Panda Models M1 Abrams 105mm

Time for a new project so I've chosen panda model's M1 Abrams with the early 105mm main gun. The build has started with the upper and lower hull parts glued together as I found a bit of warping on the lower section at the rear. Some gentle persuasion and quick setting glue sorted it out though. Looking from the rear of the model to the front, the left side rear fuel filler cap needs to be altered to match the right hand one as the orientation is wrong. Some careful carving and plastic card fixes this issue without much effort.

Moving on now I've made a start on the wheels and sprockets. The sprockets are made up of four parts and once assembled the guilde teeth don't line up very well at all. I simply removed the locating lug from part C24 then adjusted the sprockets using a couple of track links to get them lined up properly. 

Also the front sprocket is made up of two parts so you need to sand or disguise the join as this should be one piece. I used some mr surfacer here. Part C21 needs the front bolts sanded flush with the surface of the sprocket so that the retaining ring C23 fits correctly. This part has small lugs on the inside which give it the correct stand off from the sprocket so don't sand them off!  

  
The wheels are next and again these are made up of five parts each. This includes separate outer rims and rubbers. I'm not a huge fan of this method but the bolt detail on the front wheels is very good. The outer rims, D13 have a cross section of sprue that needs to be removed from the inside of each one. There is also a seam line on the inside which needs to be removed as well. 

As there are 16 wheels to make up this can be tedious so I'm only removing the outer rims seams and leaving the inner ones alone. You won't see them on the finished model anyway. A quick check also shows that the fit of the wheels on the swinging arms is very tight so using a round file I enlarged the locating holes in the wheels for a better fit.