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John Stevens' Fix for the IS Series Return Rollers
Prior to June 1944, the return rollers fitted to the IS series vehicles lacked lightening holes. Unfortunately there are no easily available return rollers without lightening holes since the DML, Tamiya and Zvezda kits all provide return rollers with the lightening holes. John Stevens came up with an innovative way to fix the problem, which he describes below. Many thanks to John for allowing me to post it here.
The only rollers without holes are in the EE/Ark kits of the SU and KV-1S. Not a worthwhile investment. So I decided to try correcting the DML parts.
Pic shows the process. Original part on left. Corrected on right. Sand the back of the forward facing rollers down to onion skin thin. Poke out and clean up the the old back with a sharp no. 11 blade and pointy tweezers. Glue to new sheet styrene.
I determined the thickness by matching to original part's depth. Sand and file the edges down to round and drill out the center hole for the axle.
The process is quick and easy and gets easier the more you do. Very worthwhile to improve the kits. Hope it is helpful to you.
Early KV-1 Flamethrower Tanks
