The Steel Dowel Pins have finally arrived and as such...


...I was finally able to place the E-100 on its Running Gear.


The Running Gear works quite nicely though I would have preferred for a smidge more clearance between the Track and the Hull area above the Drive Sprocket as the Track every once in a while scrapes along it - Not great, not terrible...™

Painting of at least the Wheels, Drive Sprockets and Idlers can thus commence - I'm thinking of giving them the usual treatment with Red Oxide Primer and Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red for the inner wheels and areas while the outer wheels and areas would get a coating of just Tamiya XF-89 Dark Green 2 ( so no XF-88 Dark Yellow 2 and XF-90 Red Brown 2 ) followed by just the detailing using Silver for the Rims and obviously Weathering - Any thoughts on that idea? 🤔

My plans for creating my own Springs using Springsteel Wire was a bust mostly due to buying the wrong Wire Diameter and again not having even the right equipment - Who'd have thought 1mm Springsteel Wire would be this tough to work with... 🤕

But hey... AliExpress to the rescue - again? ( Amazon really needs to step up their game... Where's all the corporate greed when I need them 😁 )
Found a shop that was selling a plethora of sizes with the required Dimensions at varying Wire Diameter to experiment with for dirt cheap, so I got myself like 40 each in ranges between 0.4-0.8mm for less than 16 bucks in total incl. Shipping.

I've also ordered like 1'400x 70mm long Needle Pins with Heads to replace my current Track Link Pins made out of simple Brass Rods and a tendency to wander out with the oversized length allowing for the open end to receive a bend for securing them followed by shortening them where necessary. The remainder not used in this Project will find use in the Tamiya King Tiger having the same issue with wandering Tracks Pins and possibly the use in a Mouse project - This obviously delaying the Painting of the Tracks 😖