M1 Abrams Tackling The Tracks

With the road wheels done the suspension arms went on next, these are a very sloppy fit onto the hull so some time was needed to get them all aligned and level. Then on to the tracks and there is a lot of clean up needed here. The track pads are a mixed bag with some needing filler for sink marks on the inner faces and some molded perfectly. Each one needs sprue attachment points sanded smooth as well. The guild horns and end connectors also need some clean up due to flash and attachment points but here I did that once they were assembled into track runs.

The tracks click together and the end connectors just slide on the ends, to be sure they don't fall apart later I used glue to fix everything in place then once dry a fine file to clean up any flash & attachment points. Luckily the side skirts hide most of the lower hull so half a run of tracks is all that's needed here. One thing to note is the instructions show the tracks on the model the wrong way round so just reverse the orientation of them for the correct direction.