the rear hull. I thought this looked funny, but didn't know enough about Sherman's to think it through!
Okay, check out how the idler sets now. Lots of room between it and the sponson bottom, and dead even (or close) to the tops of the return wheels and springs. I managed to pop off the idler brackets from the hull side (thanks to a particularly weak glue job!) and put the "left" side on the right and vice versa. Looks a little better, hey?? But what about the alignment with the rear hull?...
As you can see, the brackets all line up now. What a surprise! I'm really going to have to start being much more careful with DML's instructions. This kind of stuff happens all the dang time!
And, just in parting, here's an overall pick of the hull after I've washed it with black, a little rust, and a few coats of drybrushed highlighting. Looks kind of stark, but I think it will all tone out.
Bill
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DML M4A2 Red Army
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-- There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness". (Author unknown)