These are the parts for Pack 1 - the basic chassis. (Remember - thick border = clickable for large image).

Many parts feel a bit greasy - this might just be from the cleaning process, as noted in the manual - but paint isn't going to like it, so first wash them all down with warm water and dry thoroughly. I then gave all surfaces a good going over with the suede brush - this removes any remaining surface crud and swarf and helps give a key for the paint. Some of the larger holes in the side chassis rails also need a little filing to remove some rough edges. Nothing major.

And this is Pack 1 put together, top and bottom sides.

As the manual notes, the chassis rails where the idler stretcher goes need the corners rounding so the stretcher fits closely. I also found that the rear 'bent' parts of the rails wouldn't bend enough to fit to the rear stretcher when the idler stretcher was bolted down. The rearmost holes either side of the idler stretcher needed to be extended inwards a little (Dremel time). The rear stretcher can then be bolted home to pull in the rails and finally the idler stretcher can be tightened down.

Some of the 12 holes around the cross-member (cylindrical stretcher) didn't line up perfectly, so were lightly drilled through with a 3mm bit, allowing the M3 bolts to pass though freely.

Pack 2 consists of the rear idler arm assemblies, rear leaf spring supports and central swing pin. The photo shown these parts mounted on the chassis. They are highlighted on the larger image.

I found that the idler supports were too tight in their stretcher housings to get the support axles though, so the bosses were filed down a little to get a free fit (Dremel again).

The support brackets connecting the idler support to the chassis rail are not vertical, and need a couple of washers or small spacers at the top ends, so when the nuts are slackened, the idler arms can be adjusted up and down freely. Otherwise all fitted together nicely.

Pack 3 is the drive sprocket and housings and bearings - upper part of the photo.

The small brass ring on the bottom left is the motor shaft bearing from OP1. If you have this option pack, install the bearings now, or you'll have to dismantle the whole 26 nuts & bolts to put them in later! All of the bearings fitted just too tightly to be pressed in by hand, and as these are best not forced into place, the housings were shaved out a fraction (more Dremel time). Here, the right housings have all the bearings in place (with a smear of superglue), while the left side is awaiting attention.

In the lower part of the image, the housings have been bolted together. Perfect fit.

Pack 4 is the radiator grille and bulkhead. The radiator part bolts to the front stretcher with 4x M4 bolts with no problems.

The bulkhead, however, needed some attention. The first obvious thing was that there were two bulkhead plates. Since one was labelled as 'replacement', the other presumably has something wrong with it. A closer inspection showed that the countersinks were on opposite sides...

The top and side stiffeners bolted on OK, as did the first (smaller) pair of support brackets, except that the top two bolts were a fraction too long and foul the bracket sides. A quick Dremel job to cut off a couple of mm off these bolts.

The larger brackets on the reverse side then didn't lie flat, as the middle countersunk screw head lay proud of the surface. This meant deepening the countersink in the plate, and making a small countersink in the small bracket so the head could sit flush. Having done that, I repeated the work on all the other countersinks. It doesn't need much, and as the plate isn't all that thick, it would be easy take out too much and the head could pull through - so just a little at a time.

Here is the finished bulkhead

On the large image, highlighted in yellow, you can see the shortened upper bolts on the support brackets.

The bracket angles highlighted in purple fouled the bolts fitting into the top of the chassis, so Dremel job to slice 5mm or so off the lower part of these angles. Even then, the bolts proved a bit of a pig to get in, as its difficult to get the bolt in place and started to screw in. You probably want to recruit a small child with nimble fingers for this job! These are the only bolts so far which can only be done up with an open-ended spanner - no room up against the bracket for a ring-ended, never mind a socket head.

Pack 4 mounted on the chassis, completing the build of Stage 1. The doctored brackets are highlighted on the large image.

Having decided on a light beige colour, an undercoat of red oxide is appropriate. If you were doing a grey finish, then obviously a grey primer would be best. In both cases, bog-standard car spray paint is suitable undercoat for this job. Red oxide has the advantage that if the top coat takes a knock, 'rust' will show through...

Some parts are firstly masked off - e.g. the gear shafts, idler arm holes and idler hanger pin shafts. I use Tamyia tape, as this is lo-tack and doesn't leave any residue, even after being left in place for many days. The holes were just stuffed with tissue.

Here, the parts have had a two of coats of red oxide over a couple of days and left to dry for another day or so before handling.

Finally, all parts were given a couple of coats of the top colour and again left for a couple of days for the paint to harden off. Then the assemblies were fixed back in place.

This is the final look.

Here endeth the first stage.

Total elapsed time from the boxes arriving: 6 weeks

Total model attention time: approx 15 hours

Total build time: approx 10 hours (i.e. not counting pre-reading the manuals, checking parts & painting or setting up this Build Blog - which has probably taken longer to build than the model!)