So here is where I am now. Paint and have the gloss coat applied. I think I am going to make and install the .50 cal barrel stowage mounts that go between the two hatches from front to back. These were on top of the turret until after D Day when those angle brackets were welded to the back of the turret like horns to hold the barrel.
This was before I sprayed the gloss on.
So this is something that surprised me and really pissed me off. This HL was a HengLong brand metal upgrade I got off ebay. Its not a Mato upgrade. Mato was out of stock for a few months so I went to evilbay. So it came with HL metal tracks and sprockets. I ordered set of Mato T74 tracks for my next project and was going to steal the sprockets and rear wheel out of it and order more because they look so much nicer than the HL sprocket and wheel. Especially the sprocket screw cover plate. On the HL its plastic, and it wont fit on with the screw in place. Go figure that, so you have to drill a hole in the cover so the screw fits through the middle of it just to push the pate into the sprocket.
So I went about changing them sprockets over, and guess what, look at the pictures, the Mato sprockets are wider than the HL ones, which means the MATO metal tracks are wider than the HL plastic or metal ones. Go figure that. So if you get a plastic track HL you cant buy the metal Mato sprockets and upgrade when the plastic ones break, you have to buy the whole track set.
I think that's a bummer, because the plastic tracks that come on the tank are nice to represent the rubber tracks. The ones on this model are metal, and the chevrons have already worn all the black paint off that I sprayed on so they don't look right. I am thinking of doing one of two things;
One, take the plastic tracks off the new HL I ran on the beach since its getting the Mato duckbill T74s for a Jumbo project,
Or use the black rubber tool handle paint and paint each chevron with one or two coats of the rubber so it will actually look like black rubber.
