This step was about the rear suspension.
Here’s the gallery with 19 images of this step.
The shock absorbers and brake assemblies worked pretty much like the previous step. Getting things to line up was tricky because there are three join points per side: top arm, bottom arm, and CV axle. By the time I’d get two to line up, the remaining one would be out of place. Because (1) the parts are so small/thin, (2) there’s no easy way to clamp things in place, and (3) usually the best way to apply pressure results in undoing joins on the other side, this step was frustrating. Tamiya is usually known for good fit, so maybe it’s a fluke.
One CV axle doesn’t touch, and the other side isn’t centered even after quite a bit of sanding. I just hope when I go to put the wheels on that they everything fits properly.
Also I noticed the sloppy hand-painting on the strut springs, so I looked at reference photos. The only yellow one should see is on the strut itself because the coils are black. My solution was to consider what someone would see if they flipped the model over to look at the underside, so I painted what I saw of the springs black. (I probably need to go back and do that for the front springs as well.) I left the outer sides (what one would see by looking through the rims toward the middle of the car) black just in case those would still be visible.
If I was building this kit again, I’d sand the springs off the part, paint some metal wire black, then wrap that around the strut.
This step took about 4.5 hours.