Zvezda Mercedes L4500A (Aftermarket resin wheels and suspension)

Aftermarket wheels

If you are to employ an aftermarket set of wheels beware to check before adding parts C42 and C43 to the rear axle. The outer hub moulding is included as part of the outer wheel in my aftermarket set so the inner rear wheels mount directly to the backplate parts C39 and C40

Axles

The front and rear axles are nicely rendered, and all the small assemblies go together without hitch. The front wheels are designed to rotate. If you wish to model the kit with moveable wheels you can first squish down the idler arm tops with a little heat effectively trapping the tie rod but still letting it move. Next, carefully drill out the steering arm and drag link to the knuckle arms. I did this successfully with the L4500S kit so it if I can do it……   

This time I decided to fix the wheels at a rotated angle.

Leaf springs

My first build issue I did have was with both sets of leaf springs. Neither of the rear ones in my kit sat nicely in the chassis location recesses. They both required a small amount of plastic to be removed to get a good fit. On attaching both of my front leaf springs completely snapped in half! Luckily, I had used some slow drying cement to add them to the chassis for the sole reason of giving me some wiggle room to get a good alignment of the axle. Thankfully, this saved both pieces.  Upon inspection I am confident that the design of the front leaf springs is not strong enough. As the part has a large cut out at its centre (to line up with a tab on the axle) this becomes a weak point when any weight is applied to it (i.e. when fitting the axle).  As I had rescued both springs from the chassis, I was able to cement both ends together, let them set and then re-attached them to the chassis. A second and far more careful attachment of the front axle was then achieved without incident.