Thanks, Grant and Wojtek.
A short up-date, with the extra door guide arms added, along with the cable guide rollers, and the mudguard brackets thinned out and the lightening holes drilled.
Pic 1. Mudguard mounting brackets thinned and drilled.
Pic 2. One of the main gear legs as provided in the Tamiya kit, with the earlier style door guides, but lacking the guide rollers for the door cables.
Pic 3. Extra door guide "rods" as used on the B.XVI, added using stretched sprue.
Pic 4. The main undercart components, with all of the extra door guides added, and the guide rollers added from white plastic rod. The tyres have had "flats" filed onto the bottom.
Once all this lot has fully set, brake lines will be added, using lead wire, and then the units painted and assembled.
I noticed that Tamiya got it slightly wrong regarding the retraction rams, having them positioned on the inner leg on each side, when they should be on the right ( starboard ) side on both legs. I started to modify these to fit them in the correct locations, but one of them "pinged" into hyper space somewhere, never to be found ( until the day after the model is completed ! ). However, as the model will be fixed to the base, these will never be seen with the gear fitted and the doors in place, it's no major loss, so I'll omit them, rather than scratch-build one ram. Likewise with the oil tanks, which are fitted right at the top of the main struts, buried deep, high inside the wheel wells.
I'm not that keen on the assembly method for the main gear, as the wheels have to be "trapped" on the integral axle when the main legs are joined.
I would prefer to remove the plastic axle, and drill out the moulding for the axle mounts, and insert brass tube or rod, after assembling the gear components However, as I don't have any brass in the required diameter, and can't afford the time waiting for an on-line order delivery, I'll have to stick with the kit method.
I'm aiming to have the model completed by, or over, the weekend at the latest, and then get the display base done, ready for the delivery of the model on Wednesday next week.
Thanks again to all for the continued interest in this project, and i should be back, probably late tomorrow, with a further up-date.