Starting the Build. Step 1; Road wheels, return rollers, sub-suspension.

Hello everyone!

Inspection of the kit found nothing out of the normal. No missing, warped, or bent parts or sprues. However, I did notice something interesting with this kit. I'll try explain this as we go.

Well, here we go with the start of the M103 build.

Step 1: Road wheel, Return roller, and Sub-suspension assemblies. (Actually, this is steps 1-4 in the instruction guide.)

Dragon has provided 3 sprues of parts for this task. Now, I'm not sure why, then again, a spare one is always nice to have in case of the unforeseen screw up happens during the build.

Sprue "C" 1 of 3 provided in the kit.

Blue areas, don't use or extras. We shall see.

During assembly of the road wheels, I made a test one first to make sure everyone fit. All good there, no challenges. See photos below.

Test fit

Mass Production

Next were the return roller. This was done in the same way as the road wheels.

Calls for 6 per side, 5 shown ready for assembly.

Finally..........

Ready to attach return rollers to upper hull.

Noticed this during kit inspection and assembly. So this got me thinking. Hmmmm, could this be what all the fuss was about with this kit?

Note the sprue tags.  Sprues C(x3), D, J are labeled M48. Sprues A,B,E are labeled M103A1. Sprue J is labeled M2/M2A1 (which is for the Dragon Half track kit.) And a new sprue for the final drive, sprue H (not shown.)

Looks like a little research is going to be needed.
So it's off to find out what is going on here. Google away!!!!!
In the meantime, while that is going on, I'll be starting the rear deck and finishing up the hull details.


Stay tuned........this might take a while until the next post.