HELP with B1 bis

Well I branched out from ships to armor and just started my first tank the B1 bis French Battle Tank.

First question is from step ONE of the assembly instructions.

ROAD WHEELS : Insert axle to join the two wheels. GLUE each set of wheels?

WHEELS TO AXLE: Sitting axles into place on wheel rail. GLUE each axle to rail?

Instruction indicate that no cement when placing axle on rails, but want to be assured I am reading this correctly?

On the same instruction step one it show that wheel sets 4, 6 and 8 (from left to right of rail) or NOT to be GLUED, am I to assume that axles 1,2,3,5,7 and 9 through 16 are to be GLUED?

And follow the same procedure on the opposed rail?

Can I assume from the instructions that NO GLUING IS REQUIRED ON STEP ONE WHEEL AND RAIL ASSEMBLY?

I appreciate any help you folks can give me on this.

Trust me this will be the first of many questions while I attempt to assemble my first piece of armor.

ROAD WHEELS : Insert axle to join the two wheels. GLUE each set of wheels?

WHEELS TO AXLE: Sitting axles into place on wheel rail. GLUE each axle to rail?

Instruction indicate that no cement when placing axle on rails, but want to be assured I am reading this correctly?

– no need as they get sandwiched in place by the rail. Let 'em run loose. They’ll be all right.

Welcome to the wonderful world of armor building!

I built this kit a while back and kept a build-log here: http://www.bpmodels.net/Model/Album/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9

The Tamiya design is meant to allow the road wheels to remain able to rotate freely once you install them into the hull. this really has dubious value but is a feature nonetheless. You do need to glue the wheel pairs to each other to form the units that go into the rail. Don’t glue them to the rail if you want them to remain able to rotate, the axle is the point of rotation for the wheel pairs. Don’t glue any pairs regardless of position…otherwise some will rotate and others will not. HTH.

Roy,

Ok thanks for quick response. I will assembly them with NO GLUING. let them run FREE. This is great.

Thanks again and I hope I can limit my questions. I have a work ethic that if I do something, it has to worth doing right.

Ok so I glue the wheel pairs to each other to form the units.

NO GLUING TO RAIL, if I want them to rotate,

Thanks you so much for your quick response.

I did visit your build-log and it is very helpful thanks again.

The main corrections to the kit that you can add are

1. fill the vertical seam at the right front of the driver’s armor face

2. open up the mud chutes on the top of the sponsons (near the front)

3. add mud scrapers near the mud cutes

4. add six recessed screws atop the commander’s cupola

5. add 2 horns to the commander’s cupola

Here’s my build

http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2367

I simply glued mine in place, I found that trying to make them work isn’t worth the hassle of having to flip the kit upside down and glue the rails to the kit while trying to get the wheels to stay on, cant see em anyway!!