AFV Aficionado, I was not. I general use body putty and a scrubby sponge to do cast texture.
At this point Im not going back and doing anything to the lower hull. I have bigger problems to deal with as described below.

I put the sprockets and track on and found that the sprockets are in toward the hull much further than the road wheels and return rollers. As is, 3 end connectors of track rub the hull pretty good at the back top.
I set a plastic abrams sprocket on the left side and spaced it by eye so that the track would be straight all the way back and I found that I have to move the sprockets 7mm out from the position that they are in right now using the 58mm taigen trannys. I have no explanation as to how DKLM missed this massive flaw other than to say, looking at the photos and video their prototype models show the sprockets further out, probably something to do with the shaft length of their cross drive transmission. The kit came with 58mm mato trannys and I put in 58mm taigen trannys. I don't think they have any trannys that are longer than that do they? Well I came to the conclusion that I need 65mm trannys to make the track line up perfect.
In the picture with my finger on the track I was holding the track in alignment in the rear return roller to demonstrate the extreme angle that the track went inward to the sprocket.
I did refer all this information back to DKLM. I do not understand how they sold this kit with 58mm gear boxes if this is how they line up. There is no way this tank will run with these gear boxes as is. They shafts need to be about 65mm according to my measurements. I suspect they either never built one with the mato gear boxes, or ..... I wont go any further here.

Any way, the only solution is to make longer shafts or discuss buying the cross drive transmission which I don't care for the operational characteristics of.




This is the tan plastic abrams sprocket I used to eyeball and then measure the distance I needed to move the sprocket out from the hub.





So the solution is to extend the drive shaft length. I got some solid hex stock that was 7.65mm wide on the flat side dia. and cut it and chucked it in my unimat lathe and bore it out to the dia. of the sprocket screw. Then I turned it down to the shaft dia which is about 7.6mm ish and then cut the sections to 7mm long and then screwed them to the end of the taigen steel shaft and then used a mini torch and silver soldered them in place. I then filed the flat spot down and then ran the tranny and trued up the mating diameter so the sprocket would go on nice. Lots of crazy work I had not anticipated and fankly should not have had to do. If anybody buys this kit now I suggest just buy their damn cross drive tranny and live with it or learn to be a amateur machinist.