


at the “Camp Kasserine” in Grafenwöhr.
Knowing that Panda Hobby already announced the kit I took several photos.
Since then I had been waiting for the kit.
So, it arrived last Monday at my place.
As we had a holyday in Germany last Wednesday I immediately started working on it.
When I opened the carton I was a little unpleasantly surprised, for some reasons:
- there were minor flash on a lot of parts (This shouldn’t happen on a new mold!);
- there are some pin marks at visible parts;
- the round panel attachment bosses are really soft molded (Okay, I am used to Trumpeter Strykers, so maybe I am biased at this point.).
I followed the assembly instructions by starting with the four gearbox differentials.
In this first step you could glue the four parts E45 in place, and due to my experience you should. Even as the mount of it is not satisfactorily resolved. Because the outer diameter of part E45 corresponds in no way with its opposite at the lower hull. In the end I used a 5mm drill to guide E45 at place.
Right at the next step, there is a mistake in the instruction: Part D69 and the “left” part E16 have to change places!
The location of the part C20 is woolly, so I used part E34 to fix it to the right place.
The rest of step 1 and step 2 is nice to work. Everything fits properly and some parts even without glueing, for example parts E52 and the nicely rebuild large shock absorbers E43 and E42. They are a really an improvement, compared to the Trumpeter parts.
The parts of the driver enhancement kit, E44 will be glued to its place, after painting.
Also, I haven’t glued B7, the lower front plate to place, because of the mentioned problems with the panel attachment bosses. I will decide later how solve this.
To be continued!
Peter