Torsion bar suspension

Not the same as the Panther

This tank's torsion bar suspension was a slightly different beast from the old Panther's twin torsion bar suspension, not that I could say what was the pros/cons set of these systems. At least this one was a bit simpler to assemble, not that the other one was challenging, from a model-builder's point of view.

Series 'A'

Obediently following the instructions I started by building eight combinations of the torsion bars and road arms for the inner road wheels.

Smashing the bars inside the tank's belly was started from the nose, because I thought that the driver's place was the most obvious spot for piratey swearing. It wasn't that bad, just the final millimeters were a bit tight.

One by one the bars found their places. The rearmost one in this photo looked screwed, but I was going to blame that on the angle of the shot. It didn't look twisted or bent seen through my own eyes.

Series 'B'

For the outer road wheels I likewise assembled a set of twelve bars and road arms. Installing those was a similar fight in the end of the tank, where a couple of the throughput bits were misaligned or clogged.

Now the tank's floor was looking pretty hectic, wouldn't want my foot to be caught there while driving cross-country. I remembered from the pics that there'd be an internal floor of some sort, so that the personell didn't need to step between those torsion bars in their cramped, potentially gloomy and most likely bothersomely noisy workspace.

The instructions wanted the road wheels to be installed right now, I hadn't even assembled them (each consisted of two parts), because I knew I wanted to paint them and the outer hull separately before installing the moving bits.

Megabonus

As luck would have it, it happens to be Donald Duck's birthday today. Yay for the 87 year-young dabbler!