Gentlemen,

I have always struggled with getting suspension arms and roadwheels perfectly level and straight. I usually use a stiff ruler, guesswork, and the grace of God to get everything lined up properly. What are your tricksfor getting the alignment of wheels right?

The biggest struggle is from kits that have "working" suspenion with no blocks or pins to set the hight if the actual model. How do you make sure the kit sits at the correct height?

Jon,

In getting wheels aligned I rely on the old Mk 1 eyeball. I'd turn the hull upside-down. My reference then would be the hull bottom -- as I install the road wheels, I would constantly check to make sure that they are parallel to it. For sure it would not be perfectly, accurately aligned say to the nearest mm, but as long as it looks straight, I'm good with it.

I am more concerned on making sure the wheels sit level on the surface. To do this, I'd install the first pair of wheels that are positioned diagonally opposite each other. I would then let it stand on a flat surface to visually check if both sides are level, make adjustments as necessary. Once level, the rest of the wheels should be easy, but do still check that no wheel is floating by doing that flat surface test.

I'd sure be happy to hear how others do it as well.

Cheers,

Tat

Temporary jigs help. You can run them up from offcuts of foam core board (can be obtained free from picture framers) and use them for setting the height of the hull floor as well as lining up the roadwheels. A length of track is also useful for the latter with sprocket and idler (for me, the best use for rubber band track).

great ideas, thank you!

Here's a technique I have seen and used once or twice myself. First, install the first and last road wheels and let the glue fully set. Once you add all the remaining road wheels you just stretch a rubber-band around the first and last wheels to keep all the others in perfect alignment. Super simple and very effective.