After about 4 hours of running over the last few days it has become clear that the plastic idler wheel rolling on a plastic idler axle shaft is wearing fast. Also three of the return rollers have become very stiff and do not turn while running the tank. The issue is not dirt getting in and causing wear or sticking it is the fine "white colored" plastic dust from the parts rubbing against each other and wearing down. This does happen on other brands just not as quickly and given the much lower speeds I am driving the Hooben at is a bit disappointing. On a positive note the fitment of all the Hooben "wheels to axles" are much tighter to begin with than the other Chinese brands. Combining tighter fitting parts with what I believe is "softer" plastic is the underline problem.
I decided to focus my attention on the idler axles as they posses the most immediate issue. The simplest solutions I have found are often the best and there were two to choose from. So for sake of experimentation with this relatively new tank I am trying both, one on either side and comparing the results as run time increases.
The first is to simply, add a fine grease and "grease seal". Yes, this will attract dust to the exposed grease and that is the point. The dust actually helps seal gaps and keep the exposed grease in places. It will need to be cleaned and re-greased from time to time but that is a simple matter and this method has worked well for me on a few tanks, some I still utilize this on.
The second simple solutions was to sleeve the idler axle with metal. In this case ~ 6mm aluminum tube worked out almost perfect (see photo). I had to do a little fitting but that took only 5 mins. Yes the idler wheel will still wear (?) but at a much slower rate. There is still enough material on the idler wheel to add a bushing to it that would fit over the metal sleeve. If I see signs of rapid wear continuing I will take this next step.
Now onto the barrel and muzzle brake. I just cannot stand the look of the factory Hooben "East Eight" muzzel brake it looks too 1945 era German and not at all U.S. Fortunately there was enough material on the brake for me to reprofile it into something more U.S. looking for the era. The soft plastic used made this surprisingly easy and to my eye the brake looks much better (see photo).
I also looked for ways to address in the short term the lack of screw covers especially for the idler wheels and drive sprockets. Digging through my parts bin revealed a reasonable solution that fit, looked the era and could be made at a later date in the build to look even better. It seems that the sprocket screw caps from my Heng Long Challenger 2 were the solution (see photo).
For those of you that PM'd me about the "bogie" suspension compression range (see photos).
Lastly I did start some painting (ModelMaster GD 1787) on the lower hull sides, suspension and muzzle brake. This was to advance the dirt and grim weathering and to cover the sanding makers of the muzzle. You can see the color difference of the Hooben factory green vs ModelMaster green(see photos). And YES the tracks are on "backwards". I was going to leave them with the chevrons pointing forward for the modeling aspect, but they just work so much better with them reversed. It is almost night and day in performance.
As always your questions and constructive input are welcome.
Metal sleeve added to idler shaft.
Reprofiled muzzle brake.
Reprofiled muzzle brake. Also notice the difference in the factory green paint (upper hull & turret) compared to the ModelMaster green.
Idler wheel screw cap close up.
No compression.
Full compression.
Clear signs they are working. Notice the amount of wear just from plastic on plastic rubbing.