M3/M5/M8 Stuart Vertical Volute Suspension
AFV Club Kit No. AF 35056
1:35 Scale
Kit Construction
by Terry Ashley
Construction: (M3A3 kit Instructions Steps 1 to 4)
The suspension bogies were assembled as per instructions without any problems. One thing to watch is the direction of the track guides (parts C18, C19) on top of the bogie units as these point in different direction on the front and rear bogie units, they are also very fine and will require care when removing from the sprues. The top of the bogie units also have bolt head and other details which are missing from the bogies in the Tamiya and Academy M3/M5 kits. The finished bogie units fit snugly into their locating holes on the hull sides, if fact the fit was so good here they stayed in place without glue but of course you would use glue.
The idler units are multi-part with the separate trailing arms as well as recoil springs also as separate parts. These have an optional spacer ‘washer’ (part B21) which is not used if you choose to replace the kit track with the AFV Club individual link T-16 tracks. The instructions say this is part B13 but is actually B21 so watch this, I am assuming this washer is to allow for the extra thickness of the individual links compared to the kit vinyl track.
The idler units have the correct details on the front face with about the only thing missing being the small casting numbers seen on some units in different places, (check references for this) and one join seam on the lower front section requiring elimination, this was easily removed by shaving with a #11 X-Acto blade once the glue had dried completely.
The return rollers are attached to the support arms on the hull which feature the correct cut-outs for the track clearance, something else the other kits missed.
The drive sprockets assembled without problems with a poly cap trapped between the two halves to attach to the axle. Unfortunately this didn’t give a tight fit and the sprockets flopped about a bit when attached, this is easily remedied by gluing the sprockets in pace on the final drives.
These suspension and idler units are easily the best of any M3/M5/M8 kit with many details not found on the Tamiya or Academy kit parts and are indicative of the details included in the full AFV Club M3A3 kit. This set will also go a long way to improving the suspensions on the other M3/M5/M8 kits about the place.
Return to the first look review of the M3/M5/M8 Suspension set.
Page Created 22 March 2003