The pitter patter of a Panther's paws

All the wheels

While I was setting up the interleaved roadwheel system, I really didn't envy those poor bastards who had to work on these in the real world, in who knows what kind of weather. Quite handily the outermost set of wheels held all the others in place and even they were held fast by screws so that all wheels could turn freely but without jitter. Just because I wanted to prepare for the possibility of some adjustment later on, I didn't install the screw-end hiding caps, as you can tell by the photos.

I

II

III

The idler wheels, according to their names, were just idling on their own axis where they were simply pressed onto. Both drive sprocets had tiny screws that hold them tightly attached to their axes. In the pic below you can see the place of the screw on the right side drive sprocket.

Track setup

As usual, the tracks were my biggest concern in the whole project. With surprisingly little effort I got them on. Of course, as I followed the instructions, I then had to remove them, because they were blocking the top hull's attachment screws! After that was all done I had to reinstall those tracks. Graah.

A test drive

Now my worry was if the tracks, wheels or something else would tear off when I turned the engine on. For the first few seconds the assembly made the weirdest of noises, but after a couple of track lenghtfuls things settled into their places and the racket ended then and there.

It wooooorrrrrrks!

Of course I took a video of my first test run, but I think I'll take a better one when the tank's done. And when my over-eager two-year-old assistant is not helping me. If for no other reason, but to hold up some sort of fake facade of seriousness.