After the disappointing experience with the crumbly Armour Workshop AM links for the Tamiya 1/48th scale Tiger I, I am very happy to report that the Atelier Infinite resin links are a greatly superior product. I cleaned and snapped ten links together in about three minutes – I just snipped off the easily-removed resin block with some little shears, gave a quick, light scrub of the link with a coarse brush, and snap, the link is on! [:)]
The trick is to very slightly bend the link to allow the pin to snap in more easily and then use a pair of tweezers or needlenose pliers to snap the pin in. A very, very slight bend is all that’s necessary – almost no pressure. (The first pin you can just angle the link around so it slips on.)
By comparison, it took me an hour to make a length of three Armour Workshop links – and broke six while doing so! IMO they are a must-avoid item.
PMMS reviewed these little snap together links, and kudos to them for bringing them to my attention. You can get them through Rainbow Ten – they are marketed only in Japan, as far as I know.
Yes, they are indeed excellent!
Atelier Infinite is a small studio here in Osaka that does all kinds of great resin stuff.
Look for their stuff and stuff from another small Osakan studio called Panzer Works.
Those guys helped me a lot with casting parts for my MBT70.
Nice guys, great products!
Great to hear that they are good guys in addition to making good products. I hope to see more 48th scale links from them – when the German Panther comes out, that would be perfect.
Great guys! Going to the Shizuoka Hobby Show with some of them tomorrow.
They do have some other links out now, including Tiger I transport tracks (with resin parts for wheel hubs, etc) and Stug III tracks.
Tiny and beautiful!
Brian, when you see them, if you remember, can you ask them what the ideal number of links per side is with their tracks? The real deal had 96, but I don’t care that much about that – I’d rather that the lengths look realistic.
Thanks.
Oh, and StuG tracks? Now I’m feeling tempted! I’ll probably wind up using those beautiful kit lenghts, though, with the sag built right into them.
Oh yeah, the StuG III tracks are beauts.
Although the Atelier Infinite tracks are amazingly good, I think the Tamiya tracks in all the new 1/48 kits are just fine. Or maybe I shoud say “good enough for me” (Sorry, guys!) .