ORIGINAL: CapnCrunch43

This Leo is back in business!

Last Fall, it got to the point where over half the road arms had snapped and had been glued, re glued, and glued again. Got tired of messing with it and just stopped running it all together. Put it up and occasionally ran the KT, instead. Just wasn't the same, though. At one point I had even thought about getting rid of it and buying a newer FO Tamiya!

So, thanks to ETO Armor, I recently ordered the Impact road arms as well as the Shumo improved track tensioner/idler set. What a difference!

Even though gluing the stock arms solved the problem of the cracking to an extent, they still had enough of a gap that the road arms were not as tight on the mounts as like brand new. This also helped pry them apart in other places as they were rotating and banging on the mounts instead of grabbing them tightly like they should. It became a mess I couldn't correct without new parts.

The Impact arms needed some clean-up of flash in the mounting areas, but that is to be expected. It wasn't much, but just enough to scrape up the plastic mounts and make them hard to get off (probably wouldn't be that big a deal on the metal replacement mounts). Anyway, they are much better than plastic arms, by a long shot. The tank sits like it did when it was first built!

On to the Shumo Idlers...
Why put these on? Good question. Without going into a fifteen minute back and forth debate in my head (converted to text) on the differences of older tank suspensions vs. newer ones..... I like my Leopard track tight! Not somewhere in between tight and grinding the tops of the shock mounts down.

The Shumo Kit requires you to file on the Leopard hull.... WHAT?? You want me to do what?

Once you look at both the old parts and the place in the Leo hull where they go, you realize why. You aren't making some new pattern for the new parts to fit, but merely removing the sloping mold release shapes from the inside of the mounting holes in the hull. They slope inward making the backside of the hole pattern smaller than the outside. If you take the Shumo parts and try to put them in from the outside of the hull, they almost go in! (Don't do this. It's kind of hard to get them back out if you put too much pressure on them). So, being careful not to enlarge the outside pattern too much, I took a small file and removed the slope slowly, checking often to see if the parts would go in. If you're lucky, they'll be a little tight fitting.
On to the idler arms. These gave me fits getting the road wheel axles to go in. And once they went in, they aren't coming out without a fight! So, make sure to put the allen screws that mount to the tank in first, like the directions that come with the kit say! As for the cap that covers the allen screw hole, I left it off. Can't see it once the whole thing is assembled, anyway. Maybe later.
The range of idler positions is much better. Also, I ended up adding the old cap (MH5) to the inside stack on the allen screw. Instead of turning that lock nut a gazillion times, five or six turns and it's tight.

None of the new parts are painted yet, but eventually they will be painted.

Maybe... If I stop running it long enought to!

ORIGINAL: CapnCrunch43

Finally put some paint on a figure and mounted him in the TC's spot. Had to remove the rear mount that came in the figure kit, because it wouldn't clear the battery. Also, he wouldn't fit at the level I wanted with the kit arms, (belly button defilade isn't cutting it!) so I slashed him at the chest and made new shoulders out of some putty, then painted the figure. The face is not one of my strong points, as he looks kind of dirty.