Some life stuff getting in the way of bench time but manage a bit.
The AM suspension just about kicked my butt. The plastic pins the instructions have you use are fragile and I have made about 1/2 dozen repairs as I went along. After I had already purchased the set I found a review on the PMMS site that basically said it does not gain in detail over the kit parts since the tie rods a 2 dimensional. And given the fact that it has very limited movement it really is not worth the upgrade. It was however very good practice with AM multimedia products. With a copy of the instruction sheet the mod the the kits part can easily be made to accomplish the same thing.
After cutting off the pins and drilling holes on the steering arms, new longer pins are added to be able to pivot when the collars made from plastic tube are glued in place inside the hull. The ties rods were attached before installing the steering arms. The instructions have you make small plastic pins to attached the tie rods but no way for them to stay on so I heated a tool and melted the pin down.
The suspension is all finished. the small crescent shaped guides are backwards in this pic but have since been corrected.
There is slight gap in places between the upper and lower hull halves. There is a ridge on the lower hull edge to help in alignment but creates the gap. Most of the ridge needs to be removed, as seen on the left side, for a nice fit. Putting together the louvered panels were tedious to say the least.
